Trauma Therapy
Trauma is defined by a collapse of order as we know it. Trauma can manifest itself in a sudden forceful way, like witnessing an unexpected violent event (accident, assault, combat) or it can happen gradually when harmful childhood experiences cause long lasting developmental trauma.
The human mind depends on a certain degree of predictability. Trauma is so harmful and pervasive because it upsets this fundamental human need. In the wake of traumatic events, rules and expectations that hold together the fabric of our lives seem meaningless.
Our belief that things make sense is shattered, or, in the case of a traumatizing childhood, this sense never has a chance to grow in the first place.
How does the body respond to trauma?
Trauma is the psychological experience of an event that exceeds our capacity for understanding and disrupts our sense of safety and trust in the world. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) refers to a specific set of reactions to a massively terrifying and catastrophic event, such as a car crash, the sudden death of a loved one, a violent assault, living through a war, natural disaster, or terrorist attack.
In response to something so shocking and disturbing, individuals persistently re-experience the trauma through internal intrusions of memories and feelings, referred to as flashbacks. They tend to avoid any experience associated with the trauma, numb themselves through dissociation or alcoholism, or become hyper vigilant, easily frightened and nervous.
Re-experiencing the traumatic event , hypervigilance, and subsequent numbing happens if we are unable to fully work through and integrate the trauma into a new post-traumatic sense of reality. The traumatic event remains shut off from our consciousness, becomes dissociated and unintelligible, only to return to us in raw and intrusive forms.
PTSD exemplifies the way trauma intrudes upon us and haunts us despite a desire to just move on. Some individuals are affected by traumatic childhood experiences in which caregivers or loved ones acted in unpredictable ways, were unreliable and emotionally or physically abusive.
When asked to recall traumatic memories, they may see, hear, and fear elements of traumatic memories and feel traumatized all over again.
People with traumatic childhood experiences feel chronically on guard for signs of danger from anywhere in their lives, they may have trouble creating boundaries with demanding and volatile people, or become defensive and angry when they feel exploited or disrespected.
What about PTSD?
Trauma will only loosens its unrelenting grip if it gets worked through. A skilled trauma therapist can play the vital role of bearing witness to the traumatic experience. As memoirist and novelist Maya Angelou wrote, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you.”
Therapy can help make destabilizing memories more explicable, can help contextualize and integrate these memories into a broader framework and narrative. This process enhances natural resilience and ultimately makes the trauma better understood and more bearable.
It is very helpful and healing to learn to distinguish real-life threats and worries from the haunting, irrational fears caused by trauma. Therapy is crucial in helping us to create meaning and develop a caring language for that which has no words.