Trauma Therapy
Trauma PTSD and Trauma Therapies
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It can be extremely difficult to manage the physical, emotional, and psychological harm that happens after experiencing a stressful life event like trauma. You may feel lost, alone, panic, and wonder how you can begin recovering. When prolonged stressors or recurring traumas (i.e., abuse) occur, there is an increasing deterioration of resources, or sources of support that help individuals manage their emotional distress. If you have experienced trauma, there is a variety of treatments and support available that can help you on your trauma recovery.
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What are Trauma Symptoms?
Trauma can stem from a wide range of experiences, including sexual violence, physical injury, life-threatening events such as natural disasters, sudden loss, abuse, neglect, or even prolonged bullying. Everyone processes trauma differently, and factors like age, past traumatic experiences, social support, cultural background, family mental health history, and overall emotional well-being can shape a person’s response.
When trauma occurs, it doesn’t just affect emotions—it can rewire the brain. The amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for processing fear and emotions, can become overactive, making a person hypervigilant and constantly on edge. This can lead to post-traumatic stress and symptoms such as anxiety, low mood, irritability, panic, guilt, shame, and feelings of isolation. Other effects may include flashbacks, difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbances, angry outbursts, loss of interest in activities once enjoyed, and challenges with eating patterns.
Beyond emotional and psychological symptoms, trauma can manifest physically, leading to headaches, fatigue, stomach aches, chest pain, and even shortness of breath. Left unaddressed, these symptoms can become increasingly overwhelming and interfere with daily life.
Healing is possible—with the right support, trauma can be processed and managed in a way that restores balance, resilience, and emotional well-being.
Types of Trauma Therapy
There are different types of trauma-informed therapies, and a therapist may decide to use one type or combine a few, to increase the effectiveness of treatment. Treatment will depend on the person’s unique situation, and ongoing challenges. For example, someone who is having trouble dealing with traditional trauma symptoms like flashbacks or anxiety, may need to learn coping skills before talking about their traumatic experience. Nonetheless, as with all trauma-informed therapies, the healing work is done within the context of a safe, supportive therapeutic relationship between client and therapist.
Therapies we offer at Greystones Health for Trauma and PTSD
Cognitive processing therapy (CPT):
This is a type of cognitive behavioural treatment that focuses on helping trauma survivors who are “stuck” in their thoughts about the traumatic event. This is done by helping survivors confront their feared thoughts and memories related to the trauma, and learn to correct the maladaptive, unrealistic, or problematic thoughts that may be maintaining trauma symptoms.
Trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy (TF-CBT):
This is a type of treatment model that is designed to assist adults in overcoming the emotional effects of trauma and resolving these effects. TF-CBT may help adults change their inaccurate beliefs that lead to unhealthy behaviours, such as beliefs that they are to blame for the trauma. TF-CBT also aims to identify unhealthy patterns of behaviours that develop as a result of the trauma and change them by identifying healthier alternative responses.
Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR) Narrative Therapy:
This is a type of treatment that was designed to specifically strengthen important emotion regulation and social skills, and improve a person’s daily functioning by reducing their trauma symptoms. The narrative component in STAIR systematically integrates traditional trauma work i.e., prolonged exposure and cognitive processing of the trauma by organizing different trauma memories based on certain themes like fear, shame, and loss. The creation of a new trauma narrative is then supported by the exploration of underlying relationship patterns and expectations driving the trauma-related difficulties. Together, this treatment helps restore a person’s functioning, and establish healthy relationships with themselves, and others.
Prolonged exposure (PE):
This form of therapy is considered a behavioural treatment, that aims to change the learned behaviours that trauma survivors engage in (e.g., avoidance). Such behaviours are in response to situations, thoughts, or memories that are seen as frightening or anxiety-provoking by the trauma survivor. PE is implemented by having the person actively confront their feared situations, thoughts, or memories, and learn that their anxiety and fear will decrease over time.
Depending on the needs of the individual client, trauma therapy may also include naturopathic care such as physical examinations, homeopathic medicine, nutritional education, and acupuncture, to better assess and treat mental and physical symptoms of trauma.