Did you know that a whopping 70% of Americans have experienced some sort of trauma in their lives? That amounts to over 200 million people struggling with trauma in the United States.
One way of dealing with trauma is to engage in trauma therapy. Doing so can help you deal with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other subsequent issues that arise out of traumatic experiences.
If you're getting ready to attend trauma therapy for the first time, it pays to know what to expect. Let's take a look at what to expect from your first visit to a trauma therapist.
What Is Trauma Therapy?
Trauma therapy is a type of mental health treatment that helps individuals who are affected by a traumatic event or a series of events that have had a lasting impact. A traumatic event can be considered anything that caused a person to feel that their life was under threat. Additionally, complex trauma refers to adverse childhood experiences that happen repeatedly over time and are of an intrusive and interpersonal nature. This includes things like abuse, neglect, and exposure to violence.
It's important to know that trauma therapy does not involve one specific type of treatment. Instead, there are a number of different treatment modalities that are available and effective. To treat trauma, your therapist should be trained in at least one modality of trauma treatment, if not more, and will determine which is the most effective for your particular trauma.
Goals of Trauma Therapy
One thing to expect from trauma therapy is that your treatment will look at what happened with the goal of improving your quality of life in the present. The goals you collaboratively address with your therapist will vary depending on the traumatic issue or how your trauma is affecting you.
One common goal is to learn to handle the reality of the event that you experienced. Another goal is to alleviate or eliminate your trauma symptoms.
Your therapy might also focus more on day-to-day functioning. These sessions may have the goal of removing your focus from the past and re-centering it on the present.
Trauma therapy can also have the goal of helping you regain your personal power and overcome any addictions that your trauma has caused. Your therapy will provide you with a felt sense of empowerment and healing as well as skills to prevent relapses or deterioration.
Common Types Of Trauma Therapy
While there are many ways that you can address trauma, most treatments should involve an element of bringing awareness to the trauma or its symptoms while integrating it into your life in a way that it no longer adversely affects you. These therapies include Psychodynamic psychotherapy, EMDR, and somatic therapy.
Let's take a closer look at how each of these types of therapy works and what they are.
1. Somatic Therapy
The first type of therapy to know about is somatic therapy, which aims to treat the effects of trauma through a body centered approach by utilizing the connection of the mind and body. This type of therapy is built on the foundation that our brains and bodies not only hold trauma, but can become the vehicles for healing and growth. During a somatic approach to therapy, your therapist will go beyond talk therapy and work with you to explore how the trauma shows up in your everyday life, and work towards shifting the automatic and often unconscious reactions that you might be having.
There are a number of somatic modalities, the most popular ones being Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Somatic Experiencing.
The duration of trauma therapy will vary depending on the type of trauma as well as its impact on you. Treatment is nonetheless a collaborative process and you and work with your therapist to find what works best for you.
Somatic therapy may not immediately jump into the most difficult trauma. When it comes to trauma therapy, it is important to feel safe and aligned with your therapist. Therefore, the initial stages will include creating a felt sense of safety and learning calming techniques to remain present as you and your therapist walk through your traumatic experience.
2. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
The second common type of trauma therapy is psychodynamic therapy. This therapy seeks to uncover the content and conflicts that are sitting in someone's unconscious mind.
This therapy is a relationship-based treatment between an individual and his or her therapist. It helps people become aware of their mental illnesses in order to properly deal with it.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy works by encouraging you to talk about your thoughts, symptoms, and traumatic events. In this space, you should feel free to talk about anything relating to the event or any other thoughts that run through your head.
From there, the therapist helps you to understand the source of the problem and any resulting defense mechanisms. They help you create resolutions for the challenges that you're feeling.
3. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
The third major method of trauma therapy is called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy, or EMDR therapy. This therapy fosters self-healing in a much faster way than psychodynamic psychotherapy does.
The idea behind EMDR therapy is that your mind is constantly trying to move toward a healthy state. However, traumatic events and other issues prevent you from doing so. The therapy seeks to remove those blocks so that you can heal yourself.
In EMDR therapy, your therapist will direct your attention outward using an external stimulus such as audio, hand tapping, or eye movements. As they do so, you'll talk about the trauma, your current feelings, or what outcomes you want for your future.
After this phase of the process, your therapist will tell you what parts of your story you should keep in your mind while following a certain instruction. As you process your traumatic memories and thoughts, you can start to gain insight into them from inside yourself.
The benefit of this type of therapy is that you'll be able to identify methods for healing on your own. The therapist serves as more of a guide in this type of therapy than as someone giving you specific cures for your trauma.
Book a Trauma Therapy Appointment Today
Getting started with trauma therapy is a great way to take control of your life and put your traumatic incident behind you once and for all. It's the best therapy for overcoming your past and living a healthy and happy life after major life incidents.
If you're ready to get started with the best therapist for trauma, you're in the right place. Get in touch with Haven MHC and we'll help you get past your traumatic experiences.