Trauma Counseling
What is Trauma Counseling?
What is Trauma?
As health and wellness practitioners, we want to help people recover from difficulties and discover greater resilience and capacity for life. Within that, an area that is gaining significant and necessary attention is trauma counseling and therapy.
Through earlier centuries, doctors used different terms to describe traumatic symptoms that they were observing in their patients. Typically, these were soldiers of war that were struggling with emotional and physical symptoms. Some of the earlier terms used include post-traumatic neurosis, nostalgia, soldier’s heart and shell shock. It wasn’t until 1980 that the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (the common reference used for diagnosis) officially introduced the diagnosis PTSD – post-traumatic stress disorder. At first, PTSD was primarily identified in war veterans. Over time, doctors started to observe that others who experienced a “shock-trauma” (a traumatic incident such as a car accident, assault, etc.) also exhibited symptoms of PTSD. As such, the understanding of PTSD grew.
As a result of an ability to recognize symptoms as signs of a disorder such as PTSD, those struggling with PTSD can now get help to recover and regain their resilience. Therefore, the more we can identify signs of un-wellness, the more we can take steps to help those struggling come back into wellness through trauma therapy.
Common Signs of PTSD
A lot of times people can get confused about whether an event is “traumatic” or not. When specialists in the field talk about trauma, they are coming from the understanding that trauma is not the situation nor is it situation-specific. Instead, trauma refers to the impact an event or environment has on a person’s health and wellness. For instance, although two people may experience the same situation, one may develop PTSD and the other might not. PTSD is a diagnostic term that describes a cluster of symptoms that a person has developed as a result of a traumatic experience.
Common symptoms or signs of PTSD include:
- Intrusive memories such as:
- Nightmares
- Flashbacks
- Recurrent distressing memories
- Avoidance behavior such a:
- Avoiding places, activities or people that remind you of the traumatic event
- Avoiding or trying to avoid thinking or talking about the traumatic event
- Negative changes in thoughts and mood such as:
- Negative thoughts about yourself, people or the world
- Sense of hopelessness
- Memory difficulties
- Difficulties with relationships
- Feeling detached
- Lack of interest in things you used to enjoy
- Difficulty experiencing positive emotions
- Numbness
- Physical and emotional symptoms such as:
- Hypervigilance (becoming easily startled or frightened)
- Difficulty relaxing, always on edge
- Being guarded
- Sleep disturbance
- Difficulty concentrating
- Irritability, anger
- Overwhelming guilt or shame
If you are experiencing any or some of the above-mentioned symptoms, speaking with a trauma specialist about trauma therapy and counseling can help.
But do all traumatic experiences result in the same cluster of symptoms? As research continued to grow in this field, experts have recognized that those who experienced trauma early in life – whether during birth or the first 5 years of childhood – had symptoms that did not match the symptoms under PTSD. Their symptoms presentation was unique. As a result, leaders and pioneers in the field of trauma such as Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Gabor Mate, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris have pushed the field further to study and understand Developmental Trauma and Complex PTSD.
Somatic Experiencing & Trauma Counseling
From a Somatic Experiencing perspective, trauma is the result of our survival system (fight/flight/freeze) getting activated but not completed. It becomes stuck. As people unconsciously adapt to this survival system in order to go on with their lives, behaviors, thoughts and emotions become shaped by the trauma. For example, if a person accidentally twists his ankle, he will start to favor his other foot so as to relieve the pressure from the one that got injured. Over time, as he continues to walk in this unbalanced way, he might start to develop back pain or other discomforts as the body adapts to moving with the presence of the injury. The same happens when the survival system gets stuck and there is trauma. Our physiology, behavior, thoughts, emotions, and even perspective and outlook on life becomes shaped by this imbalance.
The goal in trauma therapy and counseling for Somatic Experiencing Practitioners is to help the survival system complete and for the person to experience an increase in their physiology’s capacity for regulation and resilience.
Common Conditions Linked with Trauma & Chronic Stress
As a result of advances in the understanding of the physiology of trauma, trauma specialists today are better able to identify and provide helpful treatment for ailments and difficulties that have been caused by specific traumatic incidences, repeated traumatic incidences, early traumatic exposure and chronic stress.
Some of the common conditions that have been linked to trauma include:
- Anxiety
- Back pain
- Chronic Fatigue
- Depression
- Emotional Eating
- Fibromyalgia
- IBS & other digestive problems
- Migrains & other headaches
- Panic Attacks
- Phobias
One way to conceptualize symptoms in relation to the survival system is to refer to the Window of Tolerance.
Situations that can cause Trauma
Many situations can lead to trauma. Some of the common situations include:
- Assault
- Abuse (physical, emotional, sexual or neglect)
- Bullying (at home, school or work)
- Chronic stress
- Environmental disasters
- Fall or injury
- Financial insecurity
- Loss of home or work
- Motor vehicle accident
- Medical procedure
- Medical illness diagnosis
- Poverty
- Pre-perinatal stressors
- Social trauma (oppression, racism, discrimination)
- Traumatic birth (for baby or mother)
- Traumatic loss
- Transgenerational trauma
- War
As can be seen, there are many different situations that can be causes of trauma. It’s important to keep in mind that trauma refers to the impact an event or situation has on a person’s wellness (or their window of tolerance). It is common to not be sure of whether there was a traumatic event or situation but to still struggle with symptoms of trauma. So, even if you’re not sure if you have trauma, if you are struggling with different symptoms or patterns in your life, speak with a trauma counselor to get help to increase your overall sense of health and wellbeing.
Trauma Counseling Techniques
Art therapy
Trauma is a deeply distressing or disturbing experience. It can be incredibly hard to process and move on from such an event. That’s where art therapy comes in. Art therapy is a form of counseling that uses art-making as a way to help people express their feelings and thoughts about their experiences. It can be an incredibly helpful tool for trauma survivors.
Through art therapy, people can explore their feelings in a safe and supportive environment. They can also learn new coping skills and ways of expressing themselves. Art therapy can help people to make progress in their healing journey and to build a stronger sense of self.