An individual can experience trauma when they undergo a negative experience that creates lasting, and sometimes debilitating, effects on the individual’s mind and emotions.
These reactions are known as trauma responses and if left untreated can greatly alter the way someone proceeds in life. The individual can be left with avoidance issues to not bring up their trauma, trigger responses that can affect their mood or thoughts in an instant, and a great deal of fear in regards to how the experience negatively affected their mental and emotional health.
CBT For Trauma
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) takes into consideration all aspects that make up an individual’s mental and emotional health by viewing each aspect in connection to another; essentially every emotion and thought are intertwined with one another and can impact each other positively or negatively.
In regards to trauma, CBT asks an individual to take into consideration their traumatic experience and reevaluate the side effects they are feeling to understand where any unhealthy or limiting patterns may be. This includes identifying any habits associated directly with the trauma and realigning those thoughts to be constructive to the individual rather than harmful.
The goal of this is to remove the negative thoughts and patterns from the traumatizing experience so that the individual can focus on healing the wound itself and stop limiting their power over their reactions.
EMDR For Trauma
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy is a technique that relies on an individual to recall any past traumatizing experiences while working through a series of physical motions that will pinpoint exactly where and how the traumatic experience affects them at that moment.
Through these movements, a therapist can better understand how the trauma is being stored mentally, emotionally, or behaviorally inside the individual and how they can release themselves from their pain. This allows for the individual to recall their trauma without additional associations being made and instead gives them the space to only focus on the pain and then release their feelings because they have no other attachments.
The goal of EMDR is to ensure emotional and mental well-being while still allowing an individual to work through and process their trauma as constructively as possible.
Heal Your Wounds Today
Trauma isn’t something that can be forgotten or ignored; in fact, not processing and dealing with trauma will only extend the lasting and subtle effects it has on you in your day-to-day life. If you are suffering from trauma, please feel free to reach out to Pudget Psychotherapy where we can offer both CBT and EMDR services that help you move past trauma and into a better healing space. We are dedicated to aiding your journey in healing and want to walk with you every step of the way.
