Dealing with intense trauma in a therapeutic setting can be disruptive to day-to-day life. Trauma counselling often begins with practicing self-regulation techniques such as simple breathing, grounding and containment exercises. These are meant to help the individual stay present with their breath and body during processing of traumatic memories, or between therapy sessions when you might be triggered, grieving or otherwise feeling a lot and wanting to calm or control your emotions until you can safely express grief or rage.   

There are various forms of trauma therapy that deal with noticing and naming triggers and reactions, processing emotions, and learning techniques to cope with and manage our responses to trauma. Cognitive- and emotion-focused therapy with a skilled and caring professional is foundational to working through trauma at any stage of healing.

What is trauma?

The word ‘trauma’ is often used to describe events that cause trauma as well as their outcomes.

I find it helpful to think of trauma as a process: it is the interaction between a harmful event (or events), the context in which it occurs, and the response of an individual.

When harm causes lasting suffering, an event is considered to be traumatic. The traumatic effects on the individual can be reduced by the individual’s personal, familial and community resilience and resources. Conversely, the absence of personal, familial and community resilience and/or resources can increase vulnerability - and therefore increase the lasting effects of harm.

Individuals as well as groups can be traumatized, not only by catastrophic events and geopolitical conflict, but also by poverty and structural violence involving systematic oppression and/or discrimination such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia xenophobia, etc. If you’re interested to read more on this topic, please see Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care by Leigh Kimberg and Margaret Wheeler. Content warning: some references to traumatization from sexual abuse.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is experienced by people who have sustained traumatic incidents such as sexual violence, accidents, injuries or war. 

Developmental trauma or complex trauma typically involves interpersonal trauma that occurs over a longer period of time while an individual is still developing, such as during their childhood or youth.

Key characteristics include: ongoing troubling thoughts, flashbacks, and nightmares connected to the trauma. Complex trauma has an interpersonal component that makes it difficult for individuals to feel a sense of inner ‘safeness,’ in spite of having relative ‘outer’ safety in their current environments and relationships. These experiences can frequently lead to avoidance behaviors in an individual’s attempt to evade these distressing experiences.

Common characteristics of trauma survivors include: 

• Intrusive thoughts: distressing dreams and flashbacks that repeatedly invade your mind.

• Avoidance: an effort to steer clear of situations or triggers that may bring back memories of the traumatic event.

• Altered cognition or mood: heightened feelings of fear, horror, anger, guilt, or shame, along with shifts in how you view yourself and others.

• Changes in reactivity: increased irritability, angry outbursts, reckless behavior, and heightened awareness of your surroundings.