What Kind Of Therapy Can Help When Dealing With Past Trauma?
There is something called post-traumatic stress disorder, and a person has it after dealing with a dangerous and threatening past event. This is particularly strong when you were directly involved because the shock can be so strong that you can’t continue living a normal life. You might experience certain sleeping disorders, disturbing flashbacks, and a lot of painful emotions. Still, to prevent these situations, you can use different types of therapy that will help and facilitate your future life, and here are the most significant ones.
Brainspotting Therapy
If you feel stuck and can’t control your emotions or behavior the way you’d like, decide on the type of therapy that will suit you best. For instance, you can opt for brainspotting, which will help you get to the root cause of trauma, resolve emotional issues, and finally heal it.
This type of therapy focuses on releasing trauma and supports reprocessing negative experiences. It’s a bit different from the other types of therapies because it reaches parts of the brain that weren’t accessible before. Therefore, try something different; it might solve your past issues.
Cognitive Therapy
While you were dealing with your past trauma, you probably didn’t speak to anyone about the details of it. Yet it might be helpful, especially if you talk with a professional. For that, you should lean on cognitive therapy because you’ll talk about that event and express how your thoughts related to it influenced your life.
Afterward, you can write everything down in detail. This can help you examine how you think about your trauma and how you find new ways to live with it. If you blame yourself for something, your therapist can help you consider all the things that happened and make you accept that everything was beyond your control.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy
If you’re the type of person who avoids things that remind you of your trauma and hide your true feelings, this therapy is for you. Hiding your feelings or emotions won’t help, so consider it and confront your trauma. The first step is to learn breathing techniques to ease your anxiety when you think of past trauma. Then, you’ll make a list of the things you avoid and find a way to face them step by step. As the therapy progresses, you’ll be able to recount the traumatic experience, face it, and hopefully get over it.
Alternative Therapies
Some people like to be part of the traditional, already-proven therapy, while others like to try certain alternative therapies that are helpful. For instance, alternative medicines became widely accepted, and recent analyses showed that alternative treatment approaches are promising for treating trauma.
Therefore, here are some alternative ways to get rid of past trauma: deep breathing exercises, acupuncture, yoga, progressive relaxation techniques, and meditation. If you don’t feel that these types of alternative therapies are enough, you can opt for the classic ones but include meditation or yoga for additional relaxation.
A Three-Step Model of Trauma Recovery
This type of therapy is widely accepted by trauma experts, and it was introduced by Dr. Judith Herman. This therapy has the idea that healing from trauma won’t happen alone; it happens through connection with other people.
Furthermore, the steps to trauma recovery include stabilization, which means setting treatment goals, developing coping skills, and establishing safety within the self. Another step is reprocessing, meaning remembering the trauma in a safe environment that accepts your grief, and finally reprogramming. This is integrating and accepting what happened and establishing a connection with the usual life.
Medications
Although some people with past trauma avoid medications, thinking that they can’t provide long-term help, they can be useful and necessary sometimes. It’s not good to shut down your emotions, but some medications help you stop thinking about what happened, including painful memories, disturbing flashbacks, or nightmares.
They can also help you feel more optimistic and have a more positive outlook and behavior on life and your future because several types of medications affect the chemistry in your brain connected with fears. However, you shouldn’t take too many of these medicines because you might feel the opposite effect. Talk to your doctor, listen to him carefully, and give yourself time to heal the wounds.
Taking these tips into account, it’s clear that there are various ways in which we can deal with trauma, no matter how difficult it seems. Some people feel trapped and powerless to overcome trauma, and they don’t feel that anything can help them. Still, find support, try to move from the dead spot, and don’t force yourself. Remember, everything will settle once you decide to help yourself.
