What is Trauma and How Can Therapy Help

What is Trauma?
Trauma is the emotional, physical, and psychological response to deeply distressing or disturbing events. It can occur at any point in life—during childhood, adolescence, or adulthood—and can result from a wide range of experiences. This may include abuse, neglect, accidents, natural disasters, medical conditions, or witnessing violence or suffering. Trauma doesn’t always come from dramatic, one-time events; repeated smaller experiences, like emotional invalidation during childhood, can also be traumatic.

What makes trauma unique to every individual is how it’s processed. What feels overwhelming and traumatic to one person may not feel the same for another. Though the event itself may have passed, its effects can linger, sometimes buried deep in your subconscious.

Trauma is Not a Diagnosis
It’s important to clarify that trauma is not a medical or psychological condition in itself—it’s an experience. It isn’t an illness that needs a cure but rather an event that requires understanding and healing. Trauma lives in your memories and your body, shaping how you view the world, how you act, and how you feel about yourself.

Why Trauma Is Often Overlooked or Minimized
Unfortunately, many people minimize their trauma or push it aside as a distant memory. They tell themselves it wasn’t “that bad” or compare their experiences to others, feeling they don’t have the “right” to be affected. This can lead to trauma going unrecognized or unprocessed, leaving unresolved emotions to fester over time.

The truth? If something caused you distress, it’s valid—and that validation is the first step toward understanding your trauma.

The Impact of Unprocessed Trauma
When trauma is left unprocessed, it doesn’t just fade into the background. Instead, it can manifest in ways that may surprise you, especially if you haven’t consciously connected them to your past experiences. Trauma has a profound impact on your mental and physical well-being, often impairing your quality of life.

Common Mental and Emotional Symptoms:

• Anxiety and Depression

Many people with unprocessed trauma experience excessive worry, fear, or prolonged sadness. These feelings can make it difficult to enjoy daily life or maintain emotional stability.

• Unexplained Anger or Irritability

Being quick to anger or feeling irritated without knowing why can be a sign of unresolved emotional wounds from trauma.

• Lost or Fragmented Memories

Trauma can disrupt the way memories are stored, leading to “blank spaces” or fragmented recollections of past events.

• Difficulty Sustaining Healthy Relationships

Trauma creates patterns of mistrust, attachment issues, or avoidance. This can make forming or maintaining close relationships incredibly challenging.

Physical Symptoms:
Trauma doesn’t just affect your mind; it’s stored in your body, too. This is often referred to as a “body-mind” connection or somatic memory. It’s why you might experience an elevated heart rate or tension when recalling a traumatic memory. Symptoms may include:

• Chronic fatigue
• Headaches
• Gastrointestinal issues
• Unexplained aches and pains

What’s happening here is that unresolved trauma keeps the body in a constant state of alert, or “fight-or-flight,” overstimulating the nervous system.

Why Processing Trauma is Essential
Leaving trauma unresolved doesn’t mean it disappears—it becomes embedded in your behavior, your thoughts, and how you move through life. Processing trauma is about reclaiming your emotional and physical well-being. It’s about understanding how your past is influencing your present and taking steps to heal.

Healing from trauma allows you to:

• Gain emotional clarity and resilience.
• Break unhealthy cycles in relationships.
• Reclaim energy from physical symptoms and stress.
• Develop a sense of peace and stability in your daily life.

You deserve that freedom.

How Therapy Can Help Heal Trauma
Confronting painful memories might feel like reopening wounds, but it’s important to know there’s help. Trauma doesn’t have to define your life—and therapy is one of the most powerful tools to aid in recovery.

What to Expect from Trauma Therapy

A Safe Space
Trauma therapy provides a judgment-free environment to share your experiences and feelings at your own pace. It’s normal to take time to open up. Everyone’s system processes differently.

Building Awareness
You can begin to identify how trauma is showing up in your life—whether it’s through recurring patterns, thought distortions, or symptoms you didn’t connect to your experiences before.

• Developing Coping Strategies

You will learn practical tools for managing emotions, reducing anxiety, dealing with triggers, and building a sense of safety.

• Healing Through Understanding

By addressing the emotions tied to a traumatic event—or even naming those events for the first time—you begin to process and release their grip on your present life.

Types of Trauma Therapy
Depending on your experience and comfort levels, there are various approaches to trauma therapy. Mine include:

• Psychodynamic Talk therapy

This traditional form of therapy can help you better understand your emotions and patterns, providing a foundation for healing.

• Trauma-Informed Somatic Therapy

Somatic therapy helps the body metabolize stored emotion and supports emotional regulation.

• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR targets traumatic memories and sensations and helps reduce their intensity.

Moving Forward
Trauma may be a part of your story, but it doesn’t have to be the whole story. Recognizing the impact of past and present trauma is a powerful first step toward healing. Whether you’re experiencing distressing symptoms or simply carrying old memories that weigh on you, know that there’s help available.

If you’re ready to start addressing your trauma, reach out to me today. I can guide you on the path to understanding, processing, and ultimately finding new freedom in your life.

The road may not be easy, but it’s worth it.