Our recent Touch Skills and Somatic Skills classes have sparked quite a bit of interest and discussion on the topic of Coupling Dynamics – so much so that we’ve decided to offer Traumatic Coupling Dynamics as a stand-alone class, for students who want to deepen their work on this aspect of their practice. If you are not sure whether you are a candidate for this class, read on for some background that might help you decide.
The concept of coupling dynamics is used both in psychotherapy and in trauma recovery models. Traumatic coupling dynamics occur as a common consequence of exposure to the overwhelming experiences that are at the root of trauma. It is a complex process of linking and unlinking elements of traumatic experiences, which in turn creates some of the complexities that challenge practitioners in their work with clients.
The terms we use to describe the two primary categories of coupling are: over-coupling and under-coupling.
Over-coupling means that something has gotten linked (coupled) within a traumatic experience that shouldn’t be. An example would be of someone who is riding a bus, and through the window of the bus witnesses an assault and robbery. Even though that person was themselves not injured, being on a bus is now associated with the fear they felt from witnessing the assault. Riding the bus has now become over-coupled with a fear response.
If a practitioner is working with this client to resolve their anxiety and fear of being on a bus, the work is likely to be successful only if the client’s fear that was elicited by witnessing the assault is de-coupled from the experience of riding the bus.
Under-coupling means that things that should have been connected, which really do belong together, have been disconnected. A common example would be not remembering a key element of a traumatic experience – essentially dropping it from the story of the experience because it’s simply too overwhelming to remember it. Using the same example of the bus passenger, if the experience of witnessing the assault was so overwhelming to them that they blocked it from their memory of that bus trip, it’s possible they might later experience the same anxiety about riding the bus, but be unaware of its origin. That aspect of the experience is now under-coupled from the symptoms of fear and anxiety.
If a practitioner is working with this client to resolve their anxiety about riding the bus, that work is unlikely to be successful unless the fear elicited by witnessing the assault is addressed. That will require re-coupling the memory of the assault and its association with being on a bus.
While these two primary categories of traumatic coupling seem relatively simple, there are almost infinite ways in which the dynamics of over- and under-coupling can manifest in relation to trauma. The list of things that might become over/under coupled in traumatic experience is long: It could be something that was heard during the experience; a sensation that was felt; a smell that was present; the response of others present that induced a sense of shame; a theme that was familiar from other experiences (such as helplessness); protective responses that were experienced as being unsuccessful; multiple experiences that had enough similarities that they have linked together as if they were a single event…the list goes on. There are many variations, and those variations often produce the most confusing aspects of trauma recovery work.
Many practitioners struggle with unraveling the complexities of these varied elements of traumatic experiences that are binding and contributing to traumatic stress symptoms. Having a model to use to guide your work as you untangle the complexities of these dynamics is essential.
Coupling dynamics related to traumatic stress are usually taught with the focus primarily on the skills the practitioner needs in order to work effectively. However, there are also skills the client needs to have to make the work effective. The client cannot learn from experiences that are over or under coupled, so helping clients unlock the coupling dynamics is key to helping them resolve their trauma. Any model used for working with coupling dynamics will ideally also include information about how the practitioner can support the development of the client’s proficiency in working with their own traumatic coupling dynamics.
