You want to trust, to believe everything will be okay, but you can’t seem to fully get there. There is a disconnect, a slight feeling of being unsafe, even though you know it’s only a projection. You just can’t move forward. What you’re likely experiencing are the effects of trauma. With the best trauma therapy in Los Angeles, you can develop the confidence to feel safe.
Trauma Therapy in Los Angeles Defined
Trauma is the debilitating response following a disturbing and painful event, experienced by a person or culture, that triggers the nervous system to feel threatened. For some people, it makes moving forward in life difficult and even impossible.
Different Types of Trauma
Shock Trauma: This kind of trauma refers to the reaction to experiencing or witnessing an overwhelming incident such as witnessing death or receiving an injury. The incident(s) disrupt and impact the cognitive, emotional, and physical development of a child. The brain develops from the bottom up, and the bottom is responsible for responding to stress, so when it’s activated through abuse or abandonment, there is a disturbance in the brain’s development. If this isn’t worked through as a child, a person may develop psychological disorders later in life. Children who endure physical and sexual abuse, domestic violence, bullying, and neglect suffer from shock trauma.
Psychological Trauma: Trauma that happens early on or during the critical periods in the brain’s development. This type of trauma hurts adaptive abilities. The response can be physical, emotional, cognitive, social, or spiritual. A physical response has an impact on joints, muscles, immune system, digestion, sleep, and more. A physical response can lead to bracing in the body, pain in the body, and even to disconnect from the body, numbness. An emotional response manifests in feeling shame, guilt, fear, grief, and anger. A cognitive response affects the ability to process information and make good choices. A social response affects interpersonal relationships and the view on structures of society and connection to self. A spiritual response alters the way reality is seen and the meaning of life. These responses can occur as a one-time thing or can be prolonged for an indefinite amount of time. Many people suffer from psychological trauma at some point of their life.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Trauma that is highly present in a person after they have experienced a traumatic event. The traumatic responses–being alert and ready to flee–are on overdrive, handicapping a person as they always believe harm will happen. A survivor’s nervous system is constantly in survival mode in order to protect them and will remind them about the trauma they had previously experienced. War veterans, rape victims, domestic abuse victims, and child abuse victims often suffer from PTSD.
Complex – PTSD : has many of the same parts as PTSD, but the events are repetitive. Generally in the family of origin and early life 0-5, but often throughout a person’s lifetime.
It can be caused through experiencing neglect, abuse (physical, sexual, emotional), bullying, have a parent who is mentally ill or addicted to substances, having an absent parent, having a learning disability)
Collective Trauma: Trauma that is shared by a group of people, whether it be generational, cultural, or societal. This trauma develops through a group witnessing (and even experiencing it second-hand) shocking events that affect the group. Often it leads to a shift in collective perspective and action. Mass shootings, genocides, slavery, and war are types of collective trauma. This may also lead to intergenerational trauma effects.
Modalities Used to Treat Trauma
Because we hold trauma in our body, we need to find ways to curb our symptoms in order to prevent it from developing into dangerous physical or psychological issues. With treatment methods such as affect regulation, EMDR, mindfulness, somatic experiencing, art therapy, CBT, sensorimotor psychotherapy, yoga therapy, and/or neurofeedback, we can mend the wounds we carry so that we can begin to trust again.
The Next Step
You aren’t defined by your trauma, and you don’t have to be bound by it. To start your recovery journey, set up a free consultation for trauma therapy in Los Angeles with Trauma and Beyond Center ® at (818) 651-0725.
