72 The window of tolerance
TO THE TRAINER
PART II: THE TRAINING
The window of tolerance
Aim. To introduce a model for understanding our reactions to stress and trauma.
The window of tolerance is a therapeutic metaphor that we can use to explain trauma reactions.
It is based on the idea that every person has a‘ window of tolerance’, an amount of arousal or feeling that she can tolerate or manage.
The manual and the training provide information through which survivors can understand their trauma reactions. It also provides tools and grounding techniques that can help them to stay within their window, or return to their window when they lose control.
The metaphor is very simple. The part between the two lines shows the level of activation. All people have a zone or a kind of window in which they are perfectly balanced – where the person is in a state of mind where he or she is able to be present in the situation, able to concentrate and to learn.
If you are above the window of tolerance, over the upper line, we say that you are hyper-activated. This means that your activation is too high. If you are below your window of tolerance, under the lower line, we say that you are hypo-activated. This means you are under-activated; your energy is too low.
Traumatic memories can trigger a flight / fight response. This is a hyper-activation reaction, where the activation is extremely high and the body is ready to flee or fight the threats.
If we are frightened of something, the body reacts automatically by shutting off certain activities and reinforcing others. We may, for example know that the heart is beating louder and faster and that we breathe faster. The body feeds blood to the brain, arms and legs. Muscles prepare for fight or flight, while activity in the brain shifts from the parts that help us think through complex problems to the parts that help us to respond to life-threatening situations.
If is not possible to fight or flee, for example if you are a small unprotected child, you will rely on the most basic survival strategy that we have – to freeze. This is the same mechanism that we see in many small animals that become totally inactive when they are attacked. This is a hypoactivation reaction in which activation falls to a minimum: you shut yourself down, become what we call immobilized.
Most of us are occasionally high and low on the window of tolerance. When this happens we often have some strategies that allow us to regulate ourselves back into the window of tolerance before the discomfort becomes too unbearable.
Based on Dag Nordanger’ s video on the window of tolerance: https:// www. youtube. com / watch? v = ugC4EdmsKWc( In Norwegian.)
DISCUSSION
Discussion. Applying the window of tolerance.
In plenary or in pairs, ask the participants to discuss how they can use the window of tolerance to understand over-activation and under-activation, and apply it as a tool to help a survivor remain within her optimal arousal zone.
END OF DAY 2.