There are many different ways to treat trauma. Here at the Trauma and Beyond Center, our professionals have knowledge of a wide variety of trauma treatments. That way, we can find the right kind of treatment for an individual patient. No two patients are the same, so they’re all going to need to have their own, custom-tailored treatment program. In this blog, we’ll go over one particular kind of therapy: mindfulness therapy. We’ll discuss it in depth and show how this, among our other kinds of treatments, maybe the right kind of therapy for you.
Trauma in Los Angeles: Dealing Mindfully
“Mindfulness Therapy” has been around for a while, but it seems like it’s only in the last few years that it’s exploded in popularity. In the past, you may have heard people mention it, but it’s become much more popular recently. There’s a good reason for that: it’s effective. While we use many different kinds of therapy, and plenty of different methods to help our patients to treat the underlying traumas that have been bothering them, mindfulness therapy is one of the more effective ones that we’ve been using. It can be incorporated into your therapy, should our trained professionals that it is one of the best, most effective treatments for your specific needs.
What Mindfulness Is
If you’ve ever heard the phrase “being present,” then you might have a bit of an understanding as to what “mindfulness therapy” is. A good definition is: “mindfulness and awareness of thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and the surrounding area through a gentle, nursing lens.” That comes from Berkeley, and it is as concise yet comprehensive a definition of mindfulness therapy that we’ve seen yet. To break it down a bit, it’s about being completely aware of what you’re feeling, in your mind and in your body in a given moment. Of course, the “gentle, nursing lens” part is important to: it’s about not judging yourself and giving yourself the room to feel these things.
How Mindfulness Works
Many people get confused by the word “mindful.” It’s not a word that gets used often, so people naturally lack an innate understanding for what it means. A better way to describe what this therapy consists of is to use the word “noticing.” Mindfulness therapy involves quite a bit of notice. Often, we rush through our lives. This is particularly true of people with anxiety, negativity, addictions, and other problems. So, mindfulness says to notice your feelings. It says to notice your beliefs, your actions, your thoughts, even your bodily sensations. It wants you to take all of these things in. Then, and only then, mindfulness says to learn to pause, to breathe in, breathe out, and then contemplate the next course of action. This is an important point to note.
Noticing Leads to Understanding
You may be read the above and think: “OK, mindfulness is about thinking before I do something.” Yes, partially true, but mindfulness therapy is actually about so much more. For example, mindfulness therapy asks that you then, while you’re contemplating your next course of action, ask yourself: “is what I’m feeling or thinking coming from this moment, or is it fueled entirely by things I’ve experienced in my past?” That question can make all the difference in the world. For many of us, whether we realize it or not, the answer is always the latter. Even when we think we’re making a decision based purely on what’s around us, we’re really being influenced entirely by traumas we’ve suffered in the past. Mindfulness therapy gives us a way to counteract that.
It’s very important to keep in mind that, even once we do begin to see how our experiences in the past influence our decision in the present, that we don’t judge those thoughts. There’s no need to condemn them. That doesn’t help anyone or anything. You become aware of them, and then you make another, better decision based on what you know today. It’s important to pay attention to these thoughts so that when you see they come up in one situation, they might come up in another, later one as well. Once you see that, then you can begin to take better control of your own life.
Of course, in just a few hundred words of a blog, there’s no way to accurately describe everything about mindfulness therapy. It’s a very complicated process that has helped so many people to better live their lives. The experts we have at the Trauma and Beyond Center can put their expertise to work for you so that you can lead the life you’ve always wanted to live. You can set up a free consultation by going through our site or giving us a call at (818) 651-0725.
