Trauma therapy can help people reclaim their lives by addressing the symptoms that rob them of connection and joy. Whether from sexual trauma, natural disasters, or war, a traumatic experience shatters how you see yourself and your world.
With the support of a therapist, you can learn healthy ways to cope and move forward.
Self-Esteem
Trauma can have a negative effect on an individual’s self-esteem. A therapist can help someone build positive self-worth and develop better interpersonal relationships.
Depending on the type of trauma therapy, a therapist can use methods like prolonged exposure, eye movement desensitization, reprocessing, or cognitive behavioral therapy to help individuals confront their fears in a safe environment. These techniques can help reduce nightmares and flashbacks.
A therapist can also help a trauma victim identify and correct false beliefs formed from their experience. For example, an individual who has been sexually abused may have developed the belief that they were the reason the assault occurred. This untruth causes them to feel shame and guilt.
A therapist can help the victim challenge these negative self-beliefs by using tools to demonstrate that their feelings are valid. This can help the victim feel more confident about their worth and abilities, leading to more positive self-esteem.
Relationships
One of the biggest benefits of therapy is that it teaches you to look at your problems from many different angles. A therapist can help you see your situation and determine how to improve it.
Many people who have experienced trauma struggle with emotional regulation. This can make it difficult for them to form healthy, secure relationships with others. It can also lead to insecure attachment patterns, such as clinginess or emotional distancing.
A therapist can teach you techniques like mindfulness meditation or Somatic Experiencing to help you build a stronger mind-body connection and enhance your resilience to trauma. They can also teach you how to practice self-care and communicate more effectively with loved ones.
Abuse survivors often develop PTSD-like symptoms after traumatic experiences in intimate relationships. This can be difficult for their loved ones, who may feel misunderstood or unsupported. Abuse survivors need to seek counseling and support from a mental health professional.
Work
Trauma therapy can help you cope with the psychological distress caused by a traumatic event or ongoing stressors like anxiety. In a therapeutic setting, you can learn healthy coping mechanisms to manage your symptoms rather than engage in self-defeating behaviors like substance abuse or eating disorders.
Most people experience some level of distress following a trauma. However, it may be time to see a therapist if your symptoms are persistent and interfere with daily life. Trauma symptoms include flashbacks, severe anxiety, nightmares, and uncontrollable thoughts about the event.
Trauma therapy can include talk therapy or exposure therapies, such as EMDR. Your therapist will evaluate your symptoms and health history to determine your best treatment type. Your therapist can also offer cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness techniques to support your recovery. For example, if you have developed the belief that it’s not safe to trust others, your therapist can help you develop new beliefs that are more realistic and less painful.
Health
Many people who have experienced trauma must cope with physical, emotional, and cognitive symptoms affecting all areas of their health. Trauma therapy aims to bring these hidden memories and feelings into the open for healing, helping individuals find relief from their symptoms and better understand why they reacted in particular ways to traumatic experiences.
One of the most common trauma therapies is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). The therapist helps clients evaluate their thoughts to determine if they are true and guides them in finding more helpful, realistic ways to think. Another trauma-informed therapy is eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), which uses rhythmic stimulation to help a person reprocess the memory of a traumatic experience in a safe environment.
Lastly, prolonged exposure therapy, specifically optimized for treating trauma, involves talking about the traumatic event in detail in therapy sessions and then gradually exposing the individual to situations that trigger distress or avoidance. This allows the individual to confront negative thoughts or memories without getting overwhelmed.
