Exploring an Animalistic, Trauma-Informed Framework to Understand Depression, and the Need for Effective, Non-traditional Psychotherapeutic Interventions That Attend to Physiological Processes

Abstract

Drawing on historical and current medical model trends, as well as the epistemologies and their impact for how we understand depression, leads to the crucial question for whether depression is a permanent or curable human phenomenon. Presenting animalistic and evolutionary perspectives within a biopsychosocial framework offers choice to individuals experiencing depression, that symptoms may be inherently fluid and a temporary part of the human condition. Furthermore, that early childhood attachment and trauma can shape our predisposition for experiencing depression is discussed. Neurobiological and neurochemical processes are identified as driving factors for depression from a trauma-informed lens, and psychotherapies that incorporate animal, nature, and somatic elements are offered as alternatives for supporting a biopsychosocial, body-based way of working with depression.