What Is Trauma?
Trauma is the response to a distressing event that overwhelms a person's ability to cope; but ultimately, trauma is defined by the experience of the survivor. Sometimes, people experience the symptoms of trauma from common events in life that seem like they should easily overcome. However, unprocessed events or memories can end up causing you to feel stuck in a storm of unwanted thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Examples of these “common” but impactful events include life changes like job loss or moving, relationship events like divorce or a major break-up, the death of a parent; and life stressors like financial concerns, infertility, a difficult pregnancy, or work stress.
Trauma can also be a single event like a car accident, natural disaster, an assault, or witnessing a death in the line of duty.
It can also be a prolonged stressor like childhood trauma or family violence, intimate partner violence, chronic illness, or the stress and fear surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic.
Whatever your reason is, it is valid, and it IS important.
Responses to traumatic vary significantly from person to person, but there are some common symptoms people experience:
Feelings of anger, denial, fear, irritability, sadness and shame which can often lead to overwhelming emotions, insomnia, nightmares, difficulty relaxing, and hypervigilence. You may also struggle with trust or have difficulty managing
relationships. Trauma can also take a toll on your body by causing nausea, dizziness, changes in appetite or sleep. It can also lead to headaches, body aches and gastrointestinal problems.
Providing Trauma Informed Care
Trauma-informed therapy represents a paradigm shift, focusing on understanding the root causes of distress by asking, “What happened to you?” rather than “What’s wrong with you?” This approach emphasizes understanding a client’s complete history — both past and present — to provide effective therapeutic care. We pay special care and attention to make sure services are provided in accessible and appropriate ways so as to not re-trigger or exacerbate trauma symptoms. Principles of Trauma Informed Care are safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment.