Trauma Informed Care: The Path of Healing
Trauma is a deeply personal experience, often leaving lasting imprints on an individual's psyche and behavior. It can stem from a variety of sources, including physical, emotional, or psychological harm, and its effects can ripple through every aspect of a person's life. In the face of trauma, it's crucial to foster environments that prioritize understanding, empathy, and support. This is where trauma-informed care comes into play.
I invited a colleague of mine, Alex Ly LMFT, who specializes in trauma informed psychotherapy for Asian Americans to help give some insight from a therapist standpoint in today’s post.
Alex specializes in providing psychotherapy services for clients who are dealing with anxiety and trauma. His approach primarily revolves around talk therapy, which is designed to facilitate healing from deep-seated trauma and emotional wounds that significantly affect one's mental health. He’s particularly focused on conducting long-term psychotherapy that is trauma-focused, paying special attention to complex trauma stemming from familial relationships that often leads to issues such as perfectionism, anxiety, and self-criticism in adulthood. By addressing these core issues, his goal is to help clients navigate their healing journey more effectively, fostering resilience and a healthier mental state.
What is Trauma?
Trauma can manifest in numerous forms, from singular distressing events to prolonged exposure to adverse circumstances. It's not confined to extreme situations like natural disasters or violence; it can also result from ongoing stress, neglect, or abuse. Importantly, trauma is subjective; what may deeply affect one person might not have the same impact on another. It is how one internalizes an experience.
As Alex puts it, “ trauma does not need to be a large, life-altering, or life-threatening event to have a profound impact on an individual's mental health and well-being.” It can be “insidious [and] arise from a series of smaller, seemingly minor experiences during childhood, which cumulatively exert a significant impact over time.” Alex defines trauma as “any unprocessed negative experience that has a lasting negative effect on an individual's mental or emotional state. This can range from small critical comments made during childhood, to instances of abuse, to toxic family dynamics. These experiences may not seem significant when viewed in isolation, but their cumulative effect can be deeply traumatic. My approach is to uncover and address these subtler forms of trauma, recognizing how easily they can go undetected because they do not fit the stereotype of a traumatic event being a singular, massive ordeal.”
The Impact of Trauma
Trauma can have far-reaching effects on various aspects of an individual's life, including their mental and physical health, relationships, and ability to function in daily life. Common responses to trauma include hypervigilance, avoidance, difficulty trusting others, and emotional numbness. These responses are often adaptive in the context of the traumatic event but can become problematic when they persist long after the danger has passed.
For some individuals the impact of trauma is so profound that it affects their ability to function in their daily lives. Insomnia and nightmares can disturb their sleep, preventing proper rest needed for the day ahead. Anxiety and depression disorders are common comorbid conditions that make it difficult to work or engage in social lives.
Path to Healing
There are times when medication (usually prescribed and managed by a psychiatrist) is needed to get the individual back to baseline functioning and more ready to engage in healing activities. However, the journey toward recovery from trauma lies in psychotherapy.
How does a trauma-informed therapist help? When asked this question, Alex responded, “As a trauma-informed therapist, my approach is deeply rooted in understanding how trauma and painful past experiences have shaped the identities and behaviors of my clients. I strive to create a therapeutic environment that shifts the focus from blame to understanding and compassion. I [also] believe in the importance of not just talking about trauma but addressing its physical imprint on the body. This is where integrating a somatic approach becomes invaluable. By combining traditional talk therapy with brainspotting, we can access and heal trauma that is stored in the body. This method allows us to go beyond verbal analysis and directly engage with the trauma's emotional and physical roots. It's a powerful way to release and heal trauma, offering a holistic path to recovery that encompasses both mind and body.”
There are various modalities of psychotherapy in trauma work (ie. EMDR, brainspotting, exposure therapy, psychodynamic therapy etc) and different therapists are drawn to different techniques that align with their treatment philosophy. Perhaps in future posts we will go over the various therapy modalities. But today, let’s learn about brainspotting.
What is brainspotting?
Alex incorporates brainspotting as a way to help clients process emotions and experiences that are difficult for them to put into words. But what exactly is brainspotting? In his words, “Brainspotting is a transformative therapeutic technique which is predicated on the idea that specific eye positions can connect to unprocessed trauma within the body. This method goes beyond conventional talk therapy by enabling access to the deeper, non-verbal parts of the brain where traumatic memories are stored, through the identification of ‘brainspots’—specific points of gaze associated with emotional distress. By guiding clients to focus on these points while contemplating a particular emotional issue or memory, brainspotting facilitates a deeper healing process. This approach leverages the body's innate healing capabilities, allowing clients to process trauma in a safe, non-verbal manner, thereby supporting a more holistic and comprehensive recovery from the impacts of trauma.” This technique can be incorporated seamlessly within a “talk therapy” session and help clients/patients begin unpacking the effects of specific trauma memories that are difficult to put into words.
Conclusion
Trauma is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that requires a compassionate and understanding response. Trauma-informed care offers a framework for creating environments that prioritize safety, trust, choice, collaboration, and empowerment. By embracing trauma-informed practices, we, as providers, can better support individuals on their journey toward healing and resilience.
