Understanding Trauma Survival Response: the Freeze Response with Dr. Kate Truitt

In this psychoeducational video, Dr. Kate Truitt begins by explaining that fight, flight, and freeze are often tied together into one construct, but they are very different systems. The freeze response is also known as an orienting response. It’s a way our brain and body create space to make sense of novel stimuli.

In a trauma response, freeze turns into something larger; the microsecond freeze response takes over our entire system. Our heart rate and breath slows, our system enters a state of calm and quiet, and our vision and awareness focus in on the threat. The idea is to be quiet, small, and silent in order to almost become invisible.

Dr. Kate then explains that as children, the freeze response can become a very viable option when living in a chaotic or dangerous environment, especially since as children we are very vulnerable to perpetrators. When our system has experienced a mechanism of survival enough times, it can become our go to.

Many patients who have a freeze response also have depression, lethargy, fatigue, slow moving space in the world, and feelings of helplessness and shame. Being in a freeze response can feel like we can’t make change in the world. Dr. Kate explains that in order to recover from freeze response, we need to find agency, meaning, and purpose. Micromoments of change let our system know we can move forward.

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