PTSD & Trauma Therapy

The general framework of trauma counseling includes Diagnosis, Intervention, Integration, and Relapse Prevention.
First, treatment usually starts with understanding and diagnosing the problem that currently exists, Is there depression or anxiety? Does the person struggle with intimacy? Does the person live with a lot of anger, or not enough? This may also include doing formal tests, and working with other providers such as doctors or family to best understand what impact the past trauma has on clients today.

Following that, a plan is developed to address the past trauma. This can include a variety of approaches, some that involve talking about it, and some don’t. To be effective, the client needs to understand what the plan looks like and agree on the strategy. Nothing can happen without the client being informed and consenting so as to not risk further injury of trust.

After some of the healing has started to take place, therapy can include a period of integration. This means using the skills and progress made and applying it to life. Bringing this new self into their current life, relationships, work, school, and future. This stage is integrating the progress made into their current life so that clients are living the life they deserve to live.

Finally, as the client faces the highs and lows of life, it is important that the client is also equipped with a new set of skills, insights, and breakthroughs so that they can prevent a return of symptoms. This is the most important phase so that clients’ progress is permanent. At this point, the client should have a deep sense that the trauma they experienced is a past event, and separate from their present and future.

Unresolved trauma affects people in obvious and subtle ways. The obvious ones are easier to spot, but the subtle ones are often the most destructive.

Obvious impacts can include how people are able to manage emotions, their ability to trust others, how they think of themselves, and the relationship they have with their own body. Anxiety, depression, disordered eating, sleep difficulties, addictions, codependency, and academic problems are observable ways trauma can impact us. It’s important for people to address these as these can have significant negative impacts on people’s life.

Trauma also can influence people in more subtle ways. People may be base major decisions on avoiding the feels associated with trauma. Being neglected as a child may lead someone to marry unhealthy people or have more children than they are able to adequately care for. Witnessing a horrific event may lead someone to avoid developing close friendships or choose career paths that are not right for them. From ways in which we dress, to how we spend our days, to where we decide to live, unresolves past trauma can have a pervasive impact on people’s lives.

Trauma is an event, or series of events, where Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a diagnosable condition that one may develop following a traumatic event. Not all traumatic events cause PTSD. In fact, most traumatic events that people experience do not cause long-lasting harm. But someone develops PTSD if the trauma they have experienced was particularly intense, often to the point where their life was threatened. Being embarrassed once at school can be traumatic, but does not typically cause PTSD. Conversely, being sexually assaulted, or being in military combat may lead one to develop PTSD because of the severity of the event.

It is unlikely for you to be able to identify every traumatic event you have lived through. That is because most of them have been naturally resolved and healed by time, experiences, and the mechanisms you have inside of your brain that resolve trauma. However, there is a way for you to identify what your traumas are that are not resolved. If you think about a past negative event and experience a strong surge of emotions, that may indicate that event is a traumatic one, or something associated with that event is traumatic. If thinking about a previous car crash you were involved in leads you to feel scared, tense, or re-live some of the event, then that may be an unresolved trauma for you. If thinking about a past relationship leads you to feel strong senses of anger, fear, or betrayal, it may be that something happened in that relationship that was traumatic.

You can also be aware of past traumas after they are healed, but those may be a bit more difficult to uncover. That is because they no longer have a grip over you. For example, failing an important exam may have been a trauma that led you to significantly change your study habits. But, over time, you stopped failing tests, experienced success, and moved on. That initial failed exam may still be a trauma for you, but you have experienced healing and may no longer even really recall that exam with any emotional significance.

Understanding how you became the person you became is an important part of life and maturity. While you may never be able to answer that question entirely, being aware of your triggers, where they came from, and why they are there, is a necessary component of being able to take care of yourself.