Managing Our Own Reactions

Although this book is largely about the professional application of skills when faced with danger, those skills are only as good as our ability to use them. What if we panic, or freeze, or are unable to make sense of what is happening to us? These are the major concerns of many helping professionals. In this chapter we look at how the brain and the body work together in a crisis. The acute response response is re-evaluated and we identify some hitherto unexplored possibilities that may offer us much more hope about how we can manage our own physical and emotional reactions when facing danger.