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Dysregulation Isn’t a Failure, It’s a Signal

By Steve Elfrink | OmTerra | 3D Healing™ Institute

In the world of mental health, dysregulation is often misinterpreted as weakness, a character flaw, or even a failure of willpower. But in trauma-informed work, we see something very different. We understand that no one wakes up and chooses to be reactive, numb, chaotic, or collapsed.

These states are not personal defects. They are intelligent — if outdated — adaptations. They are your nervous system’s way of protecting you when safety has been uncertain for far too long.

The Misunderstood Language of the Body

Dysregulation is the language of a system that has lost its anchor. It’s the ripple effect of unmet needs, unresolved threat, and unrepaired rupture.

I see it every day in my work:

  • The client who swings from rage to shame in seconds.
  • The freeze state mistaken for laziness.
  • The exhaustion hidden behind relentless perfectionism.
  • The “resistance” that is actually a brilliant survival strategy.

These are not signs of moral failure — they are the fingerprints of a nervous system that has learned to survive in a war zone, whether that “zone” was a violent home, a painful medical procedure, or years of subtle emotional misattunement.

The 3D Healing™ Lens

In my 3D Healing™ model, dysregulation is not simply emotional volatility. It is physiological destabilization — often chronic, often covert, and almost always misread.

  • What looks like a mood disorder may be dorsal vagal collapse.
  • What looks like defiance may be a sympathetic hijack.
  • What looks like burnout may be a system locked in survival overdrive.

When we view dysregulation through this lens, the question shifts from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you — and what’s your nervous system trying to tell us?”

Psychedelic Therapy and the Body’s Signals

Psychedelics, when approached with skill and care, can bring these patterns into sharper relief. They amplify body sensations, emotional currents, and implicit memories — sometimes in ways that feel overwhelming. Without the right preparation and integration, this amplification can destabilize rather than heal.

That’s why in Psycholytic Somatic Integration Therapy (PSIT), we slow the process down. We work in low doses, tracking the body’s signals in real time, allowing survival adaptations to soften only as safety takes root. This isn’t about “breaking through”, it’s about building through: building regulation, connection, and capacity.

Dysregulation as a Call to Connection

Your nervous system is not your enemy. Dysregulation isn’t a sign you’re broken, it’s a call for co-regulation, compassion, and safety.

When we listen to it, we discover that beneath the chaos is a precise, somatic intelligence, one that knows exactly what it needs to return to balance. Our role as healers, facilitators, and friends is to become fluent in that language.

Because when the body feels safe, the mind can finally rest.

Steve Elfrink is the founder of OmTerra and the 3D Healing™ Institute, specializing in trauma-informed psychedelic facilitation, somatic integration, and the Dissociative Child framework. His work bridges cutting-edge trauma science with compassionate, body-led healing.

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