Navigating Trauma in Real Time: Lessons from Learning Amidst a Tornado Outbreak
Janice Goldwater, LCSW-C
Last month, in Nashville, Tennessee, our annual conference brought together Occupational Therapists, Psychotherapists, Parents, Child Welfare, Teachers, Nurses, and other allied professionals, all seeking to expand their knowledge, understanding, and capacity to address healing trauma, strengthening attachment, and building resilience. We dove deeply into polyvagal theory, how trauma lives in the body, and strategies to strengthen recovery.
On Wednesday night, we went to sleep unaware that we would soon face overwhelming feelings of fear due to the impending storms.
Experiencing Trauma Firsthand
Over the span of 72 hours, three tornadoes touched down nearby, forcing attendees to take cover. The screeching of phones, relentless sirens, and sudden whipping winds caught us off guard. What began as a theoretical exploration of trauma became a lived experience, offering a profound demonstration of how fear takes hold and how the body processes overwhelming stress.
“One attendee shared, ‘As the sirens blared, I felt my heart race and my hands tremble. It was a stark reminder of how trauma can grip us unexpectedly.'”
Keynote Insights
Keynote speaker Dr. Deb Dana kicked off the conference with an exceptional keynote on polyvagal theory, focusing on the role of the autonomic nervous system, especially the vagus nerve, in regulating our health, physiological and psychological states. By understanding polyvagal theory, we can see how safety, co-regulation, and connection are critical to a healthy human experience.
Polyvagal Theory in Action
Deb Dana’s insights on polyvagal theory offer a framework for understanding how the autonomic nervous system navigates safety and danger—giving us tools to regulate those responses rather than being overwhelmed by them. She describes three key states:
- Ventral Vagal State (Safety & Connection) – The body feels calm, socially engaged, and regulated.
- Sympathetic Activation (Fight-or-Flight) – The nervous system perceives threat and prepares for action.
- Dorsal Vagal Shutdown (Collapse & Disconnection) – Overwhelm leads to freezing, withdrawal, or dissociation.
As tornado warnings escalated, attendees from across the world—many experiencing extreme weather for the first time—were thrust into sympathetic activation. The surge of adrenaline, heightened alertness, and urgency filled the air. Responses varied: some felt intense fear, shrinking inward, possibly entering dissociation, while others, accustomed to tornado risks, stayed calm, grounded, and focused on immediate steps. The experience transformed theory into felt reality, illuminating how each of us processes threat uniquely based on history and nervous system conditioning.
Lessons Learned
Making Theory Tangible
Understanding trauma isn’t just about academic study—it’s about felt experience. As attendees witnessed their nervous systems shift, they saw firsthand how activation and regulation unfold in the body, reinforcing the importance of early intervention in trauma recovery.
Strengthening Trauma-Informed Interventions
For all human beings, professionals and caregivers alike, personally experiencing the dysregulation that accompanies overwhelming fear has the chance to deepen empathy and practical understanding. In the face of the alarm, those who remained regulated instinctively helped others, guiding them through grounding techniques—slow breathing, sensory engagement, and movement—to restore balance. These real-time interventions underscored the power of embodied, hands-on trauma recovery.
Deepening Self-Awareness
People often underestimate their body’s response to fear—until they experience it firsthand. This moment of perceived danger helped attendees recognize subtle cues of activation or shutdown, leading to more proactive regulation skills. We cannot offer others nervous system safety if we do not possess it ourselves. Learning to shift states is a foundational skill, and this experience deepened that understanding.
“Can you remember the feeling and overwhelming physiological response to fear in your body? How did you manage those feelings?”
Reinforcing the Power of Co-Regulation
In moments of crisis, human connection becomes a lifeline. As fear gripped the room, attendees instinctively reached for one another—sharing hugs, offering grounding touch, speaking words of reassurance. Music played. People swayed, some danced—intentionally engaging in rhythm and movement to help regulate their nervous systems together. This spontaneous response reinforced the importance of co-regulation strategies, whether in caregiving, therapy, or crisis intervention.
Parents and Their Role in Supporting Traumatized Children
Among the attendees were caregivers raising children with trauma histories—individuals deeply attuned to the ways fear and dysregulation shape young minds. As the extreme weather event unfolded, many parents recognized the parallels between their children’s trauma responses and their own reactions to the unfolding emergency. They saw firsthand how co-regulation—the attunement of one nervous system to another—can lessen suffering and prevent lasting distress. This experience reinforced that trauma healing is relational. These caregivers left the conference not only with tools to regulate themselves but with a newfound understanding of how to better support their children in moments of uncertainty.
Conclusion
A Real-Time Lesson in Trauma Recovery
This unexpected extreme weather event became a humbling, profound demonstration of trauma healing in action. While research and theory offer essential frameworks, lived experience provides irreplaceable wisdom. The tornado outbreak wasn’t just an academic case study—it became a powerful moment of collective learning, showing how the human nervous system adapts, regulates, and builds resilience—when supported by knowledge, connection, and compassionate intervention. Even in moments of fear, healing remains possible—when guided by understanding and community. And, our community certainly came together in a beautiful way.