Healing from Trauma
By Katie Salazar-Schuckman, Licensed Professional Counselor
Katie works with adults via Telehealth. Please see her booking page here.
One thing that I have learned through my own personal journey is that trauma is not something you just get over or walk away from. It’s not as superficial as a broken nose. While both are painful, or at least manageable, trauma affects the body, brain, nervous system, and the ways you react to everything around you.
So many of us have had those feelings of constantly being on edge, anxious, emotionally numb or checked out, angry, disconnected or always bracing yourself for something to happen. This is exactly what trauma looks like.
Our body’s natural response (survival mode) is activated when it senses danger. Fight, flight, freeze and fawn (people pleasing), are the various ways that your body copes with stress or perceived danger, even when there are no threats around you. Our nervous system automatically kicks in and survival mode takes over. This can feel like living day to day in a constant state of fear.
This can lead to a desire for guidance and support for many people that have been silently suffering. The need to rebuild what once felt so broken provides a sliver of hope. This is where, with the help of a caring professional therapist, you can rebuild a new way of responding to the trauma. By teaching the body that we don’t have to be afraid, we can accept small wins. Creating small wins can look like creating healthy boundaries, developing positive coping strategies or improving your communication. This can lead to big wins such as gaining a deeper understanding of what you want and need, developing better emotional regulation skills or a reduction in your anxiety or depression.
Healing takes time and commitment; there’s no quick fix. As your healing journey begins, you can find new ways to cope and use your new skills for the future. Through internal growth, you open new paths that can lessen the trauma you have suffered through for so long. This new path leads to gardens where you learn how to adapt, grow and even thrive.
Therapeutic modalities such Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and trauma-based therapies can all help you feel present again. Your brain can begin to store trauma as past events and as not current threats. Healing can truly begin to take place when the body learns that it’s not a battlefield anymore, but a place that one can live peacefully in again.
Final Thoughts
Be patient with yourself. Give yourself permission to take small steps. Remember that healing is not only possible, but it will be happening in ways you may not have ever known. You are stronger than your trauma.
Find support for trauma, anxiety and PTSD.
