What is emotional trauma?
Emotional trauma is an emotional response. It is the effect of a deeply distressing experience and it could be caused by something that happens once, or events experienced over time. It can affect people at any age, of any gender, culture, religion, and in any location. Generally emotional trauma results in a person feeling unsafe, helpless, and isolated. It can impede their ability to learn, it can affect their memory, and interfere with their ability to control their emotions.
Emotional trauma can come from a wide range of different sources.
Some include:
- Physical accidents, injuries, or experiencing serious health conditions
- Natural disasters
- Economic downturns causing loss
- War and combat
- Loss of a significant person
- Childhood abuse or neglect
- Sexual assault
- Witnessing violence
- Being a victim of violence or a crime
- Homelessness
- Bullying
- Illness
- Losing a job
- Racism
- Terrorism
- Imprisonment
- And many more…
It can be difficult for a person to be aware when they are experiencing symptoms of emotional trauma. It can also be difficult for friends, family members, acquaintances and strangers who have brief interactions with a traumatised person to understand too.
There is a way through, which means people can heal from trauma. There are a few therapies and supportive mind-body methods which can help the treatment of emotional trauma.
Some of them are:
- Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE)
- Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
- Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT)
- Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)
- Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT – Tapping)
- Acupuncture
- Exercise therapy – Tai Chi, Yoga, Dancing
- Art Therapy, Music Therapy
- Meditation
- Support groups
It’s important that one can choose what they’d like to try, then find a qualified professional with experience in trauma processing to help. It can take time to heal and results do vary, but it is worth exploring and sticking to one method for a while to see if any measured change can be noticed. Often changes can be felt quite quickly, but this depends on the person and their circumstances.
DISCLAIMER
These articles are not to replace a licensed therapist’s advice, or to influence any choices in where one gets therapy, who with and at which time of an experience. The posts are simply designed to help people find out what they might like to look further into regarding the psychotherapy industry. The reader is responsible for their own decisions, actions and behaviour, and further exploration on topics is recommended before making any decisions related to the details in the posts. These articles are designed to be at a superficial level of discussion. In compiling the articles, we have attempted to keep triggering material to a minimum, yet we cannot guarantee that readers will be comfortable when reading posts at all times. If you are experiencing any type of discomfort while reading any of the posts, please consider if you need some support.