Understanding Trauma: Learning Brain vs Survival Brain

Thank you, Jacob! What thoughtful, insightful videos! I'm inspired by your wisdom and generosity...definitely sharing with my friends and family! May we all be big mama elephants for each other!
❤️🐘🐘🐘❤️

My brain does both.

Thank you so much for talking about this...Studying was always my survival mechanism. Nobody understood me, the parents obviously really didn't care let alone the teachers. Grateful that you are sharing awareness on such topics. Lots of love.

Thank you! I am going to use your video in a mathematics professional development training for teachers to encourage healing -informed practices for students in foster care. Thank you!

This is brilliant! Goes for students/kids and adults alike!

Simply spoken, beautifully diagrammed and elegantly said. Thank you Mama/Papa Elephant!

Fabulous! Thank you

Thank you for this resource. I am using this video as a resource to learn about trauma's impact on the brain of young children.

What do you recommend for adults to heal from rhis survival mode.

No one tells you how hard and helpful is for a survivor of childhood abuse to study psychology. I think it will be extremely helpful to explain patients things like this.

Thanks a lot, it's very helpful, especially with these vivid images!

This is one of the best videos for teachers I have seen. Thank you!

Can this be done in War Time? I'm very afraid of WW3. HOW do I deal.with our generally fearful.climate? People who really CARE talk about this all.the time. I'm 63. What am I supposed to tell.younger people? Not to worry? In no way am I challenging you or worse, trying to disrespect your message, but it's almost November 2023. I keep.hearing more and more that people make alot of money during a War..I was able to get off the excessive amounts of anti depressants that my Doctor was prescribing. I can think better, now that im.not sedated. I'm only on Prozac now. Doc had me on 7 different meds for depression. It was insane. How do I handle my years long resentments and my latest fear; eventual War...?

I was talking about this concept with my daughter who is about to have her first child. She was asking me how she will know what to do, I told her that she just has to provide a safe and supportive environment for her child to flourish.

stuck in survival mode for years.

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This is great, thank you.

Thanks so much for giving permission to use your video! I am training Montessori Assistant teachers, and will use your video in a class session we have on supporting positive behavior.

Every single day of my entire childhood and adolescence I was told I was a lazy retard. Didn't matter that I had good grades, they weren't ALL the best grades possible. Didn't matter that I was a couple of years ahead in quite a few topics, I wasn't ahead in ALL topics. Didn't matter that I was consistently in the top 1% of the country, I didn't do that ONE homework from 3 months ago and chose to watch TV.

My mother would SCREAM "LAZY, RETARD, IMBECILE!!!!" and if I Ever raised my voice to try and defend myself? "The neighbors can hear you!!!!! BE QUIET". Then after that I would get a quiet 1-2 hour lecture from my father on why would I ever think doing anything like that was ok? Why would I not try harder? Why would I be so against their wishes? After all, I had potential, but being a lazy fool I was just wasting it. I was beaten, had my hair pulled and torn, was strangled on the wall while dangling from my neck with my feet off the ground. All because I would talk back while not being 100% perfect.

Years later my little sister invited me to a family therapy session with a recommended therapist. Instead of airing her grievances like she did with me she just cried while my parents torn her apart as a bad daughter (not that she was a good one, but she had her own logic to why she did what she did). When the therapist asked me what I thought I answered honestly. The therapist didn't acknowledge any of my feelings or statements. She just... ignored them all and moved on pretending I had not even been there. I was not even invited to the next session.

When I was finishing University I had what was then my psychologist tell me: "NOW you will learn what real life is like" after me telling her about the absolute hell it was to even get confirmation that I was enrolled into any given class for years and how my experience with townships and dealing with the government was actually easier because at least then I could just give them a copy pasted article of the law along with my request. Apparently she thought the bare minimum for a recent graduate was to work for a year for free before getting the lowest cases. Like... yeah, that's what all those internships were for. Why would I work for free when I already paid my dues for YEARS? Yeah, no surprise this budget basement psychologist thought I was lazy too because I had already done the whole work for free part of the deal and she expected me to do more for free just to get my name out there. With a MILLION competitors in the same field, with bills to pay.

Jacob, your video is really blessed me a lot. It helps me to see the relationship between heart and brain. My friend Herry share Proverbs, he mentions about trust in the Lord with all your heart. Dont rely on your understanding...in my understanding, this match with the important value of trust....trust in the Lord...it become make senses to me. Thank you so much Jacob, you really smart, kind and generous, pray for happiness in your life

Amazing explained thanks

Oh no, I need to make mistakes because of I don't I won't feel like I'm learning shit. It sounds contradictory, but I feel even more stupid if I don't make a mistake

Thanks! I've seen others teaching about the survival brain in a way that causes confusion and misunderstanding; this is very clear and concise.

Using for training! :) Great information.

Spectacular video. SO great. Thank you so much for this.

Another analogy that I use for the effects of safety on learning is to compare learning to walking a tightrope. If there is a net under you then it is easier to take chances that might result in a fall, compared to walking a tightrope with no net. Parents and teachers need to be that net to catch the kids when they fall and show them that mistakes do not mean injury or death.

I remember when I was in elementary school, the kids who came from abusive homes always had trouble learning. Their brain had trouble getting out of survival mode. It seems to me that schools should check on the home conditions for kids who have trouble learning.

Thanks ... Helpfull

I loved this, wondering how it shifts as people with traumatized learning styles become adults and enter graduate school. I do a lot of ground work to reduce anxiety in the beginning of class however that rigidity is so evident!!

Such a wonderful explanation! I will be using this to aid my training for teachers on trauma informed classrooms. Thank you so much!

This is why i feel over conscious about myself?

Strength in numbers is always a very good thing with a huge army and God on our team we're unstoppable.. but you also need to keep in mind those who learn toxic negative opposite lessons from what we teach to use for harm so be careful how much your saying they do stalk these comments for ideas just to have counter attacks. The more you share the more risk of a specialized attack someone might be plotting against you. It's like the more you tell your story about what hurt you or what you don't like the more the evil one knows how to get to you

Excellent. Thank you. Someone gets it. Hooray. That was done fantastically. God bless you

Beautiful! Psychotherapy applied to education!

School on a nutshell

When I'm in survival mode, my brain feels heavy af...It's filled with stress and anxiety and it feels like every part of my brain is telling me to stop doing what I'm currently doing

This is profound and powerful knowledge. Thank you! 🙏🏻💫💖

So true sometimes I get stuck in life and deaths ...tewo of my stuff dents killed people rather violently.i taught them boundaries, I was a good mentor., The fact I was consistant the system these kids felt loss ..no attachment psychotic.i guess I'm lucky even thugh😢 my dad was screwed up he taught us all o take on. Respinsabilty😅

How to get out of traumatized brain mindset when you dont have control over school system like in highly competetive university that is proud of being hard and demanding?😢

As someone with childhood trauma who was labelled as lazy in school, thank you for explaining this so plainly. I really hope people take this on board because I see a lot of 'trauma-informed' practice on paper, but it doesn't quite translate to irl working for a lot of professionals.

I just found about your work today and checked you videos. Thank you so much for what you do!

"The more you control stress"... Ah yes, great, I will just do that then. Why didn't I think of that before.
I will just control the stress - by binge drinking, binge eating, smoking and late night television.
And how is any of this like a baby elephant???

No, let me tell you what its really like for trauma brain - its like being on a lifeboat with a tiger.
Someday the tiger will kill me. Its just a matter of time. There is no escape. There is no one to talk to. There is nothing but the salt ocean of tears on which you float with yourself. How dramatic.

Trauma brain does not believe in anything; especially not human kindness or society at large.
Trauma brain finds it absurd to believe in a world that knows price instead of value.

And seeing as self-help only works for some and advice is never free, I think I will go for the cheaper options I mentioned above.

Very Informative. Thank you!

Thank you!

This is such a helpful way to explain this and I just wanted to thank you. I'll be using this video in an upcoming trauma training for educators.

Dealt with trauma for 73 years it really has taken a toll on my being!!!!!

Thank You this is very good & helpful for so much! As a person with the switch into survival brain & a person dealing with young people- thanks

Nice video, loved it especially the elephant example. What pushes someone to slip into survival mode and how to work around it? Thanks.

This Is An Amazing Video! Gold. Thank You! 🙏🏻

Wow, you just fixed my puzzle.. beeing bullied created exactly what you described. Beeing bullied and feeling stupid..thank you, I can now let that go. 🙏