Trauma Therapy

Are You Feeling “Broken”, Scared, or Hopeless?

• Has trauma left you feeling “frozen” in time or like you can’t move forward with your life?
• Do you find yourself paralyzed by fear, experience flashbacks, or have nightmares about the traumatic event(s)?
• Does it feel like something is wrong with you? Or like you have to control everything in your life to cope?
• Following the trauma, are you experiencing anxiety, depression, or other mental health concerns?
• Have you developed chronic health problems as a result of trauma or stress?

Approximately 70% of American adults have experienced a traumatic event in their lifetime. Of that 70%, an estimated 20% will develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)*. Trauma can happen at any age – 1 in 4 teenagers have experienced a traumatic event by the age of 16. In addition to PTSD, research shows trauma also leads to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, eating disorders, and other mental health concerns.

Trauma changes the way we view and experience the world around us. It’s not uncommon to feel “stuck” and find it difficult to return to “normal” after the event. Through trauma therapy, you can heal and move forward. Working with a trauma therapist is helpful in understanding how the trauma is impacting you in the present, decreasing the distress you’re experiencing related to the trauma, and finding a sense of calm and safety. With a supportive, compassionate, and trauma-informed therapist, you can start processing the traumatic experiences and learn how to reintegrate parts of yourself and live a life that aligns with who you want to be.

Traumatic experiences are very subjective and individually defined. A single event may be traumatic for one person whereas another person is relatively unaffected. The experience and impact of trauma is dependent upon numerous factors including our history and previous experiences, social support, and systemic factors that may limit access to immediate and/or effective post-trauma care.

Trauma-Focused Therapy Can Help You Feel Safe Again

One of the many misconceptions about trauma and trauma processing is that an individual needs to forget about the experience or event in order to return to feeling safe and return to their life without distress. This is a very unhelpful narrative that has transcended trauma. In reality, the things we experience in our lives, both traumatic and non-traumatic, leave their mark on us. For instance, if you were to experience something positive in your life, like a friendship, that experience leads to growth and change and exploration of oneself in that new role. The same goes for adverse or traumatic experiences. There is a lasting effect from what we experience throughout our lives and that shapes how we view the world around us.

The difference with traumatic experiences is that our nervous system gets involved and activated during these experiences and sometimes we are not able to reregulate and feel safe again. When someone is able to reregulate after an experience, they are able to complete the stress response. 

So, what does the traumatic stress response look like? When we experience something frightening or that makes us feel unsafe, our body goes into the fight, flight, or freeze response. This is also called the dorsal vagal and sympathetic nervous system response. This response evolved over centuries so we could protect ourselves, however, sometimes we are unable to get out of these responses. That is when traumatic events become long-term issues and cause long-term distress for children, teens, and adults. Trauma therapy provides space and structure to safely explore and re-process those traumatic events in order to return oneself to the ventral vagal, relaxed, engaged state. This allows the individual to train their brain to recognize that they are no longer in an unsafe environment or need to be in fight, flight, or freeze. 

Therapy should never feel forced, and we find this even more true of trauma victims. Our priority is making sure you feel comfortable talking to your therapist. Our first session is always an information gathering session to help us create as full of a picture as possible. After our first session, we utilize a mixture of psychotherapy and somatic therapy techniques. Talking about our thoughts is helpful in increasing personal awareness. 

Depending on your experiences, it may be easier to talk about thoughts without the pressure of emotions. This is why we focus heavily on the relationship between the therapist and client. If you are sharing more than you are comfortable with during a session, this can be harmful to healing. With each session, we focus on learning more about what happened and how it has affected your life. For some, this involves research articles and books. For others, we use drawing or writing to express and release the effects of the trauma.

Another primary technique we utilize during trauma-focused sessions is somatic therapy. This is a fancy way of saying that we encourage clients to use multiple senses to experience. Using multiple senses is helpful for a number of reasons. Firstly, it can help ground you when you begin to feel triggered. Using other senses also has the ability to pull you into the current moment rather than being stuck in a painful memory. Once your body is grounded in the present, you can pull yourself away from the past. Another reason why somatic therapy is helpful during a trauma-focused session is because you can learn to understand your trauma.

But You May Still Have Questions About Trauma Therapy . . .

How will know if I am ready to address traumatic memories?

You will know when you are ready. In many cases this moment is clear when you reach a “breaking point”. Many clients with a history of trauma have said that they were doing fine until something happened. It may have been an equally traumatic event or something as simple as meeting a new person who reminded them of an abuser. We regard these “breaking points” as signs that you are ready to address traumatic memories. They are usually the things that push you to realize that how you are interacting with the world is not what you want. You have been met with more than you can handle and if you are seeking help in any way, your body and brain are trying to tell you that something needs to change.

What if I get triggered and everything gets worse after I start therapy?

This is a normal part of the process. Part of healing from trauma is learning to recognize when you are reminded of that trauma. Unfortunately, this usually involves re-experiencing trauma which can be extremely painful. A professor who had spent decades working with victims of domestic violence once said that you have the most potential for lasting changes if you re-experience trauma with the opportunity to change the environment and your response. A phrase that we frequently use during this phase of trauma-focused therapy is that things will get worse before they get better.

How much time will I actually need to commit to therapy?

We typically meet with clients once a week for 55-minute sessions. Between sessions, the time that you feel willing and able to commit may vary. The therapeutic process looks different for every person, but consistent effort throughout the process leads to increased success. A couple questions that may be helpful to determine how much effort you can reasonably devote to individual healing is, “What are my priorities today? What will self-care look like today?”

You Can Heal from Trauma . . .

If you would like to schedule an appointment or have questions about how we can support you, please call us at 303.720.9424 or email us at info@embracestrengthcounseling.com. We offer a free 20 minute initial phone consultation to see if it’s a good fit. Our team has daytime and evening appointments available, in-person or virtually.

*Sidran Institute’s Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Alliance

Truama Therapy Broomfield

13606 Xavier Ln STE E,
Broomfield, CO 80023