Trauma-Induced Comfort Zone

Another concept Bruce Perry mentioned during my training in NMT was the “trauma-induced comfort zone”. I don’t believe this is an NMT-specific concept, as this is briefly mentioned in one of the many videos during training, but when I heard this concept, it made so much sense to me.

I hope it will resonate with you as well. If not, then feel free to discard it and hopefully you won’t feel like you wasted too much time reading this.

Bruce Perry introduced the idea of trauma-induced comfort zone. Which means, it’s an environment (emotional, psychological, physical, etc.) that feels comfortable and therefore will pull people towards it.

Unfortunately, because it is trauma-induced, it does not mean it is healthy or safe, merely that it feels comfortable because it is familiar. And unfamiliar feels a lot more less safe, than the familiar.

You can think for instance of violent relationships, which can be unsafe, yet, if this is what someone has known most of their lives, then it may feel familiar and make sense to them. Such individuals may thus feel some pull, albeit unconscious, or even conscious, something that feels comfortable in these relationships, rather than relationships based on equality (I am referring here the wheel of power and control from the Duluth model and the wheel of equality).