The Body and Brain Under Threat
3:21
Companion Slides
Dan Siegel's Hand Model — brainstem, limbic system, and cortex. Why the thinking brain goes offline.
Key Concepts
- The Hand Model: wrist/palm (brainstem), thumb (limbic/amygdala), fingers (prefrontal cortex)
- Amygdala as smoke detector — triggers faster than conscious thought
- Under threat, the fingers 'flip open' — the thinking brain goes offline
- The connected fist: all three parts working together in safety
- Amygdala hypersensitivity: why trauma survivors react before they can think
Part of
Module 1: How Trauma Changes People
What trauma really is, how the brain responds, what the ACE study tells us, and the science of resilience.