S3: EP4- Emotions and Your Nervous System with Tracy Principi

Join Mary and her very special guest, Tracy Principi. Tracy is trained in Somatic Experiencing and Somatic Internal Family Systems helping men and women navigate childhood wounds and addressing family of origin and generational trauma. Her own unresolved childhood trauma and the most shameful secret of having a narcissistic mother and no father led her to her own freedom by finally talking about this subject of not having a loving parent. This mother wound was at the core of her addictions, over achieving tendencies and failed relationships. Once she did that, the flood gates opened and hundreds of people confided in her that they had suffered the same thing. The decades of guilt and shame, pretending things are fine were finally processed. Tracy is passionate about trauma informed practices for anyone working with people. 

Trauma isn’t an event, it’s an experience that overwhelms the nervous system. Most people have developmental complex trauma. This is a trauma that is reoccurring, usually in our childhood. We may overlook these things as being trauma. Trauma isn’t always a singular big event. Subtle things over time are also trauma and can also overwhelm the nervous system.

Our nervous system is responsible for our survival and keeping us safe. Your nervous system is trying to keep you safe in an environment that you can’t escape from. Trauma from our childhood can become “stuck” in our nervous system and as adults we may feel like that is our personality. But in reality we are stuck in a survival loop. As we become aware of these patterns we can choose a new way. 

We can’t just sit with our feelings and then be okay. Most of us are so far removed from our emotions and traumas. Because of this we are unable to identify our emotions in order to be able to sit with them. In order to feel we have to be able to slow down. This can overwhelm the nervous system, especially when hyper vigilance and chaos has been our norm. 

Join Mary and Tracy as they talk about the intersection between our bodies, emotions, and trauma.