Trauma Therapy
Are You Struggling To Move On From Trauma?
Do you feel as though you’re being held back by traumatic memories or experiences? Would you describe yourself as unable to break out of a state of hypervigilance or feeling stuck in problematic relationships and coping patterns? Have you regularly experienced symptoms such as:
Anxiety, rumination, or panic?
Depression, exhaustion, or fatigue?
Disconnection, isolation, or withdrawal?
Unrelenting uncertainty in relationships?
Trauma comes in many forms. One of the types of trauma therapy that we specialize in is for attachment trauma. Maybe your parents were absent, unpredictable, or emotionally unavailable throughout your childhood. As a result, you now notice yourself having trouble feeling safe and secure in your relationships, trusting others, or simply feeling good enough. Perhaps you just didn’t feel loved or accepted for who you are when you were young, and the pain has carried over into adulthood—impacting your self-worth and creating abandonment anxiety. For the first time, you may be considering seeing a therapist who treats this form of trauma.
Past Trauma Can Greatly Impact Your Emotional, Physical, And Relational Health
When you’ve experienced trauma, every aspect of your life is deeply affected. You may be experiencing physical symptoms like headaches, stomach issues, or even full-blown panic attacks. You might struggle with disruptions to your eating or sleeping schedules and have trouble regulating your emotions. Maybe it’s difficult for you to manage your emotional responses to triggers and stressors. But above all, trauma may have the most profound effect on your relationships. You might have a tough time choosing and maintaining stable relationships due to fears of abandonment and rejection. Perhaps you’re deeply afraid of what others think of you and you go out of your way to seek reassurance from them.
Here’s the good news, though: trauma is treatable, and you can recover. You are truly not alone, and therapy with New York City Psychotherapy can help you address your childhoodtrauma or PTSD symptoms and move past them once and for all. With our help and support, you can gain greater insight into your own truth so that you can finally start living your life in a way that feels safe and authentic to you.
Trauma Is Far More Common Than You Might Think
Although trauma survivors often feel quite alone in their struggles, the experience of trauma is actually far too common. In fact, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, “about one-half of all U.S. adults will experience at least one traumatic event in their lives,” with the lifetime prevalence of PTSD falling at 6.8 percent (1).
Oftentimes, the trauma that people experience never gets fully processed or resolved after it happens. And over time, as these same people progress through the rest of their lives, a lot of this unresolved trauma can accumulate and hold them back in ways large and small. They often experience a lack of safety in relationships, feelings of shame and low self-worth, and trouble regulating and controlling their emotions.
Many Trauma Survivors Feel A Lack Of External Support
Some survivors of trauma simply feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to even begin as far as reaching out for support goes, while others are unsure about what type of counseling might benefit them. Others want to reach out but find themselves too afraid to confront difficult emotions or painful memories. As a result, they often limit external support and face their struggles alone.
At NYCP, we can offer you that vital support. With trauma therapy, you can build a greater understanding of your own emotions and fill in the blanks that you’ve always felt were missing in your story. We want to help you challenge former narratives and build the future you want.
Therapy Can Help You Heal From Trauma And Thrive
When you’ve undergone trauma and never fully processed your experience, it can feel as though these painful feelings will never go away. But a skilled and dedicated trauma counselor can help you actively work on healing yourself and regaining control of your life.
Therapy gives you a safe and supportive space to properly process trauma by exploring how your experiences have impacted you throughout your life. You will work to make connections, build insights, learn skills to regulate your nervous system, and progress through the healing process. Together you and your therapist can work on finding a greater sense of forward momentum in your life and confidence in your ability to cope.
What You Can Expect From Trauma Therapy Sessions
Before you begin your trauma therapy sessions, you will connect with your counselor to provide some background information about your history and your symptoms. This will allow you to create a trauma treatment plan specific to your situation and needs.
During your actual therapy sessions, you will work with your therapist to learn skills that help you change how you experience your emotions as well as reduce the intensity of trauma symptoms or PTSD triggers. Although your trauma therapist will challenge you to try new things and work on new skills, the pace and progression of counseling will always be determined by you and your level of comfort.
An Approach To Therapy That Will Help You Recover
Your therapist will integrate multiple treatment modalities to treat your trauma or PTSD symptoms, including:
Psychodynamic Therapy (PDT) – PDT uses psychoanalytic theory to explore the connections between past trauma and your current struggles with it.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT) – TFCBT seeks to reframe negative thoughts, beliefs, or ideas related to your trauma.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) – DBT works to address some of the intense or long-lasting emotions that often accompany trauma or PTSD symptoms.
Somatic-Focused Therapy (SFT) – Somatic therapy can help you identify and release psychological pain stemming from your trauma that has been stored in your body.
By combining these different modalities, your trauma therapist will teach you concrete skills to manage and regulate your emotions in the day-to-day and in moments of crisis. Remember that trauma does not have to define you. You are so much more than your trauma and you deserve to live the life that you want to live—with a sense of peace and independence. And with our help, you can regain a sense of freedom, empowerment, and safety in your life.
You May Still Have Some Questions About Trauma Therapy…
Trauma work feels intimidating and overwhelming; how would it be paced?
The pace of therapy is always set by you. Our therapists are extremely dedicated to building a sense of safety in sessions so that you can explore what you want to explore and work on healing in a way that feels best for you and your well-being.
I don’t want to include anyone else in my trauma therapy; will it be confidential?
Therapy is absolutely confidential unless there is some sort of safety concern involved. Therapy is about you, and you do not need to include anyone else in your sessions unless you choose to include them.
I don’t want to be in therapy forever; how long will trauma therapy last?
The length of therapy can vary depending on what you want to work on. Therapy is not a quick fix to problems, but the more that you put into it, the more value you will see in how it can impact your mental health and quality of life. Regardless of how long the healing process lasts, we encourage you to be patient with yourself and remember that everyone recovers in their own unique way.
You Can Heal And Move Forward With Your Life
If you are interested in overcoming the aftereffects of trauma, therapy with NY City Psychotherapy can help you recover a sense of safety, security, and freedom.
Please call us at 917-274-7492 or utilize our contact page to set up a complimentary, 15-minute phone consultation session to get started. We look forward to working with you.
(1) https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd
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