There is a short answer to this question – yes. After a traumatic experience, people deal with a wide range of side effects. From changes in mood and behavior to physical effects like high blood pressure, the effects of trauma are varied and long-lasting. Without treatment, trauma effects may heal or improve over time for many people, but it’s much more likely that symptoms of trauma will worsen over time. In this blog, we discuss the impact of trauma, benefits of therapy to address the effects, and how to get started working with us for trauma therapy at Cedar Counseling & Wellness.
How Trauma Impacts People
When distress related to witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event overwhelms a person’s ability to cope, they are said to be experiencing trauma. Traumatic experiences impact our mind just like a traumatic injury effects the body. Think about the way your body heals a bruise. Do bruises tend to be light and fade quickly? Do you develop dark, noticeable bruises that change colors before fading? Everyone’s body heals from a physical injury differently, so you won’t be surprised to hear that people also heal from emotional trauma differently. Everyone has a unique threshold for trauma. Think about bruising again and how some people bruise more easily than others. Two people who go through the same traumatic experience may have very different responses to the event. Some of the ways that trauma effects people include:
- Emotional responses – increased anxiety, anger, depression, or mood swings.
- Cognitive responses – reliving the traumatic event, struggling to concentrate, increasing vigilance.
- Physical responses – nausea, upset stomach, dizziness, rapid heart rate, sleeping more or less than usual, and eating more or less than usual.
Benefits of Therapy
First and foremost, therapy offers a safe space for people struggling with the effects of trauma to move forward and heal. Trauma can leave people feeling helpless and overwhelmed, but therapy offers the resources and strategies to ensure people heal. Your therapist will work alongside you to ensure you feel safe and comfortable with every step of the process. In addition to offering a safe space to work through the effects of trauma, therapy also delivers a number of other benefits, including:
- Understanding – increasing knowledge of what trauma is and how it impacts them is an important part of trauma recovery. Therapy can also help to identify and minimize the impacts of trauma.
- Resilience – increased resilience can lessen the impact of trauma by helping people bounce back and face the traumatic experience.
- Flexibility – trauma often leaves people feeling trapped or frozen. Sudden changes can be very overwhelming and trigger symptoms. Therapy can help increase flexibility and decrease trauma response.
- Coping strategies – during therapy sessions, you can learn healthy coping strategies to minimize the daily impact of trauma and triggers.
- Processing – perhaps most importantly, therapy allows you to process trauma, so the effects diminish or even go away over time.
Getting Started
If you’re struggling with the aftermath of trauma, the Cedar Counseling & Wellness team is here to support you as you heal and move forward with a more satisfying life. When you’re ready to get started working with us, please give us a call at (443) 924-6344, email info@cedarcounselingandwellness.com, or complete our online scheduling form.
