TRAUMA THERAPY

Moving Through Traumatic Events

Traumatic events and experiences can deeply impact your life. Our brains and bodies are designed to protect us from violence and potential dangers, but when we witness or experience trauma first hand, it can be hard to get things back on an even keel. A loud noise, a smell, or even seeing a specific person can trigger a fear response that feels wrong and limits a person’s ability to complete daily tasks. If this sounds familiar, you may want to consider working with a therapist at Mosaic Community Services to start processing past trauma. Trauma can haunt us for years, but there are solutions-based and effective therapy techniques available that can help you move through trauma towards a happier life.

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The Impact of Trauma on the Brain & Body

Some people seem to move beyond the most violent or troubling experiences easily with minimal impact to their daily lives. Others, have more difficulty moving forward. The brain can take the experience of fear and carry it into other parts of life, making it difficult to concentrate, causing elevated blood pressure, and generally changing the way a person thinks and functions. You can never tell how your brain will process trauma, but therapy can help you to train your brain to recognize and accept past traumatic events and return to a more natural current and future response to potential triggers.

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How Therapy Helps with Trauma Recovery

If you’re experiencing a traumatic response that is limiting your abilities or otherwise causing you distress, therapy can help. Many people who visit Mosaic Community Services for trauma therapy tell a similar story. It goes something like this:

“I visited a therapist because I felt anxious and was having panic attacks. This made my day-to-day almost impossible. I started withdrawing and staying home as much as possible. My therapist told me to go out to places I felt safe and avoid triggering factors. When something did happen, I had my therapy session to look forward to where we would talk about the incident, and I would feel better. After I left therapy, all the symptoms I was struggling with before came back.”

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Unfortunately, counselors who don’t specifically work with evidence-based trauma therapy methods can’t always provide a lasting solution to help people work through trauma. We utilize a number of cognitive behavioral therapy techniques that give people the skills they need to not just avoid triggering events but to actually move beyond their trauma and reset the way their brain processes and responds to triggers. There’s no cure for trauma-based conditions, but there are many therapies that deliver positive, life-long results.

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Trauma Therapy Sessions

During your intake sessions, we will ask you talk about the traumatic event(s) that caused you to seek trauma therapy. Then, we’ll discuss your current triggers and how they’re impacting your thought processes and behaviors. Finally, we’ll discuss what changes you hope to make in order to improve the way you handle the impact of trauma and develop a plan to help you achieve your goals using evidence-based, solutions-focused therapy methods. In cases of domestic violence or other ongoing trauma exposure, our first step will be safety planning.

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At your continuing sessions, we will develop plans for your therapy that address any incidents that occurred since our last discussion. If you were given “homework,” we’ll talk about how it went. Based on any incidents during the week and/or the results of your homework, we’ll continue to pinpoint triggers and adverse responses and develop skills to address difficult situations and process potentially intense emotional and physical responses.

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How do I Get Started with Mosaic Community Services?

If you’re ready to schedule a trauma therapy session or you want to learn more, you can call or email our team. One of us will be happy to speak with you about available counseling services and help you determine what your next steps should be.