Trauma Therapy
Has Unresolved Trauma Become An Obstacle To A Fulfilling Life?
Have you experienced or been witness to a traumatic event that has left you feeling unsettled, as though the world is no longer safe? Are you suffering from shock, denial, or disbelief and lacking a sense of security? Do you feel disconnected from your emotions because you’re afraid to confront the pain you feel?
Even though your trauma may have occurred weeks, months, or even years ago, the after-effects still haunt you. Perhaps you continue to suffer from anxiety, fear, guilt, or shame surrounding the trauma. Your work performance might be impacted if you have difficulty concentrating or are prone to irritability and mood swings. Disconnected from and mistrustful of others, you may feel sad, hopeless, or numb.
Although you might try to minimize what happened and get on with your life, you can’t seem to shake the sense that nothing is okay. Perhaps you feel helpless as you continue to experience issues with your sleep, uncontrollable crying jags, or visual and auditory flashbacks of the event. The underlying pain and suffering you are experiencing may also be affecting your judgment, leading to poor decision-making or, in some instances, the inability to make any decision at all.
The Fight, Flight, Or Freeze Response
Perhaps you’re not aware of how trauma affects your brain and nervous systems. Trauma is so overwhelming and unusual that you either go into a fight, flight, or freeze response. When you choose to fight, you experience anger, blame, and chronic upset; the flight response triggers an impulse to run away and find safety, leading to self-isolation and mistrust; and the freeze state causes you to feel numb, detached, and disconnected from your emotions.
Fortunately, therapy can help you understand the physiological and emotional consequences of trauma so that you can better manage its symptoms. With treatment, you can process your underlying trauma so that it no longer negatively impacts your life.
Trauma Is Pervasive And Often Underlies Our Mental Health Challenges
According to the National Council for Behavioral Health, “70 percent of adults in the United States have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives.” Unfortunately, being exposed to trauma can have lasting effects that lead to challenging mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and substance abuse.
The causes of trauma can be either a one-time incident—such as a car accident, medical emergency, assault, or school shooting—or ongoing exposure—such as domestic violence, chronic pain or illness, childhood abuse, and neglect. The effects of child abuse at the hands of physically, emotionally, or verbally abusive parents make us more likely to develop PTSD later in life.
Traumatic Events Affect Everyone Uniquely
Regardless of whether we experience trauma once or have prolonged exposure to it, the way it affects us varies from one person to another. The significance of an event is subjective to our experience—what one person may perceive as traumatic will not necessarily traumatize someone else. And even if it only happened once, a traumatic event can still have a huge impact on us, affecting our worldview and how we experience life thereafter.
Recovering from trauma can be impeded by our own stigmas surrounding mental health. We may believe that if we remain strong, we will simply get over it on our own, not realizing how our trauma continues to impact us. Or we may conclude that this is how we are going to feel from now on and there’s no way of changing it.
However, the good news is that you can recover from trauma. By treating the core issue of trauma rather than just its symptoms, therapy can help restore you to a healthier and happier state of being.
Therapy Can Teach You How To Address The Effects Of Trauma
You may have convinced yourself that in time, you will get over the shock and pain of your trauma. However, this isn't always the case—without treatment, you may continue to suffer from the effects of trauma in silence, waiting in vain to feel better. The key to recovering from trauma is early intervention—the sooner you get help the better. A well-trained trauma therapist utilizing evidence-based treatments such as Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy can help your brain and nervous system refile the traumatic memories so they no longer trigger unwelcome symptoms.
Trauma-informed counseling can help teens, adults, couples, and families learn new ways to manage the intrusive symptoms of PTSD. Therapy is a safe and supportive space to explore how the experience of trauma impacts how you think and feel about life. Even if you have suffered sexual or child abuse, with proper treatment, you can learn how to make persistent troubling thoughts and feelings dissipate and open up your life to more joy and closer relationships.
What To Expect In Sessions
Although your therapist will review your current symptoms and challenges during your initial session, you will not have to go into great detail about your previous trauma. Through gentle inquiry, your clinician will identify what is causing you the most distress and be able to provide you with some immediate relief from your most acute symptoms. Laying out a comprehensive treatment plan at the onset of trauma therapy will encourage further healing and recovery.
When you learn how trauma affects the mind, body, and spirit, it can help ease your suffering and shift your mindset. We have found that it’s empowering to teach you tools and techniques for coping that help your body to reset from trauma. Skills such as breathing exercises, emotional regulation, thought-stopping and attitude-shifting techniques—as well as calming and grounding skills—can minimize symptoms of hypervigilance and anxiety and improve your sleep. And once sleep is restored, healing tends to happen more easily.
The Modalities We Use
We are solution-oriented counselors who believe that understanding the factors that contributed to trauma throughout your life as well as identifying the core issues underlying your symptoms is valuable for healing and full recovery. To address the core issues of trauma and PTSD, we find EMDR Therapy to be one of the most effective treatments. EMDR helps restore the brain and memory system to a healthier way of functioning so that the symptoms of trauma are no longer getting in the way of living. In addition, your therapist may utilize trauma-informed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and HeartMath tools to further reduce the impact of trauma on your thoughts, feelings, and physical health.
Developing emotional fitness is key to a life of happiness, joy, and resilience. Post-traumatic stress injury does not have to be a life sentence of pain. There are evidence-based, proven ways to heal from the impact of living through trauma. Ensuring you choose a therapist who is trained in treating trauma and PTSD can offer you a lifeline to hope and recovery.
But You May Wonder Whether Trauma Therapy Is Right For You…
Will I have to relive my trauma during therapy?
Fortunately, the evidence-based modalities we incorporate into PTSD therapy do not necessarily require you to relive your trauma. Identifying how past trauma is creating roadblocks in the present can be addressed by focusing on present issues and symptoms without the pain of re-experiencing the traumatic event.
What if I attend trauma counseling and nothing gets better?
It’s common for those contemplating therapy to fear failure and continued suffering. However, if your trauma is left unaddressed and untreated, chronic post-traumatic stress usually worsens and can become debilitating. Once you find initial relief from your symptoms, you will find yourself more motivated and inspired to continue the healing process.
You don't need to be defined by your trauma. Trauma is something that happened to you—you didn't cause it. Healing, recovery, and embodying a more meaningful and productive life is possible.
Trauma treatment is too expensive and time-consuming.
Breaking the chain of trauma is important for generations to come—for your own sake as well as your family. There is no greater investment than investing in your wellbeing.
With over 100 years of collective experience, the therapists at CAI stay current with the most recent developments in trauma-informed care. When you address trauma and PTSD effectively with a highly trained, experienced, and compassionate counselor, your quality of life will improve. You didn't deserve what happened to you, but it is possible to heal from the after-effects of trauma.
Trauma Doesn’t Have To Define Who You Are
You don’t have to suffer alone in silence any longer—reach out to begin the healing process. For more information about trauma therapy, please call our office at 760-942-8663 to speak to our intake coordinator or visit our contact us page.
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