Trauma-Focused Therapy
If your pain has become overwhelming, you are not alone.
Tell me more about trauma. How does a traumatic event affect a person?
Trauma can be viewed as any situation that overwhelms our capacity to cope. It can sometimes be something that shakes and shifts our entire world view and our sense of place in the world. Trauma can be a single incident, or something we’ve endured over a period of time. It can be major and unexpected, and at times threatening to our life or safety. For people who have suffered a traumatic event, these past experiences can cause a “frozen” response, leaving the person experiencing memories, emotions, and physical responses to a trauma over and over again even though the traumatic event has ended. Your nervous system constantly reacts as if the threat is still there, even if you are completely safe and away from any threat.
I’m not sure if I’ve experienced trauma, but I have some similar & unexplained symptoms. Could it be the result of trauma?
Implicit memory (our unconscious) uses past experiences to affect our present-day thoughts and behaviors. Most times people are unaware of how past experiences impact the way they behave in the present day. For example, perhaps you are suffering from panic attacks that seem to have no rhyme or reason to them.
Common trauma symptoms can include:
- Panic attacks or anxiety that don’t go away with just normal coping strategies
- Sleep troubles or nightmares
- Difficulties feeling close to others
- Dissociation
- Hypervigilance (an over-focus on anxiety and risks)
- Flashbacks
- Emotional numbness
- Phobias
- Difficulties in relationships or repeating same patterns that lead to struggles
- Physical symptoms such as stomach troubles, shortness of breath, high heart rate, nausea, headaches, or chest tightness
- Difficulty at the same time of year each year, in certain places, around certain people, where difficult things have happened
- Trouble regulating your nervous system or emotions
I don’t have any “big” trauma; could trauma work be right for me?
Most people think of trauma as big events or situations that happen to a person – a natural disaster, any form of abuse, severe neglect. This often refers to what you may hear as “Big T Trauma”. Our human experience also, however, subjects us to many less obvious traumas, sometimes referred to as “Little T Traumas”. This can include bullying at any age, feeling unloved as a child, divorce, fractures in friendships or other significant relationships, poor treatment by those in charge such as bosses, teachers, or coaches, financial strain, ongoing stress (in your home, family, culture, workplace, neighborhood, city, etc.) that you can’t easily escape from, medical procedures, grief, and many, many more. Over time these compound and impact our everyday life, leading to mental health conditions outside of Post Traumatic Stress Disorcer, such as Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders, and low distress tolerance, to name a few.
Trauma-informed therapy can help you make sense of these experiences and their impact on you, and help you find peace, trust, and stability within yourself and your world again.
Trauma-focused interventions can help to:
- reduce the intensity of your symptoms from which you are suffering
- uncover possible past experiences that may contribute to the development of that panic & process them safely
- allow you to recover the ability to stay in the present
- not be “pulled into the past,” so to speak.
There is hope.
How does trauma focused therapy work?
Trauma focused treatments help the brains of trauma survivors process information differently, allowing them to “unfreeze” and resume normal information processing.
There are many models for treating the effects of trauma. The goal of all trauma therapy, however, is the same. For you to feel safe, regulated, and in more control of your emotions and responses. Trauma doesn’t erase your memory, but rather helps your mind process it in a way that significantly reduces (or sometimes eliminates) the emotional charge that a person feels around it.
In addition to successfully treating trauma, clinicians also find that clients find a reduction of symptoms related to:
- anxiety
- panic attacks
- phobias
- complicated grief
- stress
- history of abuse and neglect
- performance issues
I’m worried it could be overwhelming.
That’s where your therapist comes in! The difference in dealing with traumatic effects on your own versus processing through them with a therapist is you are no longer alone. Your therapist creates the safe container and predictable space in which your nervous system feels safe to target the difficult things and move through the related emotions. As with any therapy practice, though, you are in charge. You are always able to say when the work is too much and you need something less overwhelming. Your therapist is here to work with you and alongside you, not to force you or control the pace of your healing.
What types of trauma therapy are there?
There’s no one right way, only what works best for you. Creative Family Counseling therapists use evidence-based, research-backed interventions to support clients through trauma processing. Some treatments, such as EMDR, focus on reprocessing to reduce emotional charge. Others focus on the experience in the body and target nervous system regulation, such as Somatic Experiencing and Mindfulness approaches. Others offer practical strategies, such as DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy which focuses on building distress tolerance) or CBT (a cognitive approach focused on changing negative thought patterns and beliefs).
It’s also okay if you’re not sure which type would be best! Our team can help match your needs with the appropriately trained therapist.
I’m ready.
How do I connect with a trauma therapist?
- Contact our Practice Administrator to be matched with a therapist who fits your needs & treatment preference.
2. Schedule an intake appointment to discuss your concerns and goals.
3. Allow your therapist to create an individualized treatment plan for you.
4. Work together to meet your goals.
Still have questions?
Visit our Frequently Asked Questions page to have additional questions answered, or reach out to our Practice Administrator!
