Trauma-focused therapy sessions are designed to help young people discover skills and strategies to better respond to reminders and emotions associated with a traumatic event. The goal of the therapist is to ensure safety is the most important factor in each session. To do this, the therapist will create a safe space both in the counseling session and in the patient's daily life. This helps to regain confidence and a sense of control.
The therapist will also provide a warm, consistent, and supportive environment during the therapy session. The patient will then start to share painful details of their ordeal. With the help of a therapist who actively listens, offers connection and positive feedback, the patient creates a chronological narrative of their life, including both traumatic and positive experiences. This can help to disconfirm problematic beliefs, develop a new perspective on the traumatic experience, and reduce the intensity of trauma-related emotions.
In addition, tools and strategies are taught to create safety outside the therapy environment. Yoga is a great way to slowly close the gap between mind and body while teaching the body to feel emotions in a non-threatening way. Somatic experience therapy (SE) is another holistic approach to treating traumatic disorders that focuses on releasing negative energy that remains in the body after childhood trauma. There are several types of evidence-based trauma therapies that can improve a person's quality of life. These include cognitive processing therapy (CPT) and Prolonged Exposure (PE).
CPT and PE are the first-line treatments for trauma, as they have the most research evidence to prove their effectiveness. Every therapy session must be done with care and kindness, and that requires a lot of nuances on the part of the therapist.
