“The Road to Recovery: Overcoming Trauma in Therapy”

“Let’s start by telling me about the worst day of your life.” I joke that this is what a therapist does on a daily basis. Most of the time, the response to this question will be a story filled with drama and suffering. One of the most important parts of a therapist’s job is dealing with clients who have experienced traumatic events and sometimes debilitating memories. We carry these memories with us, and they can be triggered when we have new experiences that are similar to them.

Trauma work can be some of the most challenging, yet ultimately fulfilling work you will ever undertake. Similar to a workout, the experience becomes a “no pain, no gain” for many. While there are therapists who specialize exclusively in trauma, most therapists need to have a basic framework to address traumatic experiences. It’s similar to a family physician who, while not specializing in digestive issues, will still know how to address an ulcer in patients.

My best advice for someone seeking to deal with past trauma is to find an experienced therapist to assist them. While I believe that many individuals in our field who are undergoing training, referred to as interns, candidates, or under supervision, do an excellent job of addressing anxiety, depression, family issues, and similar concerns, I do not think that most of them have sufficient training in trauma work yet. Most graduate programs do not have the capacity to provide comprehensive trauma training as it is a highly specialized field that requires therapists to engage in their own personal work as part of the process.

One of the newer treatments in the last couple of decades is EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and its offshoot, Brainspotting. Both of these therapies go beyond talk therapy and delve into the deep work of mid-brain trauma memories. One of the things I appreciate about both is that you don’t have to rehash the trauma as you might expect. The trauma is “reprocessed” as a memory, which makes it less raw in our mind.

The simplest way I explain this is to think about the last time you had a song stuck in your head. The more I dislike a song, the more likely it is to get stuck in my head. The scientific reason is that our brain is attempting to recall and complete the song from memory. So, the remedy for a stuck song is to listen to it! When I do that, guess what happens? The song has left my memory. Both EMDR and Brainspotting can assist in processing trauma, allowing us to refile it as a regular memory rather than an anxiety-inducing, jarring, or frightening experience.

I offer Brainspotting to clients who would like to address their traumatic experiences. While less well-known at EMDR, an empirical study conducted in Sandy Hook found it to be the most effective trauma treatment. A future post will provide more information about Brainspotting. For now, you can check out this report on community assessment from the National Center for Health Care Financing, which can be found by clicking here.

Whenever you’re ready to deal with the worst day of your life, look for a seasoned therapist to help and consider one who does EMDR or Brainspotting.