How Therapy Helps Trauma

How Therapy Can Help Interpersonal Trauma

Interpersonal trauma is a psychological trauma caused by other people. Some examples include harm, abuse, or neglect. Interpersonal trauma can happen as children or as adults, and both carry with them similar risks. Such examples include physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or neglect. Interpersonal trauma carries with it reduced health outcomes, both physically and mentally, and relationship difficulties related to the trauma.

Trauma (with a capital “T”) can best be described as the actual, threatened, or witnessed death, serious injury, or sexual assault. Trauma can seriously impact our lives through the symptoms it brings, such as:

·       Intrusions in waking life and sleeping

·       Distressing thoughts related to the trauma

·       Behavioral problems resulting from reacting to the trauma

·       Relationship difficulties

·       Changes in thoughts or moods

·       Avoidance of life because of reminders of the trauma

·       Confusion about yourself and what caused the trauma

·       Negative self-beliefs and self-thoughts that bring harm

·       And more

There is also trauma (with a lowercase “t”) that includes all the uncomfortable situations in life that didn’t threaten your life or overall wellbeing. Though not able to qualify for a PTSD diagnosis, these experiences cause many harms to us that also decrease our overall functioning and make life harder.

There’s hope yet though! Trauma therapy can reduce these symptoms and help you make meaning out of what happened to you. There are multiple routes I take to address trauma in clients, including the existential approach and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR).

Existential Approaches to Trauma

The goal of existential trauma therapy is to find out the ways that your mode of existence—an overall response to trauma capturing how you think, feel, and behave as well as how you view yourself, others, the world, and life—has been impacted by the trauma. You may find yourself “stuck” in one mode of existence unable to move beyond it. This could look like reacting to a boss who may be upset with you out of fear or fawning because of how it resembles another authority figure who traumatized you. These misaligned modes of existence cause problems because what keeps us safe in one situation—an important aspect of a mode of existence—may cause problems in other situations, such as work or romantic relationships.

Existential therapy will seek to untangle the traumatic experience from your mode of existence and find a new way of living, or even multiple ways of living, that helps you regulate and find peace and more effective living in all other situations. To do this, we’ll “synthesize” the past trauma into your current world to “de-fang” the trauma and render it less harmful to you.

EMDR Therapy

EMDR constitutes a strict 8-phase protocol that is scientifically based in resolving trauma concerns. If you’re interested in reading about the 8 phases, read here. EMDR works quite fast and can help you decrease negative self-beliefs, reduce the tensions and dysregulation associated with trauma, and find a more accurate, positive self-assessment in the past, present, and future versions of yourself.

Connect

If this article resonates with you and you’re feeling ready to get back to being your best self after something terrible has happened to you, know that trauma is my specialty and I’m ready to help you find your path to wholeness. Please contact me for a free 15-minute consultation to get scheduled. I look forward to working with you!