Trauma comes in many different shapes and sizes. 

Some people experience trauma in their childhood, while others encounter the issue later in life, through things like domestic violence, or even sexual abuse. 

Post-traumatic stress disorder often happens after a deeply frightening or threatening event. If you’re a trauma survivor, you may find that your feelings of panic and anxiety don’t disappear as soon as the event is over. Even if you weren’t directly involved with the event, you might struggle from things like low self-esteem, flashbacks, and insomnia. 

A traumatic experience isn’t something that has to affect your life forever. If you have unresolved trauma in your life, then you can get help to overcome the issue. While it might sound scary to share your experiences with someone else, getting trauma counseling from a medical professional is the key to controlling your emotions. 

Trauma treatment will help you to understand each symptom you have and find a way to overcome your issues. However, you need to find the right clinician to help you with this experience. 

What Types of Trauma Therapy are Most Successful?

It is especially important to get help after experiencing trauma. You’ll need to talk about your pain and find a way to process what happened. The important thing to remember is that no matter how difficult it feels to manage your stress and mental health right now, a PTSD therapist can help. 

After you experience trauma, your therapist can work with you to chain the way your brain works, moving you towards a healthier lifestyle. A trauma therapist can help you because of something called neuroplasticity. According to research into the brain, experts have discovered that our brains are malleable. We can change the pathways in our minds after complex trauma. 

While it may take time and a lot of counseling to change your thoughts and behaviors forever, it is possible. Even people who have experienced severe trauma and now struggle with depression can make positive changes with things like cognitive behavioral therapy, counseling, and EMDR therapy. 

All kinds of PTSD therapy start with the same goals. The aim is to improve your symptoms, teach you skills to overcome your trauma, and restore your self-esteem. 

The Kinds of PTSD Therapy

Most kinds of trauma recovery strategies fall under the umbrella of CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy. This means that your treatment will revolve around changing your thought patterns, and any behaviors that may change your life. 

Depending on your situation, family or group therapy might be a positive choice instead of individual sessions. Options can include things like:

• CPT: Cognitive processing therapy is a course of 12-weeks that includes weekly sessions. You’ll need to talk about the trauma with your therapist, and how your thoughts have affected your life. You’ll also need to write in detail about what happened. 
• EMDR therapy: EMDR, or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy involves addressing your post traumatic stress disorder by focusing on memories as your therapist teaches you breathing techniques and other strategies to address your anxiety. The goal here is to recognise the way you’re responding to psychological trauma and PTSD symptoms.  Eventually, you can learn not to have as much of an emotional response to memories.
• Stress inoculation therapy: SIT is a form of trauma work that you can do either on your own or in a group. You won’t need to go into details about what happened. Instead, the focus is on changing the way you deal with the emotional distress that a patient feels when thinking about the traumatic event. 

There are many other types of PTSD therapy that might be valuable depending on your situation. Speaking to a counselor or mental health professional will help you to figure out what kind of treatment seems must appropriate for your background. 

What is Betrayal Therapy?

Betrayal therapy is a kind of treatment for anxiety disorder and PTSD that might be helpful for people who have experienced betrayal in our lives. Childhood betrayal therapy supports children who have been through trauma because a caregiver significantly violated their trust. This can include seeing a trauma therapist for childhood sexual abuse and other forms of childhood trauma. 

Betrayal traumas for adults often result from significant incidents of broken trust and violation of vulnerabilities in the relationship. Betrayal is a form of trauma in its own right, and therefore needs attention from the right counselor or mental health treatment provider. 

How to Find a Trauma Therapist

When you experience trauma, it can lead to a lot of dangerous outcomes, including significant stress, substance abuse, and more. Getting the right PTSD treatment and sharing your trauma narrative with a professional counselor can help you to regain control of your life. 

It can be difficult to figure out what kind of trauma therapy and therapist are right for you initially. Speaking to a mental health professional about your possible disorder or trauma response might help to guide you. Mental health experts will be able to assess your situation and suggest the right kind of trauma therapy for you based on your background and what may have worked for other people in the past. 

Crucially, although it’s helpful to get support from members of your family and friends, you will need to speak to someone with real mental health treatment expertise. Trauma therapy requires a strategic approach to dealing with a traumatic memory. Whether it’s sexual assault or vicarious traumatization that’s affecting your life, your counsellor will need to create a plan of action that’s right for you. 

Make sure that you search for a therapist in your area that has experience offering trauma therapy in many different forms. The best trauma therapist will be able to talk through your mental health issues with you and find a treatment that reduces your anxiety and other symptoms as much as possible. For some PTSD patients, this will mean working on things like CBT. For others, seeing a trauma therapist could mean things like EMDR treatment.

Does Trauma Ever Go Away?

Trauma is a very painful experience. It doesn’t matter what kind of trauma you’ve been through, a significantly upsetting event in your life will often lead to a number of complex problems. The good news is that trauma is a natural response to a complicated life event. If you have a traumatic memory in your life, or you’re suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, there are people that can help you.

Although the memory of the trauma might not go away, your counselor or mental health expert will help you to control your anxiety and stress when you’re exposed to issues that trigger a traumatic response. The right trauma therapist will ensure that you can recognize your feelings and find ways to cope with those emotions without turning to things like substance abuse. 

When you’re experiencing trauma, the most important thing you can do is find the kind of support you need to address that trauma and deal with it in a healthy manner. A therapist can help you with this, and give you the tools that you need to continue improving on your own in the years ahead.