Trauma Therapy
Find healing that supports your whole being after being impacted by a traumatic experience.
What is Trauma?
When we think about trauma we often think about acute events that are life threatening and catastrophic. However these are not the only experiences that impact us traumatically. Trauma as I see it is any experience that impacts your ability to feel safe and respond in an open, grounded, and compassionate way.
Big "T" Trauma vs. Little "t" trauma.
The DSM-5 defines a PTSD trauma in strict terms and what are typically referred to when we think of Big "T" Traumas. These traumas are associated with experiences/events such as physical, mental, or emotional abuse or violence. These are any situation where one's life is threatened. Examples include war, sexual assault, a natural disaster, or a life-threatening physical injury, though these situations may themselves not be traumatic for every individual.
Small ‘t’ traumas are all the other events that we may not typically consider, or even over-look, that impact us and our nervous system's ability to function in an open and prosocial manner. These are often distressing events but are not necessarily life threatening such as family conflict, financial trouble, legal trouble, a challenging move or decision, a job change, and chronic pain or illness.
Have you experienced trauma?
The answer to this question is one that you may or may not know yourself. We do not always know if we have experienced trauma we only know that something "does not feel right" in our mind, our body or our spirit.
If you have experienced big "T" Trauma or little "t" trauma, our bodies are often the first place we notice something happening that does not feel right. We may experience an event and go through the motions of our life. It may not be until later, even many years later, that we begin to notice the impact of the event. Many times it shows up in the body but this is not the only place it can present.
We may notice for example: symptoms of depression, increased anxiety, difficulty sleeping, increased tension, pain or numbness, we may notice an increased sensitivity to light, thermal sensitivities, and/or physical sensations of unknown origin.
Neuroscience and the work of researchers such as: Bessel Van der Kolk, Stephen Porges, Deb Dana, David Grand, Gabor Maté, and Peter Levine have supported the notion that the body holds our trauma and healing trauma comes from befriending the nervous system and the body.
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"The body is designed to renew itself through continuous self correction. These same principles also apply to the healing of psyche, spirit and soul."
- Peter Levine