Trauma Therapy
Trauma isn't an event or a thing that happened to you. Trauma is the way your body reacts to a perceived threat that is too big, too fast, or too much for your nervous system to make sense of at the time. Because of this, the part of your nervous system in charge of logic and reasoning is turned offline so that you can survive.
Trauma is an injury that happens to us. It can alter the way you see yourself and others, how you perceive your environment or certain situations, who you are attracted to and truly disrupts your ability to live your best life.
How does something like trauma impact so much?
Two main reasons:
1. Trauma is a reaction to intensely acute OR long-term stress. Our bodies were not made to be put under the amount of stress we put them on just with the way we live (ex: our caregivers told us that we were "too emotional" or "too sensitive", we were our parent's therapist/parentified child, our parents only ever told us what we didn't do right and hardly ever named what we did do, constant notifications letting us know one more thing we need to get around to, more isolated from others, etc.).
The thing about stress is that it accumulates in our bodies and our bodies/nervous systems will respond to similar incidents in a similar way or a way that feels protective to your system. Sometimes in childhood, our parents tell us to do things that go against what we need or know is right which can turn off our sensors for detecting these things in the future.
The accumulation of this stress in our bodies sends signals to our brains that we are still holding onto a lot of stress which then (because of the brain-body connection) sends back another signal to our brain that we must have a reason to be stressed because our body says we are by the tension we are holding so our bodies stay in Alert/Protective/Firefighter mode.
Add just about anything in addition to daily life stressors such as a difficult upbringing or a traumatic stressor such as a sexual or physical assault or a death to someone close to you and the stress becomes even more difficult to discharge. It can almost feel stuck there no matter what you do.
2. Shame. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who experienced a trauma without also experiencing shame. Shame oftentimes keeps clients stuck in their trauma, making it difficult to move past the stuck points.
In therapy, I work with clients to begin noticing their own shame statements that show up (ex: “if I fail at something I’m a failure” or “it was my fault, I am a dirty person”, etc.) and assist in exploring where those shame statements/narratives first made their appearance.
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How long does trauma therapy take?
Do not trust any trauma therapist or trauma provider who tells you that they can heal your trauma quickly. The length of trauma therapy depends on a variety of different things depending on your history and experiences. I would say to expect trauma therapy to take no less than 6 months to 1 year of weekly sessions if you have been in therapy before for an extended amount of time.
One of the things I’m assessing for is how quickly you are able to bounce back from difficult emotions. Since trauma is a reaction to stress, science teaches that we must first learn how to tolerate and find healthy ways to discharge stress before we can begin to process trauma. By skipping over this phase because of impatience risks retraumatization. For that reason, I will always empower my clients to begin opening up to their trauma at their own pace.
For many trauma therapy clients, knowledge of the self is a powerful tool that can be used as a way to regulate stress. Knowledge is literally power. The more you understand the things that make you feel shame, anger, embarrassment, binge eat/drink, and where it comes from, the less power it has over you. And with that new power, trauma therapy can begin!
How do I treat trauma in therapy?
I use EMDR, TBRI, TF-CBT, IFS and somatic approaches when working with trauma clients.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy is a type of therapy that has been extensively researched for the treatment of trauma. EMDR is probably the most well-known trauma therapy approach out there because it can be a much quicker (not necessarily better) form of trauma therapy.
More research shows that somatic/body approaches must be used in trauma therapy which is why you’ll also hear me ask about your body language, suggest yoga postures, breathing techniques, guided imagery, develop a mindfulness practice or that you consider other somatic healing methods in conjunction to our work together in our sessions.
All methods of trauma therapy are powerful tools that are not one size fits all. In our consultation call and intake session, I will assess and go over which trauma therapy approaches might work best for you at that time (this can sometimes change as we progress in our healing), and the length of time therapy might take depending on your goal(s).
Trauma is an injury that happens to us. It can alter the way you see yourself and others, how you perceive your environment or certain situations, who you are attracted to and truly disrupts your ability to live your best life.
How does something like trauma impact so much?
Two main reasons:
1. Trauma is a reaction to intensely acute OR long-term stress. Our bodies were not made to be put under the amount of stress we put them on just with the way we live (ex: our caregivers told us that we were "too emotional" or "too sensitive", we were our parent's therapist/parentified child, our parents only ever told us what we didn't do right and hardly ever named what we did do, constant notifications letting us know one more thing we need to get around to, more isolated from others, etc.).
The thing about stress is that it accumulates in our bodies and our bodies/nervous systems will respond to similar incidents in a similar way or a way that feels protective to your system. Sometimes in childhood, our parents tell us to do things that go against what we need or know is right which can turn off our sensors for detecting these things in the future.
The accumulation of this stress in our bodies sends signals to our brains that we are still holding onto a lot of stress which then (because of the brain-body connection) sends back another signal to our brain that we must have a reason to be stressed because our body says we are by the tension we are holding so our bodies stay in Alert/Protective/Firefighter mode.
Add just about anything in addition to daily life stressors such as a difficult upbringing or a traumatic stressor such as a sexual or physical assault or a death to someone close to you and the stress becomes even more difficult to discharge. It can almost feel stuck there no matter what you do.
2. Shame. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who experienced a trauma without also experiencing shame. Shame oftentimes keeps clients stuck in their trauma, making it difficult to move past the stuck points.
In therapy, I work with clients to begin noticing their own shame statements that show up (ex: “if I fail at something I’m a failure” or “it was my fault, I am a dirty person”, etc.) and assist in exploring where those shame statements/narratives first made their appearance.
_____________________________
How long does trauma therapy take?
Do not trust any trauma therapist or trauma provider who tells you that they can heal your trauma quickly. The length of trauma therapy depends on a variety of different things depending on your history and experiences. I would say to expect trauma therapy to take no less than 6 months to 1 year of weekly sessions if you have been in therapy before for an extended amount of time.
One of the things I’m assessing for is how quickly you are able to bounce back from difficult emotions. Since trauma is a reaction to stress, science teaches that we must first learn how to tolerate and find healthy ways to discharge stress before we can begin to process trauma. By skipping over this phase because of impatience risks retraumatization. For that reason, I will always empower my clients to begin opening up to their trauma at their own pace.
For many trauma therapy clients, knowledge of the self is a powerful tool that can be used as a way to regulate stress. Knowledge is literally power. The more you understand the things that make you feel shame, anger, embarrassment, binge eat/drink, and where it comes from, the less power it has over you. And with that new power, trauma therapy can begin!
How do I treat trauma in therapy?
I use EMDR, TBRI, TF-CBT, IFS and somatic approaches when working with trauma clients.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy is a type of therapy that has been extensively researched for the treatment of trauma. EMDR is probably the most well-known trauma therapy approach out there because it can be a much quicker (not necessarily better) form of trauma therapy.
More research shows that somatic/body approaches must be used in trauma therapy which is why you’ll also hear me ask about your body language, suggest yoga postures, breathing techniques, guided imagery, develop a mindfulness practice or that you consider other somatic healing methods in conjunction to our work together in our sessions.
All methods of trauma therapy are powerful tools that are not one size fits all. In our consultation call and intake session, I will assess and go over which trauma therapy approaches might work best for you at that time (this can sometimes change as we progress in our healing), and the length of time therapy might take depending on your goal(s).