Trauma-informed Counseling: Empower Your Way to Recovery
Have you ever felt like life is an unending storm that has wholly weighed you down, leaving you scared, anxious, and powerless to press on? You carry on simply because you must, the same as life carries on no matter what. You continuously pick up your broken pieces until finally deciding that you need help.
Traumatic events often leave us feeling like we are weathering a never-ending storm. It can leave us feeling undeserving, defeated, and scared. Trauma-informed counseling exists to provide shelter from the storm that rages inside. You can view it as an “umbrella” to help ward off the falling rain constantly pelting your back. It provides you with a safe environment full of compassionate care, free of judgment, and with the necessary tools and directions to actively work towards your recovery.
Understanding Your Trauma
Trauma results in a long-lasting impact because of a highly emotional, life-altering, or life-threatening experience. Examples of trauma can include neglect, poverty, racism, bullying, loss of loved ones, and substance, child, emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. Trauma weighs heavily on all aspects of our lives, including work, school, relationships, and personal hobbies. This is why it’s imperative to focus on your recovery.
Trauma-informed counseling exists to provide shelter from the storm that rages inside. You can view it as an “umbrella” to help ward off the falling rain constantly pelting your back.
Symptoms of trauma are varied. They can include psychological impact, spiritual distress, emotional outbursts, and physical changes. Psychologically, you may experience fear, anger, sadness, and disgust. You may have intrusive thoughts about the trauma, recurrent nightmares, and avoidance of triggering events. Some physical responses may include a lack of sleep, rapid breathing, increased heart rate, and profuse sweating.
How does Trauma-Informed Therapy Work?
Trauma-informed counseling isn’t as much a single technique as it is a guiding principle to providing care with responsible treatment, much like how we use umbrellas to safely guide us through a storm. The goal is to provide culturally sensitive care that is equal to all, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. Those suffering from trauma flourish when provided with a safe environment to build relationships on principles of trust, where we welcome peer support, encourage collaboration, and break biases. Trauma-informed counseling empowers you with the necessities of choices, safety, and tools to thrive.
A trauma-informed specialist will provide you with a safe and caring environment that is free of judgment, with the absolute goal of preventing re-traumatization and recovering from the trauma. Communication is founded on mutual respect and delivered in an empathetic manner. We believe that clients are equal shareholders in their care. Thus, trauma education empowers you with the necessary tools to manage your care effectively.
We will evaluate you for any history of trauma, and we will expertly assist with providing evidence-based and trauma-specific therapies to your unique needs. Therapists respect that you are a resilient and capable decision-maker. They also understand that you are the owner of your recovery journey, and your choices and decision-making will directly influence the direction of your care.
Who Benefits from Trauma-informed Counseling?
Anyone can benefit from Trauma-informed counseling since the principles that serve as its guide are all-inclusive. It’s profound in treating those suffering from traumatic events with no discrepancy to age. Children, adults, men, and women all benefit from this type of counseling. It’s fundamental to those suffering from conditions such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. The goal is to provide education on the complex impact that trauma might have had on you, as well as empower you with the tools necessary to manage new symptoms in a safe space.
We offer multiple trauma-sensitive services, including trauma recovery and trauma therapy sessions for all ages, as well as group therapy, parenting classes, and Neurofeedback.
What are Some Trauma Therapy Techniques?
Many techniques utilize the key principles of trauma-focused and trauma-informed therapy. This is important to note when looking for a trauma-informed therapist near you. A trauma-informed specialist will first assess your unique needs and, from there, figure out what method will work best for you. Here are five essential techniques that we use.
Trauma-Focused-CBT (TF-CBT)
- Trauma-Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is a type of therapy that is especially effective for children, adolescents, and their nonoffending parents. Its uses are well recognized and have proven results in lowering symptoms of depression, improving behavior, and decreasing episodes related to PTSD and trauma. TF-CBT utilizes many techniques, such as education on common thoughts, feelings, and reactions that people may experience concerning traumatic events. Some techniques include exposure therapy to slowly introduce memories of the event and the use of proper coping techniques. Studies further support the effectiveness of TF-CBT in the treatment of trauma-related events by reducing the emotional and physical symptoms of trauma (1).
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
- CPT is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy focusing on changing thoughts and feelings about a traumatic event. It is an effective method for treating individuals with PTSD and trauma. The specialist will assist in exploring your thoughts and feelings about your traumatic event. This exploration allows you to better understand your current feelings and the unique symptoms you have experienced. With an accurate understanding, you will learn new ways to think and feel about the event. Sometimes, our brain chooses to think the worst about a traumatic event, allowing us to feel guilty and sad or that we are to blame. Using CPT, you can help paint a new narrative of acceptance. This treatment empowers you with the necessary skills to change the way that you feel and think about your PTSD and will help decrease your symptoms (2).
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a relatively new treatment modality that has gained much popularity due to the significant impact it has on those with PTSD. This therapy operates under the idea that your mind is out of balance. So, its focus is on restoring balance to the mind that the effects of trauma have impacted. To put it simply, the therapist will talk to you about a traumatic event while you use your eyes to follow their hand as it moves back and forth in front of you. This method helps rewire the brain to process the traumatic event differently to lessen your severity and emotional response. Studies further support the effectiveness of EMDR in treating adults, children, and adolescents with a history of trauma and PTSD (3).
Prolonged Exposure (PE)
- Prolonged Exposure (PE) is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy that allows for a gradual approach to treating individuals with a history of trauma. We often strive to avoid triggers or memories of the event out of fear of re-traumatization. However, with this technique, memories and triggers are slowly introduced over months to diminish the impact they hold over you. This method of slowly introducing triggers and cues will aid in minimizing the symptoms of PTSD and allow you to regain a sense of control of your life. All leading to less stress, better sleep, and a better quality of life (4).
Neurofeedback
- Neurofeedback utilizes cutting-edge technology as a type of brain-training technique. The brain’s activity is measured using computer-based software, and visual, auditory, and sensory cues provide the brain with feedback. This feedback helps the brain learn to gravitate to a more desired brain activity level. This method is effective for children and adults alike and is especially effective in treating conditions such as anxiety, ADHD, depression, PTSD, and OCD, to name a few.
Benefits of Trauma-Informed Counseling
Trauma-informed counseling can not only reduce and improve trauma-related symptoms, understand hereditary and vicarious trauma, but can also aid in implementing healthier coping skills and improving self worth and self compassion. While trauma recovery may seem scary, trauma-informed therapists are trained and experienced to actively resist re-traumatization and provide a safe, secure space from the storm. Trauma recovery can increase ability to refocus on the present, overcome addictions, reduce self-harm behaviors and help to manage or regulate your nervous system.
Our Approach to Trauma-informed Counseling
Here at San Diego Therapy Center, the safety and recovery of clients is vital. We have adopted the fundamental principles of trauma-informed care, with care provided by our trauma-informed therapists in the San Diego area. We offer multiple trauma-sensitive services, including trauma recovery and trauma therapy sessions from children to adults, as well as group therapy, parenting classes, and Neurofeedback.
San Diego community’s mental health and trauma recovery are important and we actively care about our community. So far in 2024, we have provided 6,934 sessions of trauma-informed therapy and neurofeedback sessions. Furthermore, to ensure that we are accessible and affordable as mental health care providers, we have provided 5,700 sessions at low cost to families and our members in need.
If you or your loved ones have suffered from traumatic events, are seeking mental health support, or feel like you’re weathering an unending storm, do not hesitate to call us today so we can offer you our umbrella. Please contact us at (619) 289-7322 or email us today.
References
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4396183/
De Arellano MA, Lyman DR, Jobe-Shields L, George P, Dougherty RH, Daniels AS, Ghose SS, Huang L, Delphin-Rittmon ME. Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy for children and adolescents: assessing the evidence. Psychiatr Serv. 2014 May 1;65(5):591-602. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.201300255. PMID: 24638076; PMCID: PMC4396183.
- https://www.psycho-trauma.nl/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Status-of-EMDR-Therapy-in-the-Treatment-of-PTSD.pdf
de Jongh, A., Amann, B. L., Hofmann, A., Farrell, D., & Lee, C. W. (2019). The status of EMDR therapy in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder 30 years after its introduction. Journal of EMDR Practice & Research, 13(4).
