Treatment for Trauma

Do you ever feel stuck in the past, unable to let go of the pain?

You’re not alone, and more importantly, you don’t have to stay this way. Trauma interferes with your day to day and changes your thought patterns. Healing from some kinds of trauma might feel like an impossible task, but thankfully it isn’t.

Trauma is more than just feeling sad or stressed, it can seep into every part of your life, leaving you emotionally numb or on edge, as if you’re constantly bracing for something bad to happen. On your bad days, you might avoid meeting or interacting with people.

Over time, trauma manifests as chronic stress, physical health problems, or feelings of disconnection. Therapies like Somatic Therapy, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing), and CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) can help you process these complex emotions and feelings in a safe environment.

Types of Trauma

Recognizing the type of trauma you’ve experienced gives perspective and paves a path for healing.

Acute Trauma

Acute trauma results from a single distressing event, such as an accident, natural disaster, or assault. It leaves you feeling shocked, fearful, or helpless. You may get over the feeling quickly, but its emotional impact lingers for sometime. Treating it earlier prevents long-term effects and makes you feel safe again.

Chronic Trauma

Exposure to stressful events, like ongoing abuse, bullying, or living in a war zone manifests as chronic trauma. You feel like danger is always present and feel hopeless and hypervigilant. Over time, it impacts your ability to trust others or feel at ease. EMDR and long-term CBT are two recommended therapies for chronic trauma.

Complex Trauma

This type occurs after exposure to multiple traumatic events, like childhood neglect or abuse. You may struggle with shame, self-blame, or feeling unworthy. Therapists recommend a combination of therapies to address these deep emotional scars.

Secondary or Vicarious Trauma

Secondary trauma occurs when you’re deeply affected by someone else’s traumatic experience. It’s commonly seen among caregivers, first responders, and therapists dealing with someone with trauma. It looks a lot like PTSD and makes you feel burnout or even emotionally exhausted. Self-care along with therapy will make you feel supported and support those who depend on you.

Therapies for Trauma

Narrative Therapy

This therapy helps you take back control by rewriting your story in a way that emphasizes your strengths and resilience. Instead of focusing on what happened, you reframe the experiences to give new meaning to the challenges you’ve faced.

Art Therapy

Instead of talk therapy, which primarily engages our logical brain, creative and artistic expression - whether it’s drawing, painting, creative writing — engages the feeling/emotional brain. Art therapy can be a space for self-exploration and understanding of your trauma healing process better.

Psychodynamic Therapy

Focuses on understanding the underlying unconscious conflicts and past experiences that cause trauma and helps you bring these issues to light and address them.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

CBT is all about understanding how our thoughts, feelings, and actions are linked. It helps you spot and challenge those negative thoughts. You'll learn techniques like cognitive restructuring, where you swap out negative thoughts for more realistic ones, and behavioral activation, which gets you doing positive activities.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR is a therapy designed to help people process and heal from traumatic experiences and was first developed to treat PTSD. It involves recalling a traumatic memory while following the therapist’s hand movements or other stimuli. It helps reduce the emotional charge of the memory and change the way it’s stored in your brain, making it less traumatic.

I’m here to support your healing journey. Take the first step today.