Trauma: Finding the Right Therapy for You
Bitesized Blog:
This blog is for survivors of trauma. In particular, anyone who has experienced trauma, and remains impacted by it.
I offer this blog as a resource that you can use to find the right therapy - and therapist - for you, to go beyond survival, and recover, and connect with the life that you want to live.
Why should it be so hard to find the right therapist? Especially if you’re already distressed, anxious, and overwhelmed. Reliving terrifying flashbacks or deep emotional memories.
Trauma (e.g., PTSD & C-PTSD) is treatable. You can go beyond surviving the trauma, and recover from it!
So, what is the right therapy for you, and how can you find that?
Try before you buy: the right therapist needs to be someone you can trust and feel safe enough with to begin, and be with throughout, your journey to recovery. It can be a challenging journey, so the right therapist is crucial. Look for therapists who offer free initial consultations, for you to see who feels right. Even if therapists charge for this, use the first few sessions to check that out.
Trauma-informed, and training: Simply retelling the story of the trauma can be so dysregulating, that it can re-traumatise the client. Look for specific training in working with trauma, and ask the therapist what they do to work safely with trauma, and how they protect the client from re-traumatisation.
Neurodiversity-affirming: Neurodivergence strongly correlates with trauma. You can ask the therapist how they work with neurodivergence. Stay away from ablism, by looking for therapists who can account for you and who you are and how you think and process. There is no fixed recipe book for therapy, so look for a therapist who talks about wanting to find out what works for you.
Tools and resources?: Yes, these can help reduce anxiety, and the symptoms of traumatic memories. tools like grounding and mindfulness techniques are common in the first stage of a tri-phasic approach to trauma treatment. A cognitive approach can leave the emotional and wounded parts of you feeling supressed, abandoned, or ignored. If you want more than just tools and resources for you to ‘fix yourself’, then look for therapists who have specific training in processing emotional and body held trauma. Who can tell you how they go beyond tools and resources, to reach beyond words.
Get in touch if you want to find out more and explore therapy with me. And checkout the rest of the blog, if you want more.
Related reading:
Brown J. (2015). Specific Techniques Vs. Common Factors? Psychotherapy Integration and its Role in Ethical Practice. American journal of psychotherapy, 69(3), 301–316. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.2015.69.3.301
