Trauma Treatment – Center for Healing and Development (CHAD)

"There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than
anything that bleeds.”

― Laurell K. Hamilton

What is Trauma?

Trauma is any event or experience that can overwhelm your ability to cope. It can have long-lasting effects on your mental, emotional, and even physical wellbeing. Some examples of the types of trauma that people may experience as children include physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional/verbal abuse (being humiliated, belittled, talked down to, insulted, etc. by a parent, adult or caregiver), sudden death of a parent, bullying, neglect, witnessing domestic violence, witnessing or learning about the death or severe life-threatening injury of a loved one.

In many ways, Trauma is part of the human experience – as we know, people have gone through life-threatening and tragic events since the beginning of time. But trauma can have potentially devastating effects on a person if not processed adequately or if the traumatic experience is extremely negative, egregious or shocking.

We all deal with stress in some form or another on a regular basis. Actually, we are designed to cope with stress, as long as it doesn’t exhaust our psychological or emotional resources. But trauma can be thought of as much stronger and more intense than typical stress and it affects us in a way that can be very powerful and enduring.

One simple definition of trauma is that it is an experience that overwhelms us and shifts our nervous system because of how it triggers the natural fight-flight-freeze response. This response system alerts us to and protects us from danger. Trauma affects us because even after the trauma is over, reminders of the trauma can trigger us and cause us to react as if we are experiencing it all over again. This cycle can cause feelings of depression, anxiety, helplessness, hopelessness, rage, anger, relationship problems and more. It can lead to an overall sense that one is “going crazy.”

There is no exhaustive or definitive list of traumatic events. Trauma can occur in childhood, adulthood or at any time in a person’s life. In addition to abuse, neglect and violence, other traumatic experiences can include rape, assault, automobile or other transportation accidents, fighting in war or combat, fleeing war or conflict, natural disasters, sudden illness or death of a family member or many other experiences.

How Does Trauma Impact You?

It can affect you in many areas of your life
It can elicit feelings of helplessness and hopelessness
It can cause changes in your body and brain
It can impact your quality of life, such as your sleep and your relationships

Trauma, the Brain and the Body

Experts have come a long way in understanding and working with trauma to reduce its debilitating effects. We are now understanding the way trauma affects the brain, which then affects a person’s functioning and overall wellbeing. We know that a part of the brain called the amygdala plays an important role in how trauma gets imprinted into the mind and body, as well as how a person might respond when something triggers a reminder of the trauma. In addition, polyvagal theory has helped us to understand more about the physiological connection to how and why we may feel threatened or safe in certain situations, especially when we’ve been traumatized. We also now know that the nature of traumatic memories can be different than typical non-traumatic memories and that finding a way to “reprocess” traumatic memories is an important part of the healing processes.

Posttraumatic Growth

“Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us.” – Nicole Reed

We can all probably think of a person who has experienced positive psychological growth and change as a result of a major crisis or challenge in their life. Posttraumatic Growth is the positive transformation that a person may experience in the aftermath of a traumatic event. This is not a new concept – like trauma, posttraumatic transformation is part of the human experience; but many people who work with trauma survivors are paying more attention to the healthy growth that can occur after crisis and tragedy.

Treating Trauma

There are many different tools and approaches to help people recover from traumatic experiences. For the most part, everyone has a built-in mechanism for resilience, which helps to start the natural process of recovery. Approaches such as talk therapy, constructing a trauma narrative, creative and expressive techniques, somatosensory methods that help you connect with your body, mindfulness, guided imagery and relaxation techniques are some examples.

EMDR