When you have suffered through a trauma, it’s very common to feel helpless in the moments when the traumatic event occurs. That helpless feeling is often something that lingers for years to come unless healing takes place. More often than not, helplessness can manifest itself in the body as muscle tension, or as sensations of [...]

It’s possible that you’ve heard of EMDR as a method that is frequently used by trauma therapists, but you’re not really sure what it is or how it works. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a type of therapy that might seem to be a bit strange at first. In fact, when it was [...]

Whether you suspect that you may have been through a traumatic event that you just can’t remember, or you’re someone who fully remembers a traumatic event, and you frequently have flashbacks, the thought of talking to someone about it might be a bit overwhelming for you. It can be hard to think about sitting down [...]

One of the characteristics that is exhibited by those who have been through traumatic events is silence. Many trauma victims remain silent about what they’ve been through for many years, and they do so for any number of personal reasons. Some of these may include: The fear of experiencing the traumatic event all over again [...]

There have been so many studies done on the role of relationships when it comes to avoiding being traumatized, and overcoming trauma once it has occurred. If you think about it, when you’re scared, or when you have been scared in the past, you feel calmed when you know someone you love is close by. [...]

It’s very common for people who have suffered through a traumatic event to find themselves at a loss for words when it comes to articulating that event. Speaking about it makes it seem all the more real, and every time it’s brought to mind, it’s like living it all over again. As a result, they [...]

Trauma victims all share the same type of experience in that the past is ever-present, regardless of what is happening now, and what will happen in the future. Many trauma victims don’t realize that they have been through a traumatic event until something triggers a flashback, and if you have ever experienced a flashback, you [...]

It is very common for those who have gone through a traumatic event to repress any and all memories about the event. In some cases, those memories never resurface. Instead, they show themselves through the victim’s behavior, speech or thought patterns. However, in other cases, those memories do show themselves, and this generally happens because [...]

It’s remarkable how many people exhibit behaviors that they can’t fully understand. Sometimes these individuals don’t have any idea that there is anything wrong with their negative behaviors, and they continue that way until something triggers a traumatic experience that brings it all into the light. In his book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, [...]

  We’ve talked about how many (but not all) traumatic experiences actually begin with something that occurred during a person’s childhood. These experiences can happen during the formative teenage years, during the elementary school years, or even during infancy. There are countless stories out there about children who were mistreated, abused or neglected by their [...]