Compassionate Living Psychology

Flashback refers to re-experiencing traumatic events as if they are happening right now. It can come in various vividity, from intrusive recollection of what happened in the mind to dissociative experiences where one feels like reliving the traumatic event in real time.

Flashback is one of the major suffering trauma survivors struggle with because every time it happens, survivors need to go through the hurt and terrifying threat all over again. Therefore, learning to cope with flashback is a key step in recovering from trauma and the early stage of therapy for trauma often focuses on strengthening the abilities to regain composure from flashback. This paves the way for working with traumatic memories directly in the future in order to reach closure.

The key idea of handling flashback is to remind our traumatized self that the traumatic event has ended and we are safe in the here and now. Grounding skills and mindful breathing skills are two handy techniques to serve the purpose that are frequently adopted in therapy.

1. Grounding refers to the practice of focusing our attention on the connection with the presence. Examples include naming colours in the surrounding, identifying objects one sees in the environment, or pushing our feet on the floor and focusing on the sense that we are here, linked to and supported by the ground.
2. Mindful breathing refers to the practice of focusing our attention on the breath. By focusing on the cooler air we breathe in and the warmer hair we breathe out, we are reminded of our connection with the present moment.

Apart from establishing our connection with the here and now using the above skills, I often recommend my clients to plan ahead for challenging occasions where they expect that flashback may occur. Some common triggers include going to places resembling where the traumatic event happened, approaching special dates like anniversary of the traumatic event, or meeting with someone related to the traumatic event. It might be helpful to have someone trustworthy to accompany you in these times so they could help to calm you down and remind you to ground to the here and now if flashback does occur.

Finally, given the principle of trauma recovery in compassion focused therapy is built on the assumption that our compassionate mind can help to soothe and calm our threatened self, it is often helpful to engage in compassionate mind practices before and after challenging situations. This helps to activate our compassionate mind and help us to prepare for and recover from distressing encounter. For example, in safe place imagery practice, we can try to imagine being in a place where we feel safe & free to explore and visualize what we see, hear and/or feel in there. This helps to stimulate our brain’s compassion network, which can then calm our threatened mind and restore a more balanced view of the present situation. In other words, we are more able to look at a situation fairly and realize it is not as threatening as we first assumed.

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