THERAPY & TRAUMA

Trauma can surface after a one-off happening, such as an accident or a random assault, or from repeated exposure to situations or events, like an abusive partner or neglect stemming from childhood.
Complex trauma is the kind that appears as a result of repeated damaging events. These can often stem from childhood experiences that, in turn, can affect your adult life.

Therapy can help you integrate these traumatic events and understand them. Doing this will help you begin the process to heal.
Your memories and impressions of the trauma will likely stay, but they will start to have less and less power over your reaction and your emotions over time.

HOW Trauma AFFECTS THE BRAIN

There are multiple reasons that trauma hurts and inflicts whats known as “post-traumatic stress” (PTS). One thing you may not know is that the impact of trauma does physically change our brains. When you go through a traumatic event, your mind changes to adapt..to survive the event. Areas of trauma survivors' brains that were once able towork in a particular way changed, based on hyperarousal due to effects trauma.

For example, the amygdala gets over-activated after a traumatic event. The phrase "fight, flight or freeze" is a reference to having a physical and emotional response to a situational trigger. You remember your trauma, and your amygdala becomes overactive in response. You're hypervigilant, and you're on alert, your brain is making sure that you're safe from danger.

Trauma literally changes the brain and the way that the neural pathways are. In people with posttraumatic stress disorder, you'll see that on brain scans, their brains are lit up at times because they're hypervigilant, overly aware, and are possibly in a fight, flight, or freeze mode because they believe there's a threat. Fundamentally, trauma changes the brain to think that there's a constant threat. These intrusive symptoms are caused by real trauma that a person has faced. If you have suffered from real trauma in your life, you should think about finding a therapist that has the training and experience to offer you the trauma focused therapy you might need. For instance, a trauma therapist has specialized training, which allows for them to provide treatment post trauma.

Your trauma is very real, and your brain is telling you that you're hurting and need help. Mental health disorders, subtle personality changes, and other symptoms can develop as a result.

Getting Help For Trauma: Trauma Therapy

It's most essential to find a trauma treatment center to can help you once you've experienced at least one traumaic event. You’ll need to talk about your painful experience and start to begin to process what has happened to you. This may sound inteimidating, but consider it an empowering move. You truly have the ability to process (and move past) previous events, face memories, and live an empowering, emotionally enriched life. Remember you didn't bring the psychological harm, any mental health disorders, personality changes or anything else upon yourself. But you can take steps to heal from a traumatic experience by reaching out and scheduling your first session today!

WHAT IS Trauma Therapy?

Treating trauma and be comples, especially when it impacts multiple things at once, such as your mood, sleep, appitite or maybe it pushes you towards substance abuse as a way to cope. What is a traumatic event? It basically refers to any event perceived as a threat to sanity, safety or life. Trauma and traumatic events are two different things. It's important to remember that trauma-focused therapy can't be regarded as a specific treatment type–for example, each person experiences trauma related beliefs differently. Because of this, there is no set therapeutic approach to address trauma.

Cognitive-Behavioral therapy treatments are empirically supported, which means evidence has shown that they work for some. When it comes to therapy, CBT is the gold standard for concerns such as depression, anxiety management, and other mental health disorders, since it is designed to help you with your thoughts feelings and more. But it can be used for trauma and other issues as well, namely on those that are combat veterans, have an eating disorder, or others who need help treating trauma.

Or in some cases, EMDR might be a better fit. Out of the many kinds of therapy that help people with trauma, EMDR is among the most effective. It helps people process trauma by desensitizing them to their painful memories. Sometimes a combination of theraputic approaches is necessary. Your therapist will work with you to develop your personalized treatment plan. Your trauma therapy plan will be determined based on your individual needs.

WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF TRAUMA THERAPY?

It is important to be aware of your trauma, what your triggers are, and in what way you react.
It is also important to know what your goal in therapy will be?
Is it to tell your story?
To create awareness?
To be at peace?
To confront your abuser, or for some other reason not listed?

basic goals of trauma therapy:

• To successfully manage the reality of the traumatic event that happened in the past
• To eliminate or minimize the symptoms of trauma
• To alter the focus of past events
• To empower day-to-day functioning
• Learn to handle hereditary trauma
• Regain "personal power"
• Conquer addictions driven by traumatic stress
• Help prevent deterioration or relapse by sharpening self-preservation tools

There is nothing bad about developing feasible goals for yourself with respect to what you've experienced over time– whether you’re working through flashbacks, PTSD, misplaced guilt, complicated emotions, overwhelming/crippling fear, or some other trauma response…therapy is the first step to taking control of the next chapter. Schedule your first session today!