Understanding Trauma and Effective Treatment Options: Finding Recovery through Healing Approaches
- Does my experience “count” as trauma?
- Is it possible to heal from trauma?
- What does healing from trauma look like?
We know that many individuals are reluctant to even consider talking about a traumatic event, for fear that it will increase the thoughts and memories that are already terrorizing them daily. This is a completely understandable fear, as trauma treatment can be a difficult process, and things sometimes feel worse before they get better.
Our therapists often say that treating trauma is like cleaning out a wound. If you fall and cut yourself, you can choose to just put a band aid on it and hope it gets better. While the injury might heal on its own, avoiding cleaning the wound can also lead to infection, ultimately creating a larger area of pain or damage. This is similar to the impact of trauma on one’s life. If left untreated, it can become “infected” and start to negatively impact other parts of life, including emotions, relationships, sleep, and having a sense of safety. Trauma treatment is like making the choice to wash out a wound with soap and water, apply some Neosporin, and bandage it up. That can hurt! But, after some stinging and discomfort, it allows the wound to truly mend, not just get covered up. Afterwards, there will still be a kind of scar, as the trauma is not erased from your life experience, but it has healed and doesn’t impact you on a daily basis like it used to.
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed something traumatic. Common examples of a traumatic event include experiencing natural disasters, a serious accident, being in a war zone, sexual assault, historical trauma, intimate partner violence, and bullying. PTSD is defined by symptoms in the following categories: intrusion, avoidance, negative alterations in cognitions and mood, and alternations in arousal and reactivity for at least 1 month.
In the US, an estimated one in 11 people will be diagnosed with PTSD in their lifetime.
Chronic trauma refers to the harmful effects of experiences that are repeated or take place over a longer period of time. Because of its recurring nature and sense of inescapability, chronic trauma often has serious mental health consequences. Longer term consequences can include unpredictable changes in emotions, flashbacks of the traumatic events, and strained relationships, as well as physical symptoms including headaches or nausea.
Complex trauma refers to experiencing different types of traumatic events from which there is no possibility of escape. The sense of being trapped is a key part of this type of trauma.
Lastly, it is possible to experience vicarious trauma, which comes from exposure to other people’s suffering. It can strike those in professions that are called on to respond to injury, notably doctors, nurses, first responders, and law enforcement.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
TF-CBT is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that addresses the mental health needs of children, adolescents, and families experiencing the effects of trauma. This treatment is particularly sensitive to the unique problems of youth with post-traumatic stress and mood disorders resulting from sexual abuse, as well as from physical abuse, violence, or grief. TF-CBT uses a gradual and phase-based model to the treatment of trauma, beginning with stabilization and skill building and working up to the trauma narration and processing phase. Because the client is usually a child, TF-CBT often brings parents or other caregivers into treatment to help them understand trauma symptoms and how to support their child’s recovery using aspects of family therapy.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
CPT is another type of CBT that has been effective in reducing symptoms of PTSD that have developed after experiencing a traumatic event. CPT helps individuals learn how to challenge and modify unhelpful beliefs related to the trauma. In so doing, it helps create a new understanding and conceptualization of the traumatic event so that it reduces its ongoing negative effects on current life.
Some people may believe that they are to blame for what happened or that the world is an overwhelmingly dangerous place. CPT can teach new ways to handle these upsetting thoughts. In CPT, individuals learn skills that help them decide whether there are more helpful ways to think about their trauma. They learn how to examine whether the facts do or do not support their thoughts. Ultimately, individuals decide whether or not it makes sense to take a new perspective. This treatment is strongly recommended for the treatment of PTSD.
Seeking Safety
Seeking Safety is a skills-based trauma treatment aimed at establishing a sense of safety in everyday life. It teaches coping skills based on where someone is at in the present.
This approach helps clients recover from their traumatic past so they can regain the footing they need to move forward. However, unlike other trauma-focused therapies, Seeking Safety does not ask clients to dig deep into the details of their trauma. For some, that process can bring up too much emotional pain. Instead, this therapy focuses on the present. It asks clients to envision what safety would feel like in their life right now. Then, it teaches coping skills to work towards that vision.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR is a therapy technique that involves moving the eyes a specific way while processing traumatic memories. It also doesn’t require talking in detail about a distressing issue. Instead, it focuses on changing the emotions, thoughts, or behaviors that result from trauma. This allows the brain to resume a natural healing process. The way the mind works relies on the structure of the brain. That structure involves networks of communicating brain cells across many different areas. That’s also true of the sections that involve memories and senses. Even though it’s common to use the words “mind” and “brain” interchangeably, they’re actually different. The brain is an organ of the body. The mind is the collection of thoughts, memories, beliefs, and experiences that are unique to everyone.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PET)
PET is a type of therapy specifically for PTSD. After a traumatic event, some people experience unwanted thoughts, nightmares, feelings of hopelessness, depression, and hypervigilance. If someone has any of these symptoms, they understandably might want to avoid thoughts, feelings, and things that remind them of the trauma. In PET, clients explore their thoughts and feelings about the trauma, which is called processing. They also create an exposure hierarchy by ranking these avoided things based on how much distress they cause when encountered. The goal of PET is to gradually help clients reengage with life, especially with things they have been avoiding. By doing so, they strengthen their ability to distinguish safety from danger as well as decrease trauma symptoms over time.
Navigating trauma treatment can feel intense. You’ve taken an amazing step just by looking into your options for recovery. Looking back at your trauma alone is likely to feel confusing, and overwhelming. Working with a skilled and knowledgeable therapist can help make sense of your path. And most importantly, you’ll never be all on your own as you do the brave work of trauma recovery.
We understand and respect that every individual needs to decide for themselves when the time is right to address their trauma. When you’re ready, we’re here to help.
your healing journey today.