What are the Key Components of Trauma Treatment and Recovery?
People experience trauma differently. One person may feel shock and like they’re having an out-of-body experience after an auto accident, while another person in the same vehicle might feel calm and collected.
Regardless of how others respond to a traumatic experience, you should consider seeking trauma treatment and recovery if you’re having difficulty coping.
What is Emotional Trauma?
Emotional trauma occurs when you experience, witness, or learn about a situation or event so intense it overwhelms your ability to cope.
Causes of trauma include:
One-Time Events. Accidents, life-altering injuries, assaults, or unexpected threats to stability can lead to trauma.
Relentless Stress. Consistent stress in everyday life can induce trauma. These are experiences like living in a crime-ridden neighborhood, battling or supporting someone with chronic illness, racism, repeated bullying or abuse, or neglect.
Extraordinary Circumstances. The sudden death of a loved one, a painful breakup, or extreme disappointment can also lead to trauma.
Symptoms can present in many ways, depending on the person and the situation they experienced.
Symptoms of trauma include:
Ruminating. You think about the trauma you experienced seemingly nonstop. You find it difficult to redirect your thoughts to your current surroundings and circumstances.
Flashbacks. Certain sounds, sights, smells, or locations take you back to the trauma. You have nightmares or trouble sleeping. You don’t feel safe. Any strong reaction that doesn’t seem connected to your present life could be an effect of trauma.
Loneliness. Persistent feelings of loneliness and failure are frequent symptoms of trauma.
Overreacting. Do you always seem on guard? Do you startle easily? Do you panic when small things don’t go according to plan? These could be signs of trauma.
Emotional trauma can have a lasting impact on your life. It can change how you feel about yourself and the world around you. It can also affect your relationships with other people in serious ways.
When to Seek Trauma Treatment and Recovery
Trauma treatment and recovery are not a one-size-fits-all solution. Treatment is as unique as trauma responses. It’s essential to understand your symptoms and when to seek help.
Consider seeking help for trauma if you have:
Difficulty completing day-to-day tasks
Declining performance at work or school
Severe depression and anxiety
Negative relationship experiences
Flashbacks or recurring dreams of what happened
Little or no interest in other activities
Feelings of numbness or detachment
Adverse ways of coping with emotions surrounding the event
Key Components of Trauma Treatment
While trauma treatment modalities vary, there are some key components you can expect from trauma treatment, including:
Trauma Screening. Emotional trauma is often an invisible injury. You may not know you have it until long after the triggering event. Your provider should screen for trauma during an exam following exposure to a traumatic event. This screening entails questions about your experiences and symptoms.
Recognizing Trauma. Trauma can affect your physical health, from headaches to heart disease. It can also lead to depression, anxiety, and substance use issues. If you suspect you have trauma-related symptoms, it’s important to talk with your doctor about ways they can help you manage these effects on your overall health.
Trauma-Specific Treatment. These approaches address the symptoms and behaviors that result from traumatic experiences. Trauma-informed treatments include various individual, group, and experiential therapies.
Principles of Trauma Recovery
Trauma-informed recovery uses guiding principles to ensure your physical and emotional safety.
Trauma recovery principles include:
Safety. Trauma recovery establishes safety so the survivor can process what they experienced.
Collaboration. Trauma survivors work alongside their therapists to learn how the body and mind respond to traumatic stressors and understand their own responses.
Empowerment. Another component in trauma recovery is living authentically — expressing yourself openly without fear of judgment or criticism from others. It’s vital for your personal growth and your relationships with others. Sharing experiences can help other survivors feel less alone and more supported by those around them.
Carmen Dominguez, Executive Clinical Director at Integrative Life Center, said, “Treatment and recovery help trauma survivors feel more authentic and like they have greater self-agency.”
“We want to inspire the client to feel motivated to disentangle from self-defeating patterns,” she stated.
What to Expect During Trauma Treatment
When you’re recovering from trauma, you’ll go through phases. Each phase helps you heal and move on with your life. Carmen stated, “You can’t undo a trauma. What happened to you will always be there. But healing from and controlling symptoms of trauma is possible.”
Phases of trauma treatment include:
Confronting Past Trauma. Facing past trauma through event recollection also requires a willingness to talk about what happened and how it made you feel.
Addressing Untreated Trauma. You’ll realize untreated trauma has consequences in your life. These consequences might include depression, anxiety, and other negative emotions.
Learning New Coping Skills. You will learn new coping skills to manage your emotional responses. You might also learn how to deal with triggers so they cause less of an adverse reaction in the future.
Receiving Guidance and Comfort. Receiving guidance from a trauma-informed therapist or counselor should include comfort and collaboration on any relevant issues.
Learning New Life Skills. A common symptom of trauma is an inability to cope with everyday life. Treatment focuses on helping you develop new skills and strategies for dealing with the world around you.
Developing Resilience. Overcoming trauma is a process that takes time. Resilience is not something you develop overnight. It doesn’t mean you’re weak or broken if you still have trauma symptoms. But, with time and support from the right people, you can get through this challenging time.
Trauma recovery is not a quick process. People need time to work through the feelings a traumatic experience causes. There are options for getting the support you need. Explore trauma-informed recovery with Integrative Life Center. Contact us today to learn more.
The post What are the Key Components of Trauma Treatment and Recovery? appeared first on Integrative Life Center.
source https://integrativelifecenter.com/what-are-the-key-components-of-trauma-treatment-and-recovery/