Have you experienced a traumatic event that has changed the way you feel about yourself and how you interact with others? Are you flooded by intrusive memories of a traumatic occurrence? Does it seem as if you’re continually reliving it? Do you feel as if your waking hours are a constant struggle to avoid thinking or talking about a disturbing event from the past?
Perhaps you’re have difficulty sleeping, and when you do sleep, you have frequent nightmares about the trauma you’ve experienced. You may be plagued with feelings of shame about what you’ve gone through. Maybe you’re quick to anger and the slightest irritation provokes a rageful outburst. No matter how you try to soothe or distract yourself, you’re stuck in a repeating cycle of triggers, thoughts, and reactions. Regaining an inner sense of quiet and safety seems impossible.
Trauma includes physical symptoms, too, such as chronic tension or persistent pain for which there’s no apparent medical explanation. You might startle easily, especially in response to loud or sudden noises. You may feel anxious and watchful, as if you can never let your guard down.
Grappling with trauma by yourself is isolating and exhausting. But you don’t have to go it alone, because trauma therapy offers help.
Trauma is a fact of life for many. It comes in multiple forms.
It’s estimated that at least six in ten men and five in ten women have endured some kind of trauma and that some eight million adults suffer from PTSD.
What’s referred to as trauma takes many shapes.
You may have experienced neglect, bullying, or sexual abuse that you’ve carried around for years because you hadn’t ever thought of it as trauma or never had a safe place to talk about it. Maybe you’ve been a target of harassment in the workplace. You might have had to contend gender-based oppression. Perhaps you’ve grappled with a lifetime of racism and bigotry. The cumulative effects of prolonged and sustained trauma can be especially subtle, hard to identify and difficult to sort out, especially by yourself.
It might be that you fled war in your native country and now face challenges as you try to adjust to your newly adopted home. Perhaps you’ve been in an abusive relationship or are a veteran of combat. Some trauma comes from a one-time incident: a car accident, violent crime, harrowing medical procedure, or natural disaster. A single event can bring up recollections of past events that, examined in a new light, now seem traumatic.
Trauma can also result from a significant loss, such as the death of someone you loved, infidelity, a job layoff, or a long, drawn-out breakup. For anyone who has experienced any sort of trauma, no matter how large or small, it feels as if the past is always with you. But trauma-informed therapy offers support to help you get stronger, find relief, and reclaim your life.
Trauma therapy is a safe place to face your anguish and to heal.
My approach to trauma-focused therapy involves a combination of learning about your past and finding realistic solutions for your present. I’ll want to get to know you really well and hear as much about yourself as you’re ready to tell me, as well as help you acquire practical and healthy coping strategies to manage your symptoms. I’ll place a lot of importance on listening to how you talk about your trauma, and I’ll probably ask a lot of questions. If it’s appropriate and something you’re interested in, you and I might look at treatments and resources that would supplement the psychotherapeutic work we’re doing together.
One of the hardest things about trauma is that you’re persistently bombarded with invasive symptoms. So, you might ask, does talk therapy for trauma really help? Doesn’t talking make it worse?
Strong neuroscientific evidence confirms that talking actually does heal. That’s because talking and being heard stimulates pathways in the brain that have remained constrained or unused, freeing up the brain regions that help us regulate our emotions.
The psyche, like the body, has a powerful capacity to be restored if we offer it the right conditions. Trauma, by its nature, doesn’t make sense. But having someone who is trained to listen and bear witness will allow you to make sense of the pain you’ve had to bear. In trauma-informed therapy, permitting yourself to talk about what’s top of mind in consistent, week-to-week sessions makes way for your healing. Talking to someone who sees you, hears you, and provides a safe place for you to process your traumatic experience at your own pace has been shown to alter brain structure and brain chemistry permanently.
Maybe you still have some concerns about trauma therapy…
Trauma therapy can’t take away what happened.
That’s true. Trauma-focused therapy will not erase memories. What it can do is help you make sense of your suffering so that the traumatic memories will eventually have less power over you. The result is increased strength, resilience, and awareness.
If I take away the trauma, I’ll lose a part of myself.
Trauma therapy isn’t meant to delete your recollections or cancel out your experience. What happened is a part of you. Instead, we’ll work together on changing how you see yourself and the world. Trauma-focused therapy is meant to enlarge the collection of coping strategies you already have. It’s designed to equip you with healthier ways to manage challenges so that the past no longer rules you.
Getting trauma-based therapy means I’m weak.
Quite the contrary. You’ve made it through a painful experience and you’ve lived to talk about it. Seeking trauma-based therapy is the opposite of weak—it’s an act of courage. A crucial aspect of therapy for trauma, in fact, is acknowledging your existing strengths and applying them in the service of healing.
Therapy for trauma helps you find a way forward.
If you’re suffering from symptoms of trauma, PTSD, or post-traumatic stress, call 213-807-6021 to arrange a free, 20-minute consultation. Let’s talk about how I can help.
