Trauma can be a devastating event, but it can also be a positive experience. To get the most out of your trauma therapy sessions, it's important to prepare beforehand. This includes reading up on the history of the trauma, identifying your daily routine, writing down any symptoms that occur, and providing examples of triggers. Additionally, you should make sure to find a therapist who is experienced in working with psychological trauma or traumatic grief.
Once you and your therapist have established a safe space, there are several different ways in which your trauma work can take shape. Here are six coping skills that can help you both inside and outside of the session while you're doing trauma therapy.
1.Square Your Shoulders and Open Your Posture
To create a sense of safety and stability, try to sit down, square your shoulders and open your posture. This will help create a limit between you and anything you're up against.
2.Half Smile
Gently twist your lips until you get something called Half Smile. This is a moving and cathartic way of addressing traumatic memories, giving them the space to tell their story through their eyes.
3.Imagine a Future Without Trauma
The third formal stage of childhood trauma treatment is one in which you will begin to imagine a future in which trauma does not define you or dictate the decisions you make in the future.
4.Recognize the Importance of Social Support
This will help your community of friends or your children recognize the importance of social support, both for others and, if they are ever traumatized, for them.
5.Step Away From the Trauma During Times of Stress
Your therapist will structure sessions in a way that protects you from involuntary retraumatization by asking you to manually step away from the trauma during times of stress.
6.Somatic Experience Therapy (SE)
An alternative option is somatic experience therapy (SE), a holistic approach to treating traumatic disorders that focuses on releasing negative energy that remains in the body after childhood trauma. It's important to understand that thinking and feeling this way immediately after trauma is a normal response to an abnormal situation.
With these coping skills, you can prepare for trauma therapy and make sure that safety is the most important factor in each of your sessions.
