When traumatic things happen, it can be overpowering to your mind or body – to the point where it feels like it’s difficult for you to cope. And trauma can get trapped in your nervous system. You might react with symptoms that can affect the quality of your daily life; overwhelming you with:
- flashbacks
- intrusive thoughts
- unpleasant body sensations
- upsetting feelings
- negative beliefs
- hopelessness
You may also find yourself having difficulty connecting with or trusting others.
Counselling can help you develop new coping strategies in order to help you let go of those overwhelming feelings
What experiences produce traumatic symptoms?
- Abuse in childhood or Adulthood (physical, sexual, emotional, mental, verbal, domestic violence)
- Assault (physical, sexual)
- Accidents
- Surgery, diagnosis of serious illness
- War/combat
- Neglect
- Birth Trauma
- Bullying
- Loss of a loved one
- Any situation where there was a threat or perceived threat to life/personal safety
- Witnessing traumatic events, accidents or abuse
- An accumulation of smaller traumas
What might be traumatic for you might not be traumatic for another. And prior traumatic experiences can also make you more vulnerable to future trauma. Don’t minimize your own traumatic experience saying, “Well, others have been through worse.”
If you feel like you are suffering from traumatic symptoms, you probably are and you deserve to have support.
Treatment
Trauma treatment does not mean you have to re-live the traumatic event to process it. Therapy involves taking active steps to cope with and overcome your traumatic symptoms. And because trauma lives in your body as well as your mind, therapy from a mind-body perspective can be highly effective; techniques like EMDR and Relaxation Training.
A trauma is not a life sentence. And with treatment, it is not unusual to notice that clients look at and hold themselves differently.