When you’ve been through something very traumatic, life doesn’t just return to normal. Even if things look okay outside, your mind and body often tell different stories. You might experience nightmares, a tight chest, panic in crowds, or even develop trust issues.
That’s how trauma works. It lingers and reshapes how you experience the world. But with the right therapy, you can find your way back to yourself and live your life again to the fullest.
Whether you’ve experienced a single traumatic event, lived through ongoing childhood trauma, or are dealing with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, there are effective therapies that can help you feel safe again. This blog post will discuss what trauma does to you, how therapy can help, and which approaches work best.
Understanding Trauma
Trauma is what happens when something overwhelms your ability to cope, both physically and psychologically. It could be one moment that shook your foundation or years of stress that affected your sense of safety. For instance, some people experience a single traumatic event like a car crash or an assault, while others may live through ongoing childhood trauma, neglect, or an unstable environment.
It’s important to note that trauma doesn’t just live in your memory; it also lives in your body. Trauma symptoms can show up as anxiety, depressed mood, irritability, panic attacks, trust issues, or even a feeling of being detached from yourself or others.
How Trauma Affects the Body and Brain
Research suggests that trauma can negatively rewire your brain and nervous system. For example, your amygdala, which processes fear, gets hyper-alert, the function of the hippocampus for memory processing can be disrupted, and your pre-frontal cortex, which helps you stay calm, can also be affected by trauma.
In other words, your body responds as if the danger is still happening, which creates a loop where you feel tense, avoidant, exhausted, or emotionally flooded even though there’s no clear threat. That’s why therapy for trauma doesn’t just involve talking about what happened, but it also involves reprocessing the memory and teaching you how to feel safe again and stay in the here and now.
Why Does Therapy Help Trauma?
Considering that trauma can show up in your relationships, your work, your body, and your mind, trying to push trauma down or simply ignore it doesn’t work. Hence, connecting with professionals who know how to handle this condition better is essential. Therapy may feel intimidating at first, but it’s one of the effective ways to break free from trauma.
Generally, most forms of trauma therapy are designed to help you understand your trauma symptoms, regain a sense of control, reduce distress, provide tools to calm your body, work with your thoughts, and confront the trauma without being overwhelmed.
The key is finding the type of therapy that fits you and a trauma therapist who knows how to guide you throughout your recovery journey.
What Are the Best Types of Therapy For Trauma?
Here are some of the most effective and well-researched forms of trauma treatment that are being used by many professionals nowadays:
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is one of the gold standard treatments for people with trauma. Specifically, this therapy helps your brain reprocess disturbing or traumatic memories to make them feel less intense. During the EMDR session, you’ll focus briefly on your traumatic memory while engaging in bilateral movement.
What makes it unique is that this form of therapy doesn’t require you to talk in detail about your trauma, which is helpful for people who feel overwhelmed by recounting the past. It’s widely used to treat PTSD symptoms, especially those related to combat, abuse, or sexual trauma.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is also one of the most researched treatments for trauma, which helps you understand how your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours are connected. It helps you identify and challenge negative thoughts that are associated with trauma and helps you build healthier patterns.
Trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy is a specific form of CBT designed for children and adolescents who’ve experienced trauma. It combines talk therapy, coping skills, and emotional processing in an age-appropriate way.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy
Prolonged Exposure Therapy is a type of exposure technique that helps you stop avoiding trauma-related thoughts, memories, and situations. During the session, you’ll gradually and safely revisit the traumatic events either through guided images or real-life exposure to triggers.
Although engaging in this therapy is not easy, it’s very effective. Over time, your brain learns you can face those things, survive, and deal with them.
Narrative Therapy
Trauma can shrink how you see yourself to a single event or label. Hence, this therapy helps you explore your life story and separate your identity from what happened to you. It helps rebuild your sense of self after long-term or identity-shaping trauma.
Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFST)
Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) is a therapeutic approach that focuses on understanding the mind as made up of different parts or subpersonalities, each with its own unique perspectives, emotions, and behaviours.
In the context of trauma, IFS is effective because it allows you to explore various parts of yourself that may be affected by traumatic experiences. For example, some parts may be protectors that try to shield you from further harm, while other parts might carry the pain of the trauma itself. IFS is a gentle approach and can be used in treating people with complex trauma.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)
Although Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is a relatively newer approach as compared to other therapies listed here, ART is also an evidence-based approach designed to help you process trauma and emotional distress more quickly than traditional methods.
In principle, ART is used to treat trauma by combining various approaches such as EMDR, CBT, and guided imagery. ART works on reframing and resolving your troubling memories, images, and feelings associated with traumatic experiences.
What are the Common Types of Trauma?
There are different types of trauma, and understanding them can help you make sense of your symptoms and guide your recovery. Some of them include:
Acute Trauma
Acute trauma is the result of a single and intense traumatic event, like a serious accident, natural disaster, or assault. The effects of this type of trauma can be immediately felt, such as shock, fear, and intrusive memories, and may develop into PTSD if not addressed.
Chronic Trauma
Chronic trauma comes from repeated or long-term exposure to distressing events or situations such as domestic violence, bullying, or growing up in an unsafe environment. The ongoing nature of this type of trauma can wear down your mental and physical health over time.
Complex Trauma
Complex trauma usually starts in childhood and involves multiple traumas. It’s commonly linked to long-term abuse, neglect, or abandonment, which can impact your identity, self-worth, and emotional regulation.
Is There a Medication For Trauma?
At present, the only medications approved to treat trauma and PTSD-related conditions are Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) to help manage symptoms such as anxiety, depressed mood, and intrusive thoughts. Although these medications alone don’t entirely cure trauma, they can support the process alongside trauma-informed therapies.
How Long Does Trauma Treatment Work?
There’s no set timeline for trauma or PTSD treatment, as it highly depends on the nature of your condition and the severity of symptoms. Based on clinical experience, some may experience significant progress in just a few months, while others may need long-term treatment and support.
Find a Safe Space to Heal at The Orchid
If you’re struggling with trauma, you deserve care that focuses on revitalising your mental wellness. Whether you’re navigating flashbacks, panic, or emotional numbness, there’s hope with proper support and treatment from mental health professionals.
Here at The Orchid, we offer personalised treatment to help you overcome trauma, appreciate life again, and finally feel like yourself again.
