Trauma

Anyone can be traumatized at anytime and everyone will react and be impacted by trauma differently. It is the individuals personal experience of an event that will determine the extent of the trauma response. There are 5 primary elements that are often common during trauma:

The traumatic event was unexpected;
The individual was unprepared and did not expect or foresee the event;
There is nothing the individual could have done to stop the event from happening;
Trauma often leaves an individual with a sense of powerlessness and can impact one's functioning and wellbeing on all levels - physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually;
Individuals often try to deal or overcome the trauma by blocking the experience, suppressing all reminders of the experience and avoiding people and places that serve as reminders of the event.

When trauma is not processed and acknowledged it is always lurking in the shadows as an underlying threat, fear or anxiousness. Unprocessed trauma also keeps us unknowingly hypervigilant and contributes to an overactive threat response - we are on high alert and frightened easily. During counselling, especially during the first couple of sessions we refrain from asking the client to describe the event and experience in too much graphic detail, it is in the clients best interest to first develop skills and techniques to minimize any traumatic impact when telling their story. The aim will be to build emotional stability, increase the window of tolerance and learn how to calm an overactive threat response system.Through psychoeducation the individual will be introduced to grounding techniques which will help the client self-soothe and find a safe inner space. Breathing exercises and mindfulness are necessary and valuable skills in processing trauma, together with self-compassion and distraction techniques.