Building Trust
Trauma
The Mental Health field has treated trauma as if it were a rare occurrence. Trauma isn’t rare. Many researchers and clinicians are stating that trauma is as common as clinical depression. For decades, clients have been misdiagnosed, misclassified and mistreated due to our field’s lack of attention and knowledge of trauma.
Finally, this is being corrected. With trauma research increasing, more and more successful treatment approaches are being utilized to help clients recover from devastating, life altering experiences. No longer is trauma being understood as an infrequent, rare occurrence. The understanding of trauma is not only changing in the field of psychology, but in its recognition by clients as well.
When someone mentions a trauma survivor, the type of profile that comes to mind is a person who must have survived early childhood physical or sexual abuse, a person who was involved in a serious accident or someone exposed to war. As all of these situations do have devastating impacts, they are not the only or even most common contributors to creating trauma. Instead, situations of isolation and abandonment are the primary culprits.
John Bowlby, the creator or Attachment theory, states, “Isolation at the time of emotional need is inherently traumatizing.” We as human beings are not meant to be alone. We are hardwired to respond with distress and alarm when feelings of abandonment arise. Unfortunately, in this culture we are called weak, immature and too dependent if we feel anything negative when left alone. Instead, we are supposed to be strong, able to self-soothe, be independent and not affected when others move away from us.
This mindset is wrong and neuroscience is supporting this one hundred percent. Some of the most successful treatment of trauma is being done through the use of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT). This is the work I do. In EFT, I used couples counseling to help create a strong emotional bond for the partners to be able to use their relationship in times of distress and in healing of old wounds. Turning to your partner in times of emotional need is perhaps the only true solution to the fear created by feelings of isolation and abandonment. When we know that there is someone in this world that will respond to us when we reach for them, we have created a natural healing environment for potentially devastating effects; trauma.
The Mental Health field has treated trauma as if it were a rare occurrence. Trauma isn’t rare. Many researchers and clinicians are stating that trauma is as common as clinical depression. For decades, clients have been misdiagnosed, misclassified and mistreated due to our field’s lack of attention and knowledge of trauma.
Finally, this is being corrected. With trauma research increasing, more and more successful treatment approaches are being utilized to help clients recover from devastating, life altering experiences. No longer is trauma being understood as an infrequent, rare occurrence. The understanding of trauma is not only changing in the field of psychology, but in its recognition by clients as well.
When someone mentions a trauma survivor, the type of profile that comes to mind is a person who must have survived early childhood physical or sexual abuse, a person who was involved in a serious accident or someone exposed to war. As all of these situations do have devastating impacts, they are not the only or even most common contributors to creating trauma. Instead, situations of isolation and abandonment are the primary culprits.
John Bowlby, the creator or Attachment theory, states, “Isolation at the time of emotional need is inherently traumatizing.” We as human beings are not meant to be alone. We are hardwired to respond with distress and alarm when feelings of abandonment arise. Unfortunately, in this culture we are called weak, immature and too dependent if we feel anything negative when left alone. Instead, we are supposed to be strong, able to self-soothe, be independent and not affected when others move away from us.
This mindset is wrong and neuroscience is supporting this one hundred percent. Some of the most successful treatment of trauma is being done through the use of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT). This is the work I do. In EFT, I used couples counseling to help create a strong emotional bond for the partners to be able to use their relationship in times of distress and in healing of old wounds. Turning to your partner in times of emotional need is perhaps the only true solution to the fear created by feelings of isolation and abandonment. When we know that there is someone in this world that will respond to us when we reach for them, we have created a natural healing environment for potentially devastating effects; trauma.