Few people make it through life without experiencing some form of trauma. Yet, trauma remains widely misunderstood. While trauma can be defined, it is complex. What you may view as traumatic may not affect another person, and vice versa. The symptoms of trauma may appear immediately or at any time later. Further, many people living with the effects of trauma do not recognize them for what they are until they are in treatment, because the brain often represses trauma as a protective measure.
At The Right Step Hill Country, trauma therapy is a critical part of treatment for clients who are addressing substance use disorder (SUD), mental health issues, or both. Through our years of experience in providing top-rated therapy, we understand that unresolved trauma is often the root cause of these life challenges. We know, too, that without helping clients work through their trauma, they will continue to struggle with SUD and mental health symptoms despite treatment.
Defining emotional trauma
Emotional trauma refers to the psychological response to an event or experience that overwhelms a person’s ability to cope. Emotional trauma can have lasting impacts on how a person perceives themselves, others, and the world. The events or experiences that result in emotional trauma can have real or perceived threats to a person’s sense of safety and well-being.
Emotional trauma can result from a single event, such as a sudden loss, accident, or assault, or ongoing events, like abuse, neglect, or living in an unstable or chaotic environment. While everyone experiences emotional trauma differently, some common symptoms can include:
- Constantly feeling fearful, anxious, or on edge
- Being emotionally detached or numb
- Having intrusive thoughts, nightmares, or flashbacks
- Being highly distrustful of others
- Intense feelings of guilt, shame, or worthlessness
- Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
Emotional trauma can influence how a person thinks, feels, and behaves, even without them fully recognizing it. While some people are fully aware of their trauma, others are not, particularly when the trauma is rooted in childhood.
The importance of addressing emotional trauma
Unresolved trauma can impact every area of life, including your physical health, mental health, self-worth, relationships, and general sense of safety and well-being. Here’s how:
- Physical health: Chronic stress from unresolved trauma can contribute to physical issues, including migraines, digestive problems, sleep disturbances, fatigue, suppressed immunity, and high blood pressure.
- Mental health: Unless treated, the brain gets stuck in the trauma response, which can cause conditions like anxiety, depression, PTSD, substance use disorder, self-harm, and eating disorders, to name a few.
- Self-worth: Unresolved trauma can distort self-perception, leaving you feeling worthless, shameful, undeserving, and broken.
- Relationships: Unresolved trauma can cause trust issues, fear of intimacy, poor boundaries, and other problems that contribute to unhealthy relationships or an inability to form relationships at all.
Unresolved trauma takes up a lot of space in your life. Through addressing it, you can reclaim that space and live more authentically. Additionally, healing from trauma helps break the cycle of generational trauma, which occurs when parents unconsciously pass the effects of trauma onto their children.
Healing from trauma through trauma therapy
The first steps in trauma therapy involve identifying your trauma and how it impacts your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. However, just talking about emotional trauma is not enough. The main goal of trauma therapy is to help your brain properly process your trauma so it can be released, and your brain can return to normal functioning, instead of being stuck in the trauma response.
Some standard methods used in trauma therapy include:
- Eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR): The use of guided eye movements to help the brain reprocess trauma so that the memories of it are less distressing.
- Somatic experiencing: Focusing on the mind-body connection to help release physically stored trauma, like muscle tension.
- Narrative therapy: Helping rewrite your trauma story in a way that allows you to take back control and feel empowered.
- Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT): Helps identify and change distorted or harmful thoughts and beliefs about the trauma.
The therapists at Hill Country understand the importance of developing a trusting relationship that allows clients to feel safe opening up about their trauma. In healing from trauma, you will be able to talk about your experiences without reliving them and reclaim your sense of power, identity, and self-worth.
Contact Hill Country to begin trauma therapy today
Living with unresolved emotional trauma can leave you feeling like a shell of yourself. Trauma therapy at Hill Country can help you process your trauma to regain your sense of self and take back your power to live the life you deserve. Contact us using our online contact form or call 1.844.675.1628 to enroll in trauma therapy today.