Category Archives: the Unfinished Response

The Unfinished Response

What is Trauma? The Unfinished Response

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What if trauma isn’t only what happened?

Trauma is commonly understood as the lasting impact of something overwhelming that happened to us.

The event matters. The circumstances matter. What happened before, during and afterwards matters.  But what if the event itself is not the trauma?

What if trauma has more to do with what the nervous system was unable to finish?

When the nervous system detects threat, it automatically organises a response.  It may turn away, move back, block, resist, push, run, fight or become still.  These responses are not random. They are organised attempts to prevent harm, protect ourselves, preserve the connection, or survive.

Usually, the response does its job and the nervous system moves on.  But sometimes something prevents that from happening.

We may be too young to act.
We may be physically overpowered or trapped.
Another defensive response may take priority.
Protecting ourselves may carry consequences we cannot afford.
Preserving an important relationship may matter more than protest, resistance or escape.

The event may end.  But something the nervous system organised to do has not.

That unfinished response can continue influencing physiology, perception, behaviour and prediction long after the original circumstances have changed.

This is the central proposition of the Biological Completion Model™:

Trauma is the persistence of an unfinished biological defensive response.

What we later call anxiety, hypervigilance, avoidance, shutdown, reactivity, tension or other trauma-related symptoms may be expressions of that continuing organisation.

The symptoms matter.  But they may not be the trauma itself.  And if that is true, it changes the question from “how do we reduce the symptoms?” or “how do we calm the nervous system?” to:

“What is this nervous system trying to do?”

That question is the beginning of nervous system logic.

How We Define Trauma Determines What We Treat

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Definitions and diagnoses matter.

How we define something determines the action we take.

If we develop health symptoms, we try to identify the problem so that we can treat it. If a child develops unusual behavioural issues, we try to understand what is happening so that we can help the child. We understand that treating or masking symptoms does not resolve the underlying condition.

So how is trauma commonly defined?

Some define it as the event.

Some define it as the emotional and physical response to, and lasting effects of, an overwhelming event.

Some define it as trapped survival energy.

Each definition directs us towards a different solution strategy.

If trauma is the event, we focus on what happened.

If trauma is the lasting emotional or physiological effect of the event, we focus on those effects.

If trauma is dysregulation, we focus on regulation.

If trauma is trapped energy, we focus on releasing energy.

An incomplete definition directs us towards an incomplete solution.

We know that the same event affects people differently.

Insight does not complete a defensive response.

People can become highly skilled at regulating their nervous system and still experience the same triggers, anxiety, hypervigilance, avoidance or reactivity.

So what is sustaining the pattern?

Living systems are organised around maintaining functional integrity.

A signal identifies a requirement.  Action is organised to meet that requirement.  When the action succeeds, the system no longer needs to organise around it.

Thirst signals a need for water. We drink. The requirement is met.
Hunger signals a need for food. We eat. The requirement is met.
Threat follows the same biological logic.

When the nervous system detects threat, it organises defensive action intended to prevent harm, protect us or help us survive.

When that action cannot succeed or complete, the event can end while the defensive response remains unfinished.

This is the definition at the centre of the Biological Completion Model:

Trauma is the persistence of an unfinished biological defensive response.

That definition changes what we look for.  The symptoms are not the trauma.  They are expressions of the unfinished response.

And the central question changes from: “how do we reduce or manage these symptoms?” to “what is this nervous system trying to do?”

We have spent decades asking,  “what happened?”

This definition of trauma also requires us to ask, “what didn’t get to happen?”

Because how we define trauma determines what we try to treat.