Name That Brain
This part of the brain helps keep you alive by controlling breathing, heart rate, and fight/flight.
What is the Survival Brain (Brainstem)?
After trauma, the brain can act like danger is happening again, even when nothing bad is going on.
What is being triggered?
Your heart starts pounding and your muscles tense before you even think about what’s happening.
What is your body going into survival mode?
This is the survival brain trying to keep you safe.
Breathing, grounding, and movement help calm which brain first?
What are bottom-up coping skills?
They help the body feel safe so the brain can calm down.
Strong emotional reactions mean something is wrong with you.
False
It means your brain is trying to protect you.
This brain processes emotions, relationships, and emotional memories.
What is the Emotional Brain (Limbic System)?
Trauma often creates a loop between these two brain systems.
What are the Survival Brain and Emotional Brain?
You suddenly feel overwhelmed with sadness or anger, and it feels bigger than the situation.
What is emotional flooding?
The emotional brain is taking over.
Talking about feelings, connecting with others, or using art or music to express emotion.
What are emotional or midbrain coping skills?
They help process emotions and build connection instead of holding it in.
Trauma responses are learned reactions, not personal failures.
True
The nervous system adapts to survive.
This part of the brain helps with decision-making, calming down, and thinking before reacting.
What is the Thinking Brain (Prefrontal Cortex)?
Feeling unsafe in everyday situations, even when nothing is wrong, can be linked to trauma.
What is a survival–emotion loop?
The brain is stuck between fear and emotion, even when there is no current threat.
You catch yourself replaying a conversation over and over and wondering what you did wrong.
What is the Emotional Brain?
Journaling, CBT, or changing unhelpful thoughts.
What are top-down coping skills?
They strengthen the thinking brain to help you respond instead of react.
Coping skills only work when you’re already calm.
False
Skills are meant to help you get calm.
You pause, take a breath, and choose your words during an argument. Which brain is working?
What is the Thinking Brain?
Anxiety is often caused by which brain being overactive?
What is the Survival Brain?
It stays on high alert, scanning for danger even when you’re safe.
You notice you’re getting upset but choose to pause, breathe, and respond calmly.
What is using your thinking brain?
You’re regulating instead of reacting.
Taking a walk, stretching, or shaking out tension.
What is movement as a coping skill?
It releases stress from the body and settles fight-or-flight energy.
Feeling numb or shut down can be a stress response.
The brain may “go offline” to protect from overwhelm.
Your heart races and your body tenses before you even think about what’s happening.
What is the Survival Brain?
Depression can sometimes look like emotional numbness or shutdown instead of sadness.
What is a disconnected Emotional Brain?
The limbic system goes offline as a response to long-term stress or overwhelm.
You shut down, feel numb, or want to withdraw instead of feeling emotions.
What is a freeze or shutdown response?
The nervous system is overwhelmed and protecting itself.
Using body-based, emotional, and thinking skills together.
What is whole-brain coping?
It helps all parts of the brain work together for long-term healing.
The brain can change and heal with practice and support.
True
This is called neuroplasticity — the brain learns new patterns.