Trauma-Informed Care

If you live in society, then you’ve heard it: ✨trauma✨

But what does it mean exactly?

Trauma is our reaction to event(s) that overwhelm our nervous systems.

There are some implications to this definition.

  1. Trauma is subjective - trauma impacts our individual nervous systems; therefore, we can have very different experiences even from a shared event because it is the perception of the event that determines how our bodies respond.

  2. Trauma is embodied - trauma is stored in our bodies, not only in our heads. This means that if our bodies perceive a threat, they will react (e.g. feeling fear or unsafe, increased heart rate, fight/flight/freeze/fawn response, etc.) usually before our heads will.

Trauma - what is it?

Okay and? How can therapy help me?

If you’ve been on the mental health side of social media, then you will probably have heard the spiel - therapy can greatly help you process and recreate a narrative around the traumatizing event(s).

I incorporate interventions from various modes of therapy when working with trauma, but I use CPT (Cognitive Processing Therapy) as my guide.

CPT has been empirically shown to improve trauma symptoms across populations. This therapy focuses on cognitive-specific techniques to examine your thoughts and deeply held beliefs that have likely originated or severely impacted by your experiences.

In other words, it’s a heady approach and works best with those who are motivated to challenge their own thoughts and don’t mind a bit of homework 😌.

You can read more about Cognitive Processing Therapy here.