Therapy is often a longer process than first-time patients anticipate. This is because they may enter treatment for a specific issue, only to discover deeper and more chronic difficulties. Regardless of the type of psychotherapy or personal problem, the reason people become so impatient with the process is relatively universal - they desperately want to feel better. It takes time to undo patterns that no longer work, which have been developed over a lifetime.
A therapist can help people dismantle maladaptive behaviors and beliefs and develop new ones faster than they could on their own, but it still requires an investment of time. Trauma therapy often takes longer if a person has experienced multiple cases of abuse. This includes physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and chronic physical or emotional neglect. Conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) usually take 15 to 20 sessions for 50% of patients to feel an improvement. People treated with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) have been found to report feeling better after around 10 to 20 sessions. Why is trauma therapy so difficult? Emotions need to be felt in order to heal, and this makes healing so difficult and painful.
By adopting an approachable attitude and moving towards something that is considered significant, the trauma victim can find growth and recovery after the trauma. This bilateral stimulation (tracking the finger from one side to the other) helps reactivate the amygdala to its original traumatic state (it remembers traumatic details to process them) and, at the same time, reduces activity in the prefrontal cortex (distracts it with the task of tracking finger movements so as not to block disturbing thoughts and emotions that are remembered).To help them do so, the therapist simultaneously moves their finger slowly from side to side in front of the client's face while following the movements of the therapist's fingers with their eyes while remembering and talking about the disturbing aspects of their trauma. You can ask a trusted friend, loved one, support person, or therapist for suggestions and comments. It's important to understand that exposure therapy is a slow process that helps you begin to safely reinterpret painful thoughts and emotions associated with trauma. For example, someone who has been in a car accident and has been traumatized may be asked to look at photographs of car accidents, listen to loud sounds and, finally, once they feel more comfortable, drive on the road.
While healing is a lifelong journey for many, most don't work with a therapist for extended periods of time. PTSD can create long-term adverse changes in emotions, thinking, and behavior as a direct result of exposure to trauma. The initial stages of therapy involve building trust between the patient and the therapist and developing healthy coping skills. In cognitive processing therapy, the therapist will ask the client to write about their traumatic experiences in detail and then read it aloud. In your journal, start writing about your traumatic event as an adjunct to therapy or as a self-healing when psychotherapy is not accessible or affordable. Medications can help relieve symptoms of depression or anxiety, but they don't address chaotic childhood or unresolved trauma that could be causing these conditions.
Trauma therapy is about returning to the past and making sense of what happened in a way that allows you to make peace with it and recognize that the threat is no longer present. They will be asked to access a traumatic memory during each session, either verbally, in writing or imagining it in as much detail as possible, starting with less distressing thoughts and memories. EMDR is designed to cure psychological trauma that forces patients to remember painful events and feelings that followed while activating the brain's information processing center through rapid eye movements directed by the therapist.
