A 5-Part Trauma Series: Trauma (PTSD) Symptoms and Treatment

Part 1: Anxiety, Hypervigilance and Trauma

Trauma (PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms and Treatment: Introduction

You will recognize the trauma symptoms from the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as this is the reference used if you saw a psychologist or psychiatrist to get a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. This would then be used to direct treatment. These trauma (PTSD) symptoms are comprehensive and likely the ones referred to in pop culture and on social media as well.

Our clinic is trauma specialized and does not diagnose, offering non-medicinal treatment. This blog is a guide to aid understanding, help you see yourself and find the right treatment to get you back to feeling optimal.

While I have used PTSD symptoms to guide this series, it will be less formal, using the over 50 combined years of the team’s experience to talk about the symptoms people with trauma present to us to get treatment.

The 5 parts will include 1) Hypervigilance/Anxiety symptoms 2) Depressive symptoms 3) Avoidance/Dissociation symptoms 4) Physical/Somatic symptoms and finally 5) Treatment.

Trauma (PTSD) What is it and How it Works

Trauma describes the symptoms we experience when we are flooded with a situation(s) we find upsetting, distressing and disturbing in nature. Trauma(s) can include child abuse sexual, physical, emotional. It can include war trauma. It can include being assaulted.

Any experience in which you feel terror and harm and then develop the symptoms we will outline in this trauma series is considered trauma, leading to trauma anxiety symptoms. You know when you have experienced trauma because your body will tell you.

Trauma is encoded in the brain and body in a way that is unhelpful to us long-term. The system gets overwhelmed. Intense emotions/feelings related to the trauma are held in the amygdala, or reptilian part of our brain responsible for feelings and memories. This leads to trauma anxiety symptoms.

The neocortex that takes care of the logical parts of us, thoughts and cognitive/executive functioning, is offline while we are experiencing the trauma. If you were a child the neocortex is not yet developed. When you are having trauma symptoms this is what happened to you, the symptoms tell us your trauma is held in different parts of the brain and body.

Healing trauma needs to integrate these trauma memories, while you are in as calm a state as possible so your neocortex is online, enabling the complete, integrative processing of the trauma. The goal is to mitigate trauma symptoms so it is another memory, or series of memories and part of your human narrative, less distressing. 

Let's get started in understanding what is happening to you!

Trauma (PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms: Hypervigilance

Hypervigilance is really the main source that leads to the other anxiety fueled trauma symptoms seen below. The overwhelm in the system creates hyperarousal. This will likely be more intense if your trauma is recent or complex. If your childhood was traumatic you are more likely to experience trauma and generalized anxiety symptoms, feeling anxious and agitated as your baseline.

If you are experiencing trauma (PTSD) anxiety you may feel you are alert all the time, scanning people and the environment for threat and danger. This threat can take many forms including physical and relational Ex. Can I trust this new boss at work? You are constantly working hard to feel safe, but never able to do so.

Your body is still in the trauma on less conscious levels. Your heart rate and blood pressure are elevated leading to health problems over the long term. Trauma (PTSD) anxiety symptoms can lead to you having a strong startle response, seeming to react to everything. It is simply exhausting to never feel safe. Or you have created a very rigid safe space that you try not to leave often, your safe space. Ex. Your bedroom.

Trauma (PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms: Nightmares/Terror and Flashbacks

Believe it or not, nightmares and flashbacks are the body trying to heal you.

It keeps bringing the trauma to the surface so it can fully process the traumatic events, enabling recovery. The problem is your "old friend", hyperarousal.

We need to be calm to learn new things and process through the neocortex, our “adult” brain. When treatment includes calming your central nervous system and then the processing of traumatic memories your system learns "I am safe now. The trauma(s) is over". This cannot happen until you are in a calmer state. This is foundational.

When we are hyperaroused we are more likely to get all the symptoms described here, including flashbacks and nightmares. When these increase your body is working hard to heal, time to get help.

Trauma (PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms: General Anxiety, Fear and Horror

Generalized Anxiety (GAD) is a fancy way of saying you feel fear and nervousness in your gut often. You live in a fear state, awaiting an unseen disaster. You may worry all the time and it even affects your daily functioning, ability to go to work, even get out of bed some days. It can feel debilitating at times. You may feel shaky or a sense of doom descending. This likely feels uncontrollable and can last days. It may feel out of nowhere or triggered by a seemingly small event Ex. Your colleague seemed off today.

Trauma (PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms: Panic Attacks

The adrenaline and cortisol chemicals released by stress and anxiety are meant to help us flee quickly and get help in an emergency. But the constant release when we are simply living our lives can result in panic attacks.

Most people will have or have had a panic attack in their lifetime. It may feel out of nowhere or suddenly when you feel slightly overwhelmed Ex. A local hockey game. You are suddenly flooded with fear, panic and have heart palpitations, feel sweaty, agitated and are convinced you can’t breathe or take a deep breath. You are convinced you are going to die and may end up in emergency rooms, convinced this is a heart attack.

There are also "Atypical Panic Attacks" in which you feel may flooded by anger and irritation, out of control. You may suddenly need to clean and scour your place. You might feel "uncomfortable in your own skin".

Trauma (PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms: Frequent Triggering

Do you ever feel fragile?

Neurotic like you can’t do anything?

You have to cancel plans with friends because the idea of being with people, in public spaces feels impossible today?

Maybe you feel like everything triggers you. Other people’s feelings, noises on the street, smells, certain facial expressions? You simply feel triggered frequently and all the time.

This seeming oversensitivity is related to hyperarousal. It can make you feel like you can't cope, frustrating as people deem you oversensitive and unreliable.

Trauma (PTSD) Anxiety Symptoms: Sleep Problems

When you are flooded with adrenaline and cortisol often is makes sense you can't sleep right? It is seemingly impossible to relax into sleep even when you are exhausted and desperately need it.

You may be aware nightmares await you there too. It sounds funny, but we need to both surrender and trust to fall asleep as well focus our mind to calm, sleepy thoughts.

So worries, thinking about the next day’s tasks are sleep killers. But we would stop if we could, right?

I also find people that sleep fine generally will start getting panicky feelings when trying to relax into sleep, seemingly free floating and for no reason. There is likely an unconscious trigger that is plaguing you. There are ways to identify and process this trigger.

Any of this sound familiar? You are not broken. But you are distressed and need to heal, have a safe place to bring your thoughts, worries and feelings.

Part 2: Depression Burnout and Trauma

Trauma (PTSD) Depressive Symptoms: Anhedonia and Burnout

The experience of feeling depressed, depressive symptoms when related to trauma is both similar and different from a Major Depressive episode, which is why they can co-occur in a diagnostic profile.

I find that when depression is part of the trauma experience and aftermath it is either 1) a chemical burnout due to constant hypervigilance or 2) feeling like it is impossible to get the life you crave (due to trauma symptoms).

When you are hypervigilant and live in a fear state with flashbacks and frequent triggering, it simply chemically drains the system. You end up exhausted, almost vegetative and unable to function. Negative thoughts and low self-worth inevitably follow.  These are depressive symptoms.

This can include what the mental health world calls anhedonia, simply put, you can’t seem to enjoy anything. You can be with your fav people, doing the most interesting things, and feel absolutely nothing. This may lead to feeling disconnected and flawed.

We are primarily motivated by chemicals released from a reward system that tells us that we enjoy something and want to repeat it. So what if this doesn’t happen? Of course, you can feel miserable, abnormal, unmotivated and experience depressive symptoms.

Trauma (PTSD) Depressive Symptoms: Distorted Negative Thoughts

The hardest negative thoughts are beliefs about the self, distorted thoughts around the trauma(s) blaming ourselves or others (that are not objectively culpable). These thoughts then become more generalized, core thoughts on how we feel about ourselves and others.

Examples are:

No one is safe.

I am unsafe and worthless.

I do not deserve love and care, empathy, comfort.

People are broken and self-centred, they can’t meet my needs.

Is this hard to read? Distorted thoughts are part of depressive symptoms. They are distorted as they are too extreme and overarching, not fitting all people and situations. They lack balance and need to be healed.

When we are struggling with low self-worth and just trying to feel something (numbness is uncomfortable) due to depressive symptoms, a self-destructive component can enter our world.

Addictive behaviours can include alcohol, drugs, food, shopping, almost anything can be addictive to numb or even just an attempt to feel OK. Of course, there are daily functioning concerns and health issues that follow.

Sabotage refers to a combination of low self-worth and fear of vulnerability with other people.

So we can sabotage a relationship when it is going well, don’t trust it.

We wait for the other (negative) side of a person or relationship, the agitation builds and we sabotage to feel a sense of control over the seemingly inevitable downfall.

We can fall into a pattern of sabotaging many good things, feeling we do not deserve them. 

We cheat on a loyal, supportive partner, don’t show up to a child’s special event and lose great jobs. It starts to feel like it will never get better, we’re too far gone.

Trauma (PTSD) Depressive Symptoms: Anger/Irritability

When our nervous system is in constant activation we can feel irritability due to various forms of overstimulation. It can feel uncontrollable.

When paired with the upset that life is hard and we are trying to avoid triggers and stuff down feelings, we can end up feeling angry at the world and ourselves.

This is often a destructive state that can only cause conflict with loved ones, a weakening of our resources when we need them the most.

Going to the gym can definitely help, but are you still angry all the time?

Upset at yourself for yelling at your kid yesterday? Don’t remember why?

Trauma (PTSD) Depressive Symptoms: Shame

After our anger and self-destructiveness has been a problem for awhile, we may feel our life is simply not working, feeling like it is in freefall. This affects how we feel about ourselves, feeling we are not showing up for our loved ones anymore, causing issues in their lives as well.

Shame is obviously related to distorted, negative thoughts but unique as well. This is why it was put in another, separate category.

Shame is a very physical, embodied self-loathing that can be constant, but usually is triggered sporadically. It is a heavy, horrible feeling that is hard to release and move on from.

The scary thing is that you begin to feel it is who you are.

I know this sounds unbelievable but shame is a trauma response as you are trying to have some sense of control over a horrible thing that was done to you/happened to you. If you blame yourself it can make the world feel less terrifying, especially if your abuse was perpetrated by a trusted parent or religious leader, etc.

You are just trying to be ok.

But shame is also harmful. It is heavy and pervasive and leads to bad, self-destructive choices as we do not feel we deserve better. It keeps us in a self-loathing and destructive loop.

Part 3: Dissociation Avoidance and Trauma

Trauma (PTSD) Dissociation Symptoms: Introduction

Dissociation and avoidance strategies are both symptoms and coping strategies we use to deal with the extended anxiety symptoms (ex. Flashbacks, panic attacks) and triggers that are inevitably part of a trauma experience and profile. We can either do this consciously or unconsciously to cope as best we can.

Trauma (PTSD) Dissociation Symptoms: Conscious Avoidance

All trauma I have ever treated has included other people. Whether your trauma was abuse, violence or war, this is the common piece. So we can decide to avoid people, deeming them unsafe. We try to not be close to people, especially in intimate relationships. If we have a trauma history that was encoded with intense affect, we may fear people, assuming they will inevitably hurt us.

We may avoid the places we associate with our trauma such as, the family home where we were abused by an alcoholic family member.

The sad piece in this decision is healthy attachment is the most effective way to heal trauma.

We need others, community to rely on and trust. When we create secure attachments, we are also calmer and healthier.

We may find going to school really hard if we were sexually abused by a teacher there or severely bullied by other children. This can impact our ability to take care of ourselves long-term and we struggle to be self-reliant and independent.

We may avoid trauma related situations. If your trauma was work related you may find being at work impossible, with frequent triggering there.

If you were sexually abused you may avoid sex, finding it triggering. This can still be true in a healthy, consensual and adult relationship. If you get triggered to flashbacks and body memories it may seem easier to not have sex, even in a relationship which includes respected boundaries and meets your needs.

Avoidance behaviour may work short-term but is not sustainable long-term. Avoidance does not heal the trauma but only reduces triggering in the moment.

Trauma (PTSD) Dissociation Symptoms: Unconscious Dissociation

Dissociation is a very natural state for the child mind, as its structure is still different, undeveloped. Childhood is a magical time of creativity and taking in, making sense of the world.

So if we experience trauma at a young age children make use of dissociation, using it more often to cope. But we continue to do so as we grow up, and struggle with controlling it.

This can lead to disconnecting from the present when we most need to be there for ourselves and others.

Trauma (PTSD) Dissociation Symptoms: Types

Classic dissociation 

Dissociation includes disconnecting from feelings and thoughts, memories and even your sense of self. 

We tend to think of it as “tripping out”, disconnecting for a bit. We all do this, but a person with trauma can do it a lot and feel they can’t control it. If you have a personal trauma history, dissociation usually happens in adulthood after a trigger ex. A scent connected to your trauma such as a person having alcohol on their breath, when you were abused by an alcoholic.

You may know exactly what some triggers are, but you may also not know and feel it comes out of nowhere. If you had ongoing, long-term abuse you are more likely to experience more frequent and intense triggers without treatment. There can be micro-triggering that happens at a less conscious level, causing dissociation you are not aware of until you come back to the present, having lost time.

The obvious concern here is it can be hard to stay present when under any type of stress. So you will dissociate in a hard conversation with a partner, when your child is upset etc.

Memory loss repressed memories

Memory loss can be what was alluded to in the previous section, losing time due to dissociation. You may struggle with creating new memories.

We use memories to form self identity and know who we are. So not having all our memories affects this creation and maintenance of a strong internalized sense of self.

Repressed memories is a trauma coping response in extreme trauma. You may not remember your childhood at all. You may know you were abused but have few details or specific memories of either the abuse or even feel there are lost months, years.

Detachment estrangement 

Detachment estrangement is another from of dissociation leading to us feeling disconnected from ourselves.

We may even feel depersonalization/derealization, unconnected to our own lives, like watching a movie rather than feeling this is your life. A strange, surreal feeling. This can feel odd and scary. These are also hard things to describe, until you have experienced it. It can feel like you are watching or observing your own life at a distance.

Emotional shutdown and splitting “Intellectualization”

The most common symptom I see in trauma survivors are the intellectualization of feelings. It is common to feel very self-aware as you reflect on your trauma and how it impacts you. You may read trauma books and talk about it with other people that get mental health as well.

But you may still feel emotionally disconnected, tell others your trauma history with little or no emotional connection, feeling numb. There may have been an emotional splitting in which you have full memories of your abuse but no feelings connected to these memories. Healing connects the memories and feelings so you feel emotionally connected to your story and personal relationships.

Emotional shutdown may happen often for you, in which you emotionally disconnect when stressed. You may have had partners complain that you seem cold and standoffish when they are distressed and trying to connect with you.

You also may have learned to make people like you by only staying in positive, happy feelings, stuffing anger and sadness down.

We need the harder, more challenging feelings to know who we are, what we need and even how to process grief, such as a recent breakup. Ignoring hard feelings can result in anxiety and depressive symptoms as well.

Part 4: Somatization Physiology and Trauma

This somatic section of trauma symptom experience can be the most upsetting to trauma survivors as it is less logical, and harder to understand as a result.

Our body does remember trauma intensely through somatic/physical symptoms and this can get triggered at any time, especially when potentially triggering stimuli is introduced ex. Loud noises trigger somatic responses if you are a war survivor or first responder.

Let’s break some of this down into what this feels like as you go about your life.

Trigger alert-please take care of yourself as this may be a triggering or hard read.

Trauma (PTSD) Somatic Physical Symptoms: Body Memories

Body memories seem to be the strongest and most misunderstood piece to the complex trauma constellation.

This refers to the body remembering trauma in a way that is often disconnected from our executive functioning and/or logical pieces of our brain that develop later in our human development.

Bear with me!

In real life and time, you may get a strange physical sensation connected to your trauma, often sexual trauma, that is disgusting and disturbing Ex. The sensation of being sexually touched, seemingly out of nowhere with no person involved. You may experience a sudden numbing of the body that feels like being hit by a wave of water when you experience a trigger, intense affect.

The theory around this includes: the body keeps strong memories in our first brain that is in our gut, upper belly under the chest sternum.

Hence, feeling a very strong gut reaction in spaces (“I love the vibe of that place”) or when meeting a new person (“there is something about that guy I just can’t stand”), for example.

While we are in utero a second brain develops through the myelination process, the brain we better recognize.

But our first “gut” brain remains powerful throughout our life, a non-verbal one. Due to being non-verbal, it encodes memory differently, especially in our childhood when our neocortex (logical/language brain) is still developing.

Some clients have come to me as they experience physical sensations that are strange, seemingly completely disconnected for memory, a scary thing for many.

However, a body memory can be connected to thought and other feelings at times as well.

So if you visit a family member that abused you, you may experience a physical piece when triggered in their presence and know exactly what is happening.

Trauma (PTSD) Somatic Physical Symptoms: Physical Symptoms and Illness Concurrent with Trauma

This piece highlights the physical impact that chronic stress can take on the human body.

When we experience stress, our bodies release chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol — hormones that are part of our natural "fight or flight" response. These stress hormones are designed to help us respond quickly, an evolutionary adaptation to get us out of danger quickly.

When these chemicals are released too frequently, due to ongoing psychological stressors such as anxiety, unresolved trauma and emotional agitation, the body remains in a heightened state of alert over an extended period. These chemicals can begin to wear down various bodily systems leading to inflammation, immune suppression, and imbalances in blood sugar.

This impacts the cardiovascular system, increasing the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.

The stress response can also impact the digestive system and aggravate existing health conditions, weaken the body’s ability to recover from illness, and contribute to the development or worsening of mental health issues such as depression and burnout.

Chronic Pain and Fibromyalgia

Something I see often in clients with personal trauma histories includes chronic pain.

Fibromyalgia seems to be the most common diagnosis in these cases. This is a nerve disorder in which the body feels pain for seemingly, no reason.

This seems to be linked to dissociation, not being present in the body, especially when having intense emotions. This is strictly anecdotal and observational as a clinician, something I’ve noted over the years. Another piece of the body holding onto unprocessed trauma.

Fibromyalgia can also be caused by physical trauma, especially repeated trauma Ex. Long-term physical abuse in a domestic partnership

Digestive concerns and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Digestion issues seem to be related to affect regulation, especially concurrent with childhood trauma.

Learning healthy emotional regulation in an abusive household is, simply put, impossible. We can’t learn and receive comfort from our abusers due to their inconsistent behaviour patterns that trigger fear responses.

This is where we learn hypervigilance including long-term agitation, linked to digestive issues. A common diagnosis my clients report is irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Muscle Tension

Muscle tension is related to increased levels of cortisol and unhealthy coping strategies such as eating badly, binge eating, drinking, often used when trauma symptoms are intense.

We know we should choose healthy strategies such as exercise and meditating but binge eating, smoking weed, drinking etc. offer more immediate gratification when we are suffering.

These unhealthy coping strategies, while effective short-term, cause cortisol release as the body is stressed, resulting in inflammation. This inflammation can cause muscle tension, aches and pains, headaches as well as exacerbate many pre-existing health issues.

Trauma (PTSD) Somatic Physical Symptoms: Impaired Function

Trauma can include symptoms numerous and extreme enough to cause functional impairment. It is hard to go to work when we are having panic attacks. There are a number of impairment types expanded upon below.

Sexual Dysfunction

Sexual dysfunction can either be directly related to trauma, Ex. Vaginismus (pain as vaginal muscles tighten during penetration rather than relax) when sexually abused or indirect Ex.

You have developed Type 2 diabetes, in part, due to binge eating and now experience Erectile Dysfunction (inability to get or maintain an erection affecting intercourse) related to this physical diagnosis.

Please note many people experience sexual dysfunction that is not related to trauma as well. It is included here as there is a higher incidence in trauma survivors of sexual problems.

Social Functioning

Social functioning is often due to avoidance behaviour. If your trauma symptoms are acute, you may find it challenging to relax with friends and loved ones.

Work Functioning

Work function is often impacted by trauma and other related mental health diagnoses. It may be hard to get out of bed some days, Ex. vegetative symptoms. Cognitive and attentional issues may plague you. You may dissociate often, struggling with being present at work.

Daily Functioning

Daily functioning can be affected by trauma and related mental health symptoms such as depression. Energy levels can be low and it is imperative to do less, impacting the ability to cook for yourself and your family, clean your place.

Part 5: Treatment and Trauma

Trauma (PTSD) Treatment: Introduction

We have arrived at the final piece of this series in which we will cover the different types of treatment for trauma and trauma symptoms.

They are all well researched and effective, often being interwoven in an integrated way by experienced practitioners. It is about finding the right treatment, likely a set of treatments, that are right for you.

You may also find a particular treatment works to get started Ex. Group CBT, and then want to try a longer-term, one-on-one treatment once you feel some relief but still crave deeper healing and insight.

There are many effective options to choose from.

Trauma (PTSD) Treatment: Calming Central Nervous System & Optimal Self-care

It is so important to begin any treatment by acknowledging the changes trauma and PTSD symptoms bring to the central nervous system through increased anxiety and hypervigilance.

All mental health and related physical ailments are exacerbated by the chronic activation of the CNS. So this must be the starting point in any treatment.

A newer theory that explains the importance of the vagus nerve, CNS stimulation and trauma responses is Polyvagal Theory. Polyvagal Theory

There are many ways to calm the central nervous system, creating a toolbox you can draw from. It will take time and trying different things to determine what works for you.

Does listening to music calm and relax you?

Does a camping trip, spending time in nature ground you?

Does an intense workout at the gym feel like a necessity?

Maybe a walk through your favourite neighbourhood path is best? Do you bring your dog? The kids?

A technique I would be remiss not to mention, as it is so effective, is meditation.

Meditation that is practiced on an ongoing basis, with regularity, actually changes/heals your central nervous system so it takes more stressors to activate it. It does not have to be an hour of meditation, it can be only minutes, but practiced almost daily to get these powerful benefits. 

Trauma (PTSD) Treatment: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is used to redirect negative thoughts. It assesses what your distorted thoughts are. Practical exercises are then completed with your therapist to determine the core beliefs that developed due to your personal trauma and related experiences and relationships. Exercises are then used to reshape your thinking and address these harmful thoughts.

CBT is also often offered in a group setting. More on CBT 

Once you have learned these exercises you can use them for years, fine-honing their use in your life.

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Trauma (PTSD) Treatment: Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy was created to help you learn affect regulation, usually intense feelings, as opposed to numbing, low affect.

It is most often presented in either a group setting or integrated into one-on-one, longer term trauma therapy to support reducing intense affect in your life.

This is accomplished through practical exercises and self-care practices.

This has been found to be the most effective for people who have been diagnosed with

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) as affect regulation concerns are core to this experience. Research link 

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Trauma (PTSD) Treatment: Solution-focused Therapy (SFT)

Solution-focused Therapy and related techniques are used to address the relational and practical issues a trauma survivor may need help with. It is short-term goal-oriented and helps hone problem-solving skills. It is future-oriented, training you to move forward and avoid dwelling on the past as you navigate life.

An example is learning assertiveness and healthy boundaries in the family that abused you as a child.

Trauma (PTSD) Treatment: Mindfulness Therapy

Mindfulness begins with being facilitated by a therapist to help you become more aware of thoughts, emotions and patterns. This always you to make new choices.

This is also a way of being taught to slow down the central nervous system, enabling increased self-knowledge and biofeedback. It decreases dissociation, allowing you to be more present in life experience, including feelings. It also helps create a detachment from emotional intensity, slowing everything and making you more aware.

Trauma (PTSD) Treatment: Emotion-focused Therapy (EFT)

Emotion-focused Therapy is used to coach you in fully processing and experiencing your feelings. We rarely get a chance do to this in our busy lives.

This means talking about feelings and exploring them in order to help you experience, identify and regulate emotions, to better guide you in your relationships and decision-making.

These techniques help clients who struggle with affective and personality disorders as well as trauma. Emotion-focused sessions include discussing feelings in a complete way or emotion-coaching, helping you transform and make meaning in new ways.

Emotion-focused techniques are also used in trauma work to fully process shame and integrate memories, unfreezing them to fully process through the neocortex, the logical, executive functioning part of the brain, thereby reducing trauma symptoms. Ex. flashbacks.

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Trauma (PTSD) Treatment: Attachment/Relational Psychoanalytic Therapies

Attachment therapies make sense of the way we relate to others, beginning with our family.

Trauma impacts our sense of self and ability to trust and be close to others. We can form insecure, avoidant or disorganized attachment styles Learn More that make it seemingly impossible to be close to others.

Attachment and relational therapies heal this by both exploring relationships in your life and use the therapeutic relationship/alliance to heal, learning new ways to be close to people.

Trauma happens in attachment and is healed in attachment as well.

Psychoanalytic approaches include an analysis and human understanding of the brain and development that includes several founders Ex. Jungian and their students. They access the deep unconscious mind, break down coping defenses and rebuild a new way of being.

They are varied and different, unique to each psychoanalytic practitioner. They are usually long-term and intensive.  Freud is the most commonly recognized theorist and initial practitioner.

More About Psychoanalysis 

Trauma (PTSD) Treatment: Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)

Internal Family Systems can be used in many ways but in terms of trauma, it works with the various “parts” that make up our personality Ex Angry part.

All parts have feelings and roles in our lives.

All parts are identified, acknowledged. They are worked with to heal and harmonize conflicting parts to find and strengthen a core self. IFS Dick Schwartz 

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Trauma (PTSD) Treatment: Narrative Therapy

This is an approach that is used to “rewrite” your life story. We all have a life story, we are narrative beings in every area of our lives.

When we have experienced trauma, we may focus on negative pieces/memories. We may feel victimized feeling that life is always hard.

Narrative therapy supports retelling your story and becoming aware of pieces that no longer work, shaping a retelling that focuses on our strengths and the ways we survived.

It is empowering, getting to rewrite your story and choose new more flexible ways of being.

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Trauma (PTSD) Treatment: Chemotherapy

Many people find medication helps mitigate mental health symptoms.

There are medications that mitigate anxiety, depressive and other trauma symptoms. You can try to reduce intrusive thoughts/flashbacks and get much needed sleep.

Most people do not find this manages symptoms completely. The good news is that is that it works really well as an adjunct to therapy, with research finding the most relief is reported through a combination of medication and therapy. Research Link

I like to suggest it to clients as your life can be better, you do not need to suffer. It can help even temporarily, to get relief. Ex. If we do not sleep, we are quicker to trigger and poor affect. Getting a sleeping medication can support you as you heal, mitigating other symptoms.

Talk to your GP. They will either assess and prescribe or refer to a psychologist for diagnosis or a psychiatrist as they are specialized.

Trauma (PTSD) Treatment: Non-Verbal Treatment

Trauma is encoded in the non-verbal parts of our brain responsible for implicit memory. Janina Fisher Therefore, in order to fully heal we need to access what is stored in our body and visual centres. This makes it imperative to fully process trauma through fully, mitigating symptoms. There are many ways to do this. Many of these can be integrated as a part of a therapeutic/healing relationship.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR is a technique that accesses the brains natural healing centre and stimulates it using bilateral brain stimulation.

An EMDR therapist will assess you and identify key memories related to your trauma and held in your implicit memory centres, your amygdala. Then you allow those memories to surface while the therapist introduces bilateral stimulation, often using flashing lights or facilitated tapping.

This heals traumatic memories by tapping into our inherent, natural healing centre.

Sandtray

Sandtray a technique that uses sand play and small figures to visually depict and experience a world that you build in session, creating a world of your choosing that you are in control of. It taps into the unconscious to heal trauma in a gentle, less verbal way that is very powerful.

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It can be transformational helping to process grief, past hurts or help to identify and process what is causing or maintaining depressive and other mental health symptoms, enabling recovery.  It provides the possibility, to set up a world corresponding to your inner emotional state. Through free, creative play, unconscious processes are made visible in visual form.

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Somatic techniques 

Somatic therapy techniques can be either a main technique or integrated into therapeutic sessions to access trauma stored in the body.

This is accomplished through guided questioning, breathwork, movement and guided body scans/awareness to fully integrate the trauma through other parts of the brain, unlocking blocked/held experience.

Movement therapies

Movement therapies are facilitated by a therapist and can include physical practices such as yoga, dance, martial arts to access trauma held in the body. This aids full integration and processing of traumatic memories that are not fully healed due to the fight/flight/freeze response activated during a traumatic experience. Movement therapies foster the mind/body connection.

Art therapy 

Art Therapy uses drawing, painting and others crafts to access trauma memories, bring them to the surface of awareness and heal them. It facilitates the exploration of feelings and inner conflicts. The art therapist offers reflections and an analysis, guiding healing.

Grounding techniques 

Grounding techniques are used to ground you when you are emotionally triggered &/or dissociate due to either stressful stimuli or stimuli related to the trauma. They use your 5 senses to pull you out of yourself and back to the physical, corporeal world. Ex. Describe a given object to yourself in extreme detail.

Trauma (PTSD) Treatment: Maintenance

Once healing and symptom mitigation has been successful, it is important to remain committed to self-care and a healthy life and relationships to ensure long-term goals are nurtured and maintained.

Boundaries

Boundaries it is important to insist on healthy boundaries and being treated with respect in your relationships. This will ensure not falling into trauma responses such as people pleasing when we are feeling insecure and under stress.

Healthy Relationships 

Healthy Relationships we cannot heal and have resilient mental health if we are in toxic relationship dynamics. It is imperative to choose partners that support our newer, healthier selves. You may also need to shape healthy interactions with family or create distance to maintain your well-earned gains. 

Stress Management 

Stress Management stress is always a trigger for the relapse of symptoms and unhealthy coping strategies. If you are experiencing increased stress you will need to increase self-care strategies and may want to get supportive counselling to manage healthy stress levels.

Conclusion and Next Steps:

My hope is that you genuinely felt seen and understood as you read the 4 parts about trauma symptoms if trauma has been a part of your personal experience. I then hope you felt encouraged and inspired by the treatment and final part to get healing and get the life you want!

OUR TEAM

OUR TRAUMA TRANSFORMATIONS COMMUNITY

Thanks for reading!

Lisa Shouldice