{"id":1418,"date":"2026-08-13T09:27:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T09:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/authentictandt.uk\/main\/?page_id=1418"},"modified":"2026-08-13T10:27:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T10:27:59","slug":"the-vortex","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/authentictandt.uk\/main\/blogs-news\/the-vortex\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vortex"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<style>\n.anastasis-post{max-width:820px;margin:0 auto;color:#2A2A28;font-family:Georgia,'Times New Roman',serif;font-size:18px;}\n.anastasis-post strong{font-weight:700;}\n.anastasis-post em{font-style:italic;}\n.anastasis-post a{color:#1F4E4A;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-color:#9A6B1F;}\n<\/style>\n<div class=\"anastasis-post\">\n\n<figure style=\"margin:0 0 1.8em;\">\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/authentictandt.uk\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/bridge_04-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A waterfall beyond a stone bridge and the waterfall runnign underneath the bridge\" style=\"display:block;width:100%;height:auto;max-height:420px;object-fit:cover;border-radius:8px;\">\n  \n  <!-- <figcaption style=\"margin-top:.5em;font-size:.85rem;color:#6B6B6B;font-style:italic;text-align:center;\">Anastasis Logo<\/figcaption> -->\n<\/figure>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.8em;line-height:1.5;\">\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/gNnnw7oyHl8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" style=\"display:inline-block;padding:.7em 1.4em;background:#1F4E4A;color:#FFFFFF;text-decoration:none;border-radius:6px;font-size:1rem;border-bottom:3px solid #9A6B1F;\">\u25b6&nbsp;&nbsp;Watch the film \u2014 <em>The Vortex<\/em><\/a>\n  <span style=\"display:block;margin-top:.6em;font-size:.85rem;color:#6B6B6B;font-style:italic;\">Opens on YouTube in a new window.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\"><strong>A flashback is not a polaroid of the past. It is being swept back into it \u2014 the sights, sounds, smells and shame, all at once. This is the <em>Vortex<\/em>, and there is a way through it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">When we have lived through developmental and relational trauma, most of us learn to suppress \u2014 to avoid, to numb, to dissociate, to displace. <em>If I don\u2019t acknowledge it, it can\u2019t hurt me. If I don\u2019t feel it, it can\u2019t hurt me. If I push it onto someone else, it won\u2019t hurt me.<\/em> We will do almost anything to keep the reality of the trauma at arm\u2019s length. The difficulty is that what we push down does not stay down. It creeps back in other forms \u2014 panic, anxiety, depression, nightmares, sleep paralysis, autoimmune trouble, a body that aches with no medical cause \u2014 until we fear our own emotions, resent our own pain, and sometimes wonder whether we are going mad.<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">Recovery, then, has to include the opposite movement: re-sensitising, re-engaging, reconnecting, and taking ownership. But that reconnection can itself be a powerful reminder of the past. We have the word <em>flashback<\/em> from our understanding of post-traumatic stress, and for me it falls far short of describing the actual experience. We do not simply see a snapshot. We relive the sights, the sounds, the smells, the sensations, the emotions \u2014 the shame and revulsion, and sometimes, disturbingly, even the enjoyment. It is this whole-body re-immersion that I call the <em>Vortex<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n<h2 style=\"margin:2em 0 .45em;line-height:1.25;color:#1F4E4A;font-family:Georgia,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.45rem;\">What is happening in our system<\/h2>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">When we are triggered, our system runs through a sequence of instinctive, protective responses \u2014 healthy mechanisms, built in for survival. First we tend to <em>freeze<\/em>, just for a moment, to read the situation and weigh our options. Then comes the urge to <em>flee<\/em>; if running is impossible, or we choose not to, then standing our ground and facing the threat \u2014 <em>fight<\/em> \u2014 may be next. If escape is blocked and the threat is overwhelming, we may <em>fawn<\/em> or appease (the \u2018friend\u2019 response). And when every other option fails, we may <em>flop<\/em> \u2014 shutting down, collapsing, dissociating.<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">With developmental trauma there is a cruel complication: the threat is so often coming from a caregiver, the very person we depend on. We cannot simply run, because we live there. Fighting back may be impossible against someone bigger, stronger, or more able to out-think us. So appeasement becomes the strategy of last resort \u2014 the collusion of the subjugated, the path of least risk. I have lost count of the survivors of rape, abuse and assault who have asked me, <em>\u201cWhy didn\u2019t I fight? Why didn\u2019t I scream?\u201d<\/em> My answer is always to have compassion for the self they were in that moment: <strong>you kept yourself safe; you chose the least dangerous option available to you, even if that meant dissociating.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<blockquote style=\"margin:2em 0;padding:.1em 0 .1em 20px;border-left:4px solid #9A6B1F;color:#1F4E4A;font-style:italic;font-size:1.18rem;line-height:1.4;\"><p style=\"margin:0;\">Shame is two-fold. There is healthy shame \u2014 what I call <em>guilt<\/em> \u2014 that follows genuinely hurting another. And there is <em>toxic shame<\/em>, which does not belong to us at all, yet sends us spinning into the Vortex.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<h2 style=\"margin:2em 0 .45em;line-height:1.25;color:#1F4E4A;font-family:Georgia,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.45rem;\">Two directions of spin<\/h2>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">The <em>Vortex<\/em> is closely tied to shame and confusion, and it can take two forms, which may come singly or together.<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\"><strong>Pushing in<\/strong> feels like being sucked into a whirlpool. It draws us down into a deep, dark place where we feel younger, powerless, and to blame. We internalise the shame and become intensely self-focused \u2014 <em>it must be me; it must be my fault.<\/em> This is the over-adapted <em>Compliant Child<\/em> position; we hide the chaos from others and quietly assume the role of <em>Victim<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\"><strong>Acting out<\/strong> is more like a whirlwind or tornado. Here we let ourselves feel the rage of what was done to us, becoming chaotic and grabbing at what feels like the powerful position. This is the over-adapted <em>Rebellious Child<\/em>; we hurl the anger and fear outward, blaming others \u2014 but we are still operating from fear (the fear that we really are to blame, or really are not enough), and we have still lost control, and we may be hurting people in the process. Here we can slip into the role of <em>Abuser<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">There is also a heavier, slower version of the <em>Vortex<\/em> \u2014 a kind of bottoming out. Clients describe it as \u201cstuck in a loop,\u201d \u201cin Groundhog Day,\u201d \u201call my energy gone down the plughole.\u201d Physiologically this is the <em>flop<\/em> response, leaving us depressed, fatigued and unmotivated, though the brain may be racing anxiously at the same time, trying to defrost us and get us out. So the <em>Vortex<\/em> can suck us down, or whip us up, or pin us flat \u2014 and each presentation needs a different response: <strong>grounding and containment for the spin, encouragement and a springboard for the flop.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<h2 style=\"margin:2em 0 .45em;line-height:1.25;color:#1F4E4A;font-family:Georgia,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.45rem;\">The way through is the centre<\/h2>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">Our instinct, understandably, is to escape the <em>Vortex<\/em> \u2014 to pull away from it as hard as we can. But, as with a real tornado, trying to wrench ourselves out usually just whips us further into the chaos. <strong>The counter-intuitive truth is that the way to survive it is to press into the centre.<\/strong> The centre of a tornado is calm and still; there is a funnel through which you can look up and see blue sky, instead of fixing on the chaos spinning around you. A moment\u2019s mindful pause \u2014 returning to the breath, tuning into the senses, leaning on our connection with the <em>Source<\/em> \u2014 can give us that stillness.<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">And in the most intense, dissociative episodes \u2014 the ones that can be terrifying for the client and unnerving for anyone nearby \u2014 the person often cannot find any anchor inside themselves at all. Many survived abuse at a very young age, before they had words, and in these moments, they may become non-verbal and utterly without grounding. What is needed then is not insight or interpretation but <em>co-regulation<\/em>: a trusted other who will breathe with them, contain the chaos, and lend the grounding they cannot generate alone, holding the boundary at the edge of the <em>window of tolerance<\/em> rather than letting them fly off.<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">This is, frankly, advanced work, and it is one of the clearest reasons I built this model into a training course rather than only a self-help book. Knowing what the <em>Vortex<\/em> is matters. But learning how to <em>be<\/em> the anchor, the regulated other in the room when a client is dissociating \u2014 how to ground them, how to stay within your own window while you do it, how to help them build their own anchors for next time \u2014 takes practice, supervision, and a community of fellow practitioners to learn alongside. There are gentle, practical anchors we teach: a stone held in the hand and \u2018charged\u2019 with safety and hope; a particular blanket or shawl infused with comfort, to wrap around oneself when fragmented; ways to discharge the trapped energy through movement, music or unsent letters. Small things \u2014 but, practised in advance, they can be the difference between being swept away and finding the still centre.<\/p>\n\n<h2 style=\"margin:2em 0 .45em;line-height:1.25;color:#1F4E4A;font-family:Georgia,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.45rem;\">Naming it changes it<\/h2>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">One of the most therapeutic things we can offer a person who experiences the <em>Vortex<\/em> is, simply, the language for it. So much of the terror of a flashback lies in not knowing what is happening \u2014 the conviction that one is losing one\u2019s mind, that the present danger is real, that this will never end. To be able to say, calmly and from experience, <em>\u201cwhat you are describing is the Vortex; it is a kind of dissociation; it is your system doing something it learned long ago to keep you safe; it has a centre, and there is a way through it\u201d<\/em> \u2014 this alone can begin to loosen its grip. We are not explaining the feeling away; we are giving the person a handhold on it. A named experience is a shareable experience, and <strong>a shareable experience is one we no longer have to face entirely alone.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<blockquote style=\"margin:2em 0;padding:.1em 0 .1em 20px;border-left:4px solid #9A6B1F;color:#1F4E4A;font-style:italic;font-size:1.18rem;line-height:1.4;\"><p style=\"margin:0;\">None of this denies the depth of the wound. It simply means the wound no longer gets the last word.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">It also helps clients begin to predict their own <em>Vortex<\/em>, which is the start of real agency. Over time, and with a trusted companion, a person can learn the early signs that they are being pulled toward the spin \u2014 the particular smell, the tone of voice, the time of year, the bodily cue \u2014 and can reach for their anchors before they are fully swept away. They begin to recover more quickly, and to feel less at the mercy of the unexpected.<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">For us as practitioners, the <em>Vortex<\/em> also asks something of our own self-knowledge. <strong>We cannot offer co-regulation from a dysregulated place.<\/strong> If a client\u2019s spin tips us into our own activation \u2014 and it can, especially where their story brushes against ours \u2014 we are no longer the calm centre they need. This is precisely why our own personal therapy, our own grounding practices, and honest supervision are not optional extras but core competencies. We can only take someone as far into the storm as we have learned to stand within our own.<\/p>\n\n<h3 style=\"margin:2em 0 .4em;color:#1F4E4A;font-family:Georgia,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.15rem;\">A few questions to sit with<\/h3>\n\n<ul style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;padding-left:1.25em;\">\n<li style=\"margin:.35em 0;line-height:1.5;\">Can you tell, in the room, the difference between a client <em>pushing in<\/em> and one <em>acting out<\/em> \u2014 and does your response change accordingly?<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin:.35em 0;line-height:1.5;\">What helps you find the still centre when your own system is activated?<\/li>\n<li style=\"margin:.35em 0;line-height:1.5;\">What grounding anchors do you already trust \u2014 for yourself, and to offer others?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<hr style=\"border:0;border-top:1px solid #d9d2c4;margin:2em 0;\">\n\n<h3 style=\"margin:2em 0 .4em;color:#1F4E4A;font-family:Georgia,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.15rem;\">About the course<\/h3>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">The <em>Anastasis<\/em> Model sits at the heart of a <strong>Level&nbsp;7 Diploma in trauma-informed, advanced therapeutic practice<\/strong> \u2014 written for counsellors and psychotherapists who want to work more deeply with developmental and relational trauma, and who are moving towards senior accreditation (SCoPEd Column&nbsp;C).<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">It runs online, with three in-person residentials, over fifteen months: <strong>October&nbsp;2026 to December&nbsp;2027<\/strong>. The group is deliberately small \u2014 capped at twelve \u2014 so no one is ever just a face in a crowded screen. The fee is <strong>\u00a35,250<\/strong>, with payment plans available.<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\">To enquire, email <strong><a href=\"mailto:training@authentictandt.uk\">training@authentictandt.uk<\/a><\/strong> or call Annie on <strong>07949&nbsp;677405<\/strong>. We shape the cohort together through conversation, so do get in touch early.<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin:0 0 1.5em;line-height:1.5;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.authentictandt.uk\">www.authentictandt.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1101,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1418","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/authentictandt.uk\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/authentictandt.uk\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/authentictandt.uk\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/authentictandt.uk\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/authentictandt.uk\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1418"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/authentictandt.uk\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1429,"href":"https:\/\/authentictandt.uk\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1418\/revisions\/1429"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/authentictandt.uk\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/authentictandt.uk\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}