Trauma

What is trauma? The American Psychological Association defines trauma as “any disturbing experience that results in significant fear, helplessness, confusion, or other disruptive feelings intense enough to have a long-lasting negative effect on a person’s attitudes, behavior, and other aspects of functioning.” 

Traumatic experiences can range from “Big T Traumas” – like tragic accidents, assault, natural disasters – to “little t traumas” – like breakups, job loss, chronic health struggles. How someone experiences trauma can depend upon their support systems, past exposure to trauma, and genetic makeup. Traumatic experiences impact everyone differently. Some people find that trauma has a significant impact on their life even years after the experience. 

Trauma can make you feel like you’ve lost control of yourself. Maybe you experience a minor conflict with your significant other and it destroys your whole day. You start thinking “it’s over; I’m gonna be alone forever; I can’t handle this.” Most likely, those thoughts are being informed by past traumatic experiences. You feel your chest tighten, heart rate speed up, and stomach drop. This is your body reacting to a trauma trigger.  

You might be thinking “how do I get over this?” Many mental health struggles are the result of unhelpful encoding or incomplete processing of painful events (Shapiro). For instance, you experience a terrible car accident. You start to believe you’re in danger and feel on edge even if you're perfectly safe at home. Healing from trauma involves healing the brain so these beliefs can be stored and processed in a more adaptive way. There are many treatments that can be helpful for trauma recovery, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Internal Family Systems, and EMDR. Connect with me today to learn more about how I can support you as you recover from trauma.