A person’s childhood can set the stage for how they approach the rest of their life. Positive childhood experiences cultivate a sense of hope, excitement, and passion for the future, while negative ones may prompt anxious responses or feelings of distress. For those in our neighborhood who have experienced childhood trauma, individual therapy in D.C. remains one of the most responsive and personalized methods of challenging a negative or harmful upbringing.
Individual therapy will approach the treatment of any symptoms of childhood trauma differently depending on the person. Some individuals struggle with minor but persistent interference, while others feel trapped beneath constant, unrelenting traumatic responses. Both cases can respond well to therapy, and understanding how is the first step toward seeking the treatment you deserve.
What Does Childhood Trauma Look Like?
When people think of trauma, they tend to imagine events such as physical abuse or being in a serious accident, such as a vehicle collision. While these may certainly qualify as events that could traumatize a person (and especially a child), trauma may not always look the way you expect.
Trauma can be classified as any event that causes a child to believe, either accurately or inaccurately, that their safety or life is in danger. Traumatic experiences tend to be particularly impactful for children because they are still developing; their brains are more vulnerable to small changes in their sense of safety than adults’ brains are.
An adult may be able to withstand bullying (at least, to a greater extent) because they have critical thinking skills to evaluate the situation, whereas a child may feel that harsh words have placed them in direct physical danger. They may simply lack real-world experience to contextualize the possibility of true harm.
This does not, however, mean that trauma deriving from childhood incidents is any less valid. A perceived threat to a child is still a threat, and the body will respond accordingly. This can form the basis of a traumatic event, and children may continue to feel the effects into adulthood, even if they later realize that the event was not as dangerous as they believed at the time.
Of course, some events are extremely and immediately dangerous, and these, too, can cause lasting emotional harm. Some common childhood difficulties that affect adulthood include:
- Neglect
- Abuse (e.g., physical, sexual, emotional, verbal)
- Physical unwellness (e.g., illness, injury from an accident)
- Seeing violence occur to others (e.g., war, domestic abuse)
- Natural disasters
- Loss of a loved one in a disturbing manner
- Homelessness
These are just a few possibilities; any event that causes a child to feel frightened, threatened, or vulnerable can be the source of significant trauma and should be treated with empathy and support.
How Do You Know If You Are Suffering from Trauma?
For some people, the symptoms of trauma are very apparent and can even make daily tasks challenging. For others, the signs of childhood trauma may not be as obvious, even if they are just as present in one’s life.
While many popular media sources may portray trauma as having vivid flashbacks or recoiling from physical touch, such responses are less common. They may still occur, but they are not the hallmarks of trauma that the media portrays them to be.
Some of the indicators that a person is struggling with the effects of childhood trauma are more likely to include:
- Insomnia
- Consistent feelings of anxiousness
- A lowered appetite
- Mood swings
- Irritability, even if you cannot explain the cause
- A “short fuse” (i.e., being quick to anger)
- Difficulty concentrating
- Prolonged or unexplained periods of sadness and ennui
- Self-blaming behaviors (e.g., guilt for events outside your control)
- Withdrawal or an unwillingness to be social
- Chronic pain
- Eating disorders
- Self-harm
Studies indicate that adults who experienced childhood trauma are more likely to suffer from substance use disorders, such as drugs or alcohol, as well as suicidal ideation. However, just because some (or even most) of these symptoms do not sound like you does not mean that you are not suffering the long-term effects of trauma. If you feel like something is not right, an individual therapist can help: either to treat unidentified trauma or to help you find the source of your challenges.
When Do Traumatic Symptoms Appear?
Most people assume that they are not experiencing symptoms of childhood trauma because the events happened long ago. However, it is common for signs of trauma to appear in the late teenage and adult years; this may be especially true for children for whom trauma was a consistent part of life (e.g., regular verbal abuse). A child in such situations often learns how to cope in the moment in order to survive, and it is not until years later that they begin feeling the effects.
Studies show that, in general, children who experience trauma extremely early (around five years old or younger) may begin to demonstrate symptoms throughout childhood. However, children between the ages of 10 and 14 were more likely to slightly delay the manifestation of their symptoms until early adulthood.
Every person handles their experiences differently. If you believe you have symptoms, your personal timeline is all that matters. Seek help from an individual therapist who can guide you toward a more fulfilling life.
How Individual Therapy Can Help You Heal from Childhood Trauma
Approaching recovery from childhood trauma can be complicated. In many cases, a combination of therapy and, when necessary, supplemental medical assistance can yield positive results. Patients are encouraged to address physical health challenges, such as depression or anxiety, through medication if recommended by a medical professional. This treatment can provide a strong baseline for therapy work, even though therapy can itself help to ease depressive and anxious responses.
Therapy is curated to each person’s particular situation. Some of the most common methods, which may be applied either individually or in combination, include:
Cognitive processing therapy
A branch of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), cognitive processing therapy (CPT) is an education-focused approach that helps individuals understand their trauma and how it is affecting them. From there, the therapist helps guide the patient to process their trauma gradually: acknowledging it, working through the details, understanding the role it has played in their life, and learning how to continue in life without allowing the trauma to be an overwhelming influence.
This approach requires active participation from the participant, typically over the course of three to four months. The patient learns to identify the emotions, symptoms, and actions arising from the trauma so they can address them directly.
EMDR
Another common option for trauma-based therapy is EMDR, or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. The US Department of Defense advocates for EMDR as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, and it is useful for a range of trauma recovery scenarios.
EMDR takes advantage of the way the brain stores and processes information. Suppose that the brain is a filing cabinet. Memories are papers that should be filed into the cabinet, where they are out of sight but still accessible when needed. However, traumatic memories are more akin to papers that have been strewn across the floor. They have not been filed correctly, and each time you walk through the room, you encounter them. They are stuck outside their intended destination.
The patient and therapist work together to build a bond of trust, after which the therapist asks the participant to focus on a specific area that is causing symptoms in their life. Then, the therapist uses tapping, sounds, or guided eye movements to encourage the patient’s brain to activate both hemispheres. By alternating the parts of the brain that are active, scientists posit that EMDR allows the traumatic information to finally migrate to the places it is supposed to be stored (into the “filing cabinet”). This moves the problematic memories out of active cognition and helps them to exert less of an effect on patients’ daily lives.
Exposure
For some patients, exposure therapy can be especially useful. The therapist gradually and empathetically exposes the participant to fragments or elements of the situation in which they experienced trauma. For someone who was involved in a serious car accident as a child, they may begin by playing car noises in the office. Then, as the patient becomes more confident, they might watch videos of cars getting into fender benders. The patient may, over time, succeed in sitting in a parked car, then riding in a moving car, and then eventually gaining the confidence to drive for themselves.
Exposure therapy is done at an extremely careful pace, and therapists spend significant time teaching coping skills, relaxation techniques, and grounding to help patients gradually overcome their trauma response.
Art, play, and music
Some patients, and especially children with symptoms, benefit from therapy that is not focused solely on speaking. Play therapy, for example, allows children to engage with toys, puzzles, or games, which can take some of the focus away from the traumatic event in the brain.
Then, the therapist will observe their behavior or have simple conversations. Gathering and processing information in this manner is often more accessible for children and does not place them in stressful situations, such as speaking with a therapist about an event that makes them uncomfortable.
Toys, music, art, journaling, and more are all possibilities for this type of therapy. The method is dictated by the child’s interests and motivators.
Get Help with Traumatic Experiences from an Individual Therapist
Childhood trauma can have lasting impacts on a person’s life, and symptoms may persist for many years after the event. However, individual therapy can provide patients with power over their symptoms, allowing them to reclaim their lives and find success. Contact Aquila Recovery Clinic if you need help managing your traumatic symptoms or if you would like guidance on coping with the challenges in your life.