What is Trauma?Trauma is any event or series of events that overwhelm a person’s ability to tolerate and process what is happening. Sometimes this is an outwardly severe event, like a car accident or sexual assault. And sometimes it is an internal experience that may go unnoticed to an outside observer, such as betrayal, neglect, chronic instability or lack of safety.
Common symptoms of trauma include flashbacks, panic attacks, avoidant behaviors, memory problems, difficulty with relationships, distressing feelings, feeling numb, trouble sleeping and nightmares. However, trauma can also present in less common and less overt ways. Who Has Trauma?Many of the people we see in our practice would not initially define themselves as trauma survivors. As humans, our neocortex is built to compare and contrast, and so many trauma survivors find themselves thinking: “What happened to me wasn’t great, but it’s not as bad as what happened to so and so…” |
But our nervous system and reptile brain do not care about how bad someone else had it. Our bodies are built to register threat and respond accordingly with fight, flight, or freeze response. It knows when we feel unsafe, even when we think it should be “no big deal.”
Ultimately, the only person who can say for sure if what you experienced was a trauma is you. But sometimes we need help assessing the impact of an event in our lives. It is helpful to stop and consider: How did what happened feel to me at the time? And how might it still be affecting me in the here and now?
Ultimately, the only person who can say for sure if what you experienced was a trauma is you. But sometimes we need help assessing the impact of an event in our lives. It is helpful to stop and consider: How did what happened feel to me at the time? And how might it still be affecting me in the here and now?
What Heals Trauma?Remember how we defined trauma as an event that could not be processed as it was happening because it was too overwhelming? In order to recover from trauma, we need to find a way to process the experience after-the-fact. In therapy, we try to create a space where this is possible. Each person’s traumatic experience is unique to them, so there is no cookie cutter approach to how it is best processed. This is something we discover in therapy as we work together. However, there are some common elements of recovery for many trauma survivors. These can include talking through what happened, reconnecting with related emotions, learning how to regulate those feelings (with mindfulness practices, breathing exercises, restorative somatic practices, resource building), and placing the story of what happened into a bigger and more hopeful narrative. If you think you might be a trauma survivor and would like help, please call us for a free 15 phone consultation. |