“Trauma and PTSD? Isn’t that something for veterans?” “I wasn’t raped or abused, that means I can’t have Trauma.” These are common phrases I hear as a trauma therapist. What if I told you trauma therapy is not just for veterans or people who have experienced physical or sexual abuse?
First, let’s define trauma.
Trauma is a significant stressor that can impact the way you interact with the world or can impact your sense of safety. Examples of trauma can be things such as early adverse childhood experiences, divorce, intimate partner abuse (whether that be physical or emotional abuse), feeling responsible for a parent’s emotions, and the impact of COVID on your sense of safety.
Here are some ways that trauma may feel and some ways that trauma therapy can help.
Trauma impacts our brain and body! When we experience an initial traumatic situation, also called an “index trauma”, future situations that seem familiar will cause us to have the same emotional reaction and response. Essentially, our brain is storing that information in an attempt to protect us so when we feel we are in a similar situation (accurate or not), our brain sends signals to our body “I’m in danger!”
Trauma impacts our sense of safety and trauma therapy can help you recover your sense of safety.
Many times triggers can be sensory-intensive things such as crowds, loud noises, people touching us or even anger. Common trauma responses are fight, flight, freeze or fawn. The one your body picks can relate to how you saw your parents respond or what kept you “safe” as a kid.
“Fight” can look like yelling, arguing, or being physical.
“Freeze” is when you shut down. You may literally freeze and not move, you may emotionally shut down to protect yourself or you may notice that you feel like your brain is foggy and you’re unable to say anything.
“Flight” is when you run away. This can look like emotionally shutting down and avoiding your feelings or leaving a situation and actually running away.
“Fawn” can look like people-pleasing. This may occur if you learned early on that exhibiting emotions is not okay or if you were emotionally abused or punished at any time for speaking up and defending or advocating for yourself.
It can feel exhausting to have these hypervigilant moments!
It can be so tiring to feel like you are having to protect yourself or maybe it feels like the panic attacks will never stop. If you feel you have experienced trauma, finding a therapist who specializes in trauma is really important.
In trauma therapy you can gain insight into your triggers, your trauma responses, and learn tools to help with safety and boundaries.
A trained trauma therapist will know tools that help you process and work through the trauma. I (Jennifer Schaap) personally use Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), a trauma therapy that helps combat the emotional reactions of trauma and the intrusive memories.
ART can help you decrease your trauma-related symptoms.
These symptoms might include sadness, anxiety, anger, hypervigilance, fear, self-doubt, low self-esteem and more. ART works by incorporating what is called “bilateral stimulation of the brain”. This can result in you reporting less intensive negative emotions (or less emotion overall) in your body when thinking about the trauma. It may help you eliminate distressing images or even change the way you view your trauma.
If you are struggling with something in your relationship or interpersonally, it may tie back to an earlier traumatic event. For example, struggles with letting someone in emotionally in a relationship. You might not even be sure what the event is. W
hen we talk during our intake I may be able to help you figure out what event is impacting you. Then I can use ART to help you process that event. Processing the past event will help you feel better in the present.
If this blog resonated with you, I would love to help you on your journey to healing from Trauma. I respect all my clients who walk through our doors who want help and guidance in this journey.
Ready to Start Trauma Therapy in St. Petersburg, FL?
Beginning the journey to your best self is easier than most of the things we’re all doing right now! Therapy does not have to wait. You can get the mental health support you need with a skilled therapist in St. Pete or with online therapy in Florida. To begin, just follow these simple steps:
- Contact us to request an appointment
- Meet with one of our experienced therapists.
- Get support & begin your journey toward mental wellness & connection today!
Other Mental Health and Wellness Services at ME-Therapy
At ME-Therapy, we believe in the importance of mental, emotional & physical wellbeing. Our therapists want to help your mind but also want to feed your soul. This means we take a holistic approach to mental health. In order to do this, we offer a wide range of mental health services in our St. Petersburg office and online including therapy for women, therapy for men, trauma therapy, and holistic, spiritual therapy. For couples and relationships, we want you to know that our relationship therapists are here for you ALL. In addition to marriage counseling, we provide sex therapy, affair recovery counseling, and poly-friendly kink-aware therapy.
