Trauma Advice

The healing of emotional trauma usually will not occur through conversation and analysis alone. Conversation and analysis can help to describe the problem and its sources. But mere description does not produce healing.

Think of your mind, your heart and your soul as a beautiful marvel of creation. A field of wondrous wild flowers, protected by a stone wall surrounding it. A powerful destructive force breaks through your wall, causing havoc and leaving the seeds of weeds in various parts of your beautiful field of wildflowers.The weeds suck up energy and nutrition, and produce nothing. No fruit, no flowers, nothing to nourish the body, the heart and the soul. They sap the joy of your formerly innocent field of happiness.

Permanent elimination of weeds demands that they be pulled up by their roots. The ideal way to do this is to tug gently and steadily, gripping the stem close to the ground, clearing away rocks, debris and soil, so that the root separates completely from the soil. 

Naturally, eeds will return. However, their impact can be controlled. And in fact the elimination of weeds is a lifelong business. That involves life style changes.

Now consider another way to think about healing emotional trauma. Think about the healing of a physical illness or injury. A broken bone, a sore or a wound can heal, given the right conditions. Given the right conditions, as research clearly proves, the traumatized mind can heal itself, as well.

What are the right conditions? The client must be ready to face the trauma, with the full acceptance that the trauma must be faced – not avoided. We knows that this can be scary. So, therapies have been developed with the express purpose of helping the traumatized client face the trauma safely and gradually.

Another condition: if the client has concluded that s/he is permanently stuck with the emotional pain, s/he must be willing challenge that belief. Healing requires readiness. Readiness is absent when the mind refuses to accept the possibility of change. A stubborn know-it -all attitude must be discarded, and replaced by humility.

Generally, people do not change behavior, beliefs or attitudes until the emotional pain outweighs the doubt or fear of change. It stands to reason, then, that some traumatized clients will not undergo trauma therapy until they can’t take the pain anymore.

If the client’s living situation is toxic, and s/he is re-traumatized on a regular basis, if possible, the client should change that situation.

A WORD OF CAUTION: I have heard too many stories from clients who were ill-served by so-called professionals who had no idea what they were  doing. Some of those professions falsely claiming expertise when they had none. 

If  this speaks to you, and if you are considering getting relief from emotional trauma, do your homework. Only select a therapist who has bona fide credentials and evidence of success in treating trauma.

For more information click Trauma Therapy

Thanks for reading!