To keep the memories of abusive experiences aside, some lock their emotions, thoughts, and experiences away. Some describe their disturbing memories as if they are in a file folder, hard drive, cabinet, on a shelf, or out of the body. For others, the "containers" are described as being hidden from view, out of sight, maybe out of mind. Despite being sealed shut by these distractions, each container wants to be unopened, despite the person's fear of opening them. Trauma therapy means opening the containers, carefully, and with appropriate and clinically sound support. Releasing trauma's hold on the body can be a gift, albeit one to open with awareness.
Your Body Has Memory
As you remember from part one of this article, the nervous system remembers trauma. The posttraumatic stress symptoms that it gives you are its way of telling you, "Hey, deal with this!"
Therefore, if you start trauma therapy, it is important to understand that your body has memory, and will react. Because your body "holds" the memories, thoughts, emotions, and images of what happened, it is very possible that you will experience them in and or outside of your sessions.
The Nature of Trauma Work
Because it is easy to become flooded with emotion, it is not a process to take lightly or haphazardly, nor without sound clinical support. Just as with any therapy, there are inherent risks in starting your trauma work. You can experience distressful thoughts, share uncomfortable parts of your history, or experience difficult or overwhelming emotions. On the other hand, many take the risk and "open up" those trauma containers with an experienced therapist. As a result, they experience something different, a greater sense of peace, and symptom reduction.
Education
Therapists who "do trauma work" must understand what trauma "looks like" and how to identify it. More than just being able to diagnose traumatic stress symptoms, he or she should educate you about why the symptoms occur. Learning about "fight, flight, or freeze," your body's automatic survival response, is key to the healing process. Education about trauma, its effects, symptoms, and biology can normalize your experiences. It will also help you, and your therapist, create a map to guide your treatment.
Grounding Skills
As I have shared in previous articles, dissociation is a coping mechanism that makes trauma survivors feel "disconnected," "not whole," "out of the body," or "as if it didn't happen." This internal switch turns on when the body and mind are overwhelmed by the trauma. Dissociation serves to protect you from harm, but can, over time, lead to significant distress.
If you are going to work on your traumatic symptoms, ask about "grounding skills." Grounding skills can help those who dissociate to feel more connected, better able to come back to the present moment, and feel calmer. You can create a ‘toolbox" of grounding skills that you can access whenever you need them. Whether in, or out of the therapist's office, you can use these specific tools to help you feel safe. If you experience overwhelming thoughts, emotions, memories, or sensations, make sure that you share them with your therapist.
Physical and Emotional Safety
With trauma work, you may become "flooded" with emotions, physical sensations, or images that you had not thought of in a long time. Because of this, it is imperative that you have a lot of preparation work, prior to processing what happened to you. It is also imperative that you and your therapist regularly monitor your sense of emotional and physical safety. The ability to self soothe in healthy ways, handle significant levels of distress, and reach out for help, are very important when doing trauma work. For example, if you use substances to handle distress, you must learn alternative techniques first. Therefore, it is also necessary that you have an open communication with your therapist, as well as a sound support system that you can access.
EMDR: A Type of Trauma Therapy
There are many approaches to trauma work, and EMDR is one of them. It is a research based therapy approach and requires special training. EMDR was created by Francine Shapiro, and utilizes a combination of therapeutic approaches with bilateral stimulation i.e. the use of alternating, right-left tracking that can take the form of eye movements, sounds, or tactile stimulation.
EMDR helps process the troubling thoughts, feelings, sensations, and images of what happened to you. It activates your nervous system, and your internal healing mechanisms, to release what got "locked in" during the trauma. Your nervous system reprocesses what happened; it "buys" that you are safer now. It can stop giving you the fight, flight, or freeze response around what happened, thus reducing your symptoms of traumatic stress. EMDR also helps you to come to a healthier conclusion about what happened. Although no therapy can change the past, EMDR does have the potential to change your reaction so that you don't get "hijacked" by your emotions, thoughts, and sensations about what happened.
My hope is that this article has given you some initial things to consider, should you decide that you want to open up those containers, and process your trauma history. Making the decision to work on memories of abuse is no small step, but can be an important part of your healing journey. I honor that first step, and wish you the very best.
If you would like to learn more about EMDR, trauma work, or other tips for healing, please feel free to visit and sign up for my free newsletter. You will get a free Grounding Skills Card when you do.
