Trauma Recovery

Trauma can be emotional or psychological, and result from a single traumatic event or a series of extraordinarily stressful events, that involves a threat to life or safety, perceived or actual physical harm directed towards yourself or others.

The traumatic event, whether or not actual, perceived or anticipated can shatter your sense of security, even if it does not involve physical harm and leave you feeling helpless. Trauma can cause us to view the world as a dangerous place especially after having experiencing stressful, frightening or distressing events leaving you feeling overwhelmed and isolated.

After experiencing a traumatic event, you can be re-traumatized (unknowingly and unintentionally) if you are to be placed in a similar environment in which the traumatic event took place, if and when anything, anyone or any situation triggers that traumatic event, and it is being replayed in your memory. Many of these thoughts and feelings that occur during a re-traumatization of the traumatic event can leave you feeling an extremely distressing emotional response. These emotional responses can be debilitating and hinders you from living your potential and a happy, safe, fulfilling life.

Many people are unaware that they carry hidden traumas. It is by going through those events we find traumatic that we recall that certain events, situations, circumstances or people that just would not go away no matter how you try to forget. For others, trauma is part of the process of grief and loss, where every second is just filled with those painful, empty moments and you just wish the pain would end.

Individuals whom have experienced trauma, find themselves different from whom they were in the past, and feel that they can never go back to who they were before the traumatic event. The traumatic event had left such a mark on them and their lives that it shapes the individual to a whole different level of being. It is common for individuals to discover great loss in the aftermath of trauma, especially when they no longer know who they are after the traumatic event, leading to further complications of identity crisis and sometimes, identification and adaptation to a new persona in order to cope with the trauma and to grieve the loss. These traumatic events can take place after a dreadful experience such as an accident, rape, illness, loss of life, or natural disaster.

Individuals can find that no amount of solace can help them return to a state of normalcy. Shock and denial are typical responses immediately after a traumatic event.

Trauma may not necessarily be actual or real. Trauma can also be caused by perception or anticipation of a threat for example, being doused in liquid petroleum followed by a threat to light the fluid but without having actually gone through the actual act itself  (actual scenario of an individual whom had experienced trauma though an anticipatory act of violence). The same can be applied if the actual act itself had not been carried out but a threat to do so, such as constant reminders that the individual will meet his/her fate if she chooses to disobey. Where a child is present and an observer to the event, the child also suffers a traumatic episode, by witnessing the mother’s cries for help and fearful emotions both for herself and her child. The child experiences a tremendous amount of helplessness and shock.

The subjective emotional experience of an event, determines whether an event is traumatic to the individual. The likelihood of experiencing trauma, is dependent on the sensitivities of the individual and the gravity of the situation. Each individual experiences trauma differently from another. The more frightened and helpless you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized.

Each re-traumatizing event embeds and can compound the fear and helplessness without the ability to process and release these emotional responses safely. Individuals may face unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships, and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea. Some may cause them to seek other coping mechanisms like drugs and alcohol, and others may attempt self-harm or extreme measures to end the pain.

We provide a safe space for you, and more importantly, to facilitate the trauma recovery in a pain free and effective manner.