Therapy for Trauma
Well of Wisdom Therapy specializes in helping women and working professionals navigate trauma through online therapy for clients throughout Massachusetts.
Trauma can be invasive and pervasive, and over time it may convince you that there is no other way of living - that you’re meant to be stuck in the past. And although the past cannot be forgotten, and shouldn’t for many reasons, there are methods you can use to help you have some distance from it.
One day your trauma can be something that you think about and understand as a memory, without having such intense reactions when thinking about it, or having it come at you sideways or like a train throughout your day. By processing the past, you can better focus on the present and your future. This changes everything.
Sometimes it can be hard to identify traumas in our lives, but the effects are there, everyday:
Re-experiencing of the event(s), including vivid memories and flashbacks
Being on edge and hypervigilant of your surroundings out of fear that danger may be lurking around the corner
Avoidance of triggers or memories of the event(s)
Zoning or numbing out, having a hard time staying present
Negative changes in mood, most notably fear, anger, guilt, and shame
Being overwhelmed and it taking a long time before you can settle back to norma
Feeling distant from others, perhaps because you have trust issues from the past or you are hiding your difficulties
Negative beliefs about who you are and feeling that you are bad or broken
Trauma comes in different forms. It can include single events like being the victim of an isolated assault or car crash. At other times it is more complex, meaning that you experienced prolonged stress and/or abuse (including physical, verbal, emotional, psychological, and sexual) often during childhood from your caregivers, the people that were supposed to keep you safe. Trauma also includes the effects of racism, poverty, sexism, homophobia, and experiencing of any other social stigmas.
There are so many emotions that come with trauma. You may feel ashamed about what you went through, even though you may know that it wasn’t your fault, and you weren’t to blame. Anger at the fact that it happened to you without doing anything wrong. Sadness and grief about the life you should have had, or the upbringing and opportunities you could have had, that you didn’t. Hopelessness about ever being able to stop thinking about what happened and feeling like it forever ruined your future. You may feel guilty about not being able to just get over it, as if it’s that easy. If it were, you would have figured it out by now. At its mildest, trauma leaves you feeling slightly unable to focus or enjoy your day smoothly. At its worst, it can make you feel like you’re just surviving, barely participating actively in your life, and living so disconnected from yourself and others.
Everyone’s trauma is different. You have a unique story to tell about how your emotional and physical needs were not met. In my work with you we will get to know what core needs went unmet, most often the need for safety through connection and love.
You’ll learn how to be present with your pain from the past. You will learn how to bring regulation to your body so that you don’t go so quickly into overwhelm or shut down, so that you can stay present and engaged in your life. You’ll learn how to track different physical responses, reactions, and emotions that come up when you are triggered so that you can use the skills you learn to relate to them more effectively. You’ll get to process the event(s) that could not be processed correctly in your brain at the time during the overwhelm, leading to the stuckness you are currently feeling. And most importantly, you will learn to see yourself in a new light that will give you hope about being able to go on with normal life without the heaviness of the past blocking you.
