Manage the symptoms of trauma by seeking help from counsellors.
Trauma therapy helps individuals to cope with the emotions associated with traumatic events and reduce the symptoms.
You will be encouraged to process the traumatic event, empowering you to change the negative thinking patterns linked to them.
The aim is to enable you to deal with the symptoms, restore your self-esteem and move on with life.
Types of Trauma
1. Acute Stress Disorder
What it is:
Acute stress disorder (ASD) is caused by excessive anxiety and panic. This is typically diagnosed within 4 weeks after a traumatic event and is similar to anxiety disorder.
Symptoms:
Some common psychological symptoms include anxiety, irritability, mood swings, lack of concentration, avoidance and aggressiveness. Physical symptoms include heart palpitations, nausea, headaches and abdominal pains.
2. Relational Trauma
What it is:
Relational trauma can occur in both children and adults. This is triggered by an unhealthy relationship and an ongoing set of events, often a result of abuse, neglect, or enmeshment.
• Childhood relational trauma
This can be traced back to their unhealthy relationships with parents or other caregivers. Children raised under abuse, neglect, or enmeshment will experience confusion, uncertainty, unworthiness and carry these emotional burdens into adulthood.
• Adult relational trauma
This can be extended from childhood or from their current unhealthy relationships. The neglect and abandonment they feel often lead them to feel extreme devastation, rage, guilt and shame.
Symptoms:
Common symptoms of relational trauma are neediness, volatile emotions, lack of self-confidence, negativity, avoidance and constant body aches.
3. Developmental Trauma
What it is:
Developmental trauma (DT) primarily happens to children, caused by early childhood neglect, mistreatment and abuse by parents or caregivers over an extended period of time.
Without a safe and loving environment, the sequential development of infants’ and toddlers’ brains may be interrupted and manifest into other disorders. DT can cause psychological and neurological disruptions such as speech delays, learning disabilities, personality disorders and may eventually develop into PTSD.
Symptoms:
Children with DT tend to feel severe shame, powerlessness, despair, unexplainable fear, unpredictable mood swings and deep isolation.
4. Extreme or Dissociative Trauma
What it is:
Dissociation is a survival response to a traumatic event to protect you from mental and physical pain. Prolonged dissociation trauma can lead to disorders, such as depersonalisation disorder, dissociative identity disorder or dissociative amnesia.
Symptoms:
Some symptoms may include experiencing memory loss of some events, people and a distorted perception of people and things. Other symptoms include feeling detached from yourself, depression, anxiety and even suicidal thoughts.
5. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
What it is:
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a serious mental health condition, where symptoms are present for more than 1 month. PTSD typically develops within 3 months of experiencing a traumatic event.
The seriousness and duration of the disorder vary from person to person. Some people can take months to recover, whereas some can take much longer. However, with the right therapy plan, you will be able to manage your symptoms.
Symptoms:
Some symptoms may include repeated traumatic flashbacks, hallucinations, nightmares, avoidance of people and/or places and the inability to concentrate or sleep. Some may also experience physical symptoms such as heightened blood pressure, nausea and diarrhoea.
Events Causing Trauma
Trauma is typically caused by experiencing or witnessing a terrible event. Here are some forms of traumatic events:
- Natural disasters
- Serious car accidents
- Neglect, deprivation
- Victim of crimes
- War or political violence
- Death of a loved one
- Community violence
- Domestic or family violence
- Dating violence
- Physical abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Major injury, illness, or procedures
- Natural disasters
- Serious car accidents
- Neglect, deprivation
- Victim of crimes
- War or political violence
- Death of a loved one
- Community violence
- Domestic or family violence
- Dating violence
- Physical abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Major injury, illness, or procedures
Signs And Symptoms Of Trauma And PTSD
Symptoms that a person experiences from trauma can go unnoticed, so here is a list of common symptoms that can aid you in recognising them.
These symptoms apply to all types of trauma, however, the extent of the conditions differs from person to person. For example, an individual experiencing PTSD may have similar symptoms as one with ASD, but the extent of the former may be more serious.
1. Emotional Signs
- Denial
- Anger, aggression
- Emotional outbursts
- Irritability
- Feelings of fear, grief, and depression
- Feelings of extreme fear of harm, and numbing of emotions
- Feeling guilty, extreme fear of harm, and numbing of emotions.
- Feeling hopeless
- Mood swings
2. Physical Signs
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Changes in eating and sleeping patterns
- Uncontrollable shaking, chills or heart palpitations, and tension headaches
- Inability to concentrate
- Fatigue without performing any physical task
- Insomnia
- Easily startled
- Gastrointestinal problems
3. Cognitive Signs
- Reduction of attention span
- Memory lapses
- Nightmares
- Flashbacks of the event
- Disorientation
- Confusion
4. Behavioural Signs
- Avoidance of activities or places that trigger memories
- Social isolation and withdrawal
- Loss of interest in activities that once brought you joy
- Inability to experience positive emotions
- Difficulty maintaining close relationships
- Feelings of detachment from friends and family
When Should I Go For Trauma and PTSD Therapy
If you are suffering from any of the symptoms in the list below, counselling can be beneficial. Seek help immediately when you start having frequent upsetting thoughts and fear that you might hurt yourself or others.
- Difficulty functioning at home, work or school
- Feeling severe fear, anxiety, or depression
- Inability to form satisfying relationships
- Feeling suicidal
- Having nightmares and experiencing terrifying flashbacks
- Avoiding everything that reminds you of the trauma
- Feeling emotionally numb and disconnected from others
- Difficulty functioning at home, work or school
- Feeling severe fear, anxiety, or depression
- Inability to form satisfying relationships
- Feeling suicidal
- Having nightmares and experiencing terrifying flashbacks
- Avoiding everything that reminds you of the trauma
- Feeling emotionally numb and disconnected from others
Benefits of Trauma and PTSD Therapy
- Reduce and improve trauma-related symptoms
- Eradicate depression and lessen chances of relapse of depressive symptoms
- Improve daily activities skills, self-worth and self-esteem
- Eliminate self-harm
- Help to refocus the present over the past
Addressing traumatic memories is beneficial for you to lead a fulfilling life. If you believe that you or your loved one is suffering, counselling sessions with our therapists can help.
Approaches Used During Trauma And PTSD Therapy at Sofia Wellness Clinic
1. Polyvagal Theory
What it is:
The polyvagal theory helps by focusing on what is happening in your body and nervous system to make you feel safe and connected. The goal is to identify the state of your own nervous system and to move you back to a controlled state.
How it helps:
Using polyvagal theory, you will learn relaxation techniques such as breathing, meditation and cardio exercises. Mastering those techniques will enable you to control your emotional reactions better, and attain peace and connection.
2. Schema Therapy
What it is:
Maladaptive schemas are unhelpful patterns that are developed when emotional needs were not met as a child. These schemas can cause you to form poor social skills, harmful behaviours and unhealthy relationships.
How it helps:
Schema therapy is designed to break your unhealthy methods of thinking, feeling and behaving. It will guide you to develop healthier ways of meeting your emotional needs.
3. Somatically Informed Therapy
What it is:
Somatically informed therapy includes talk therapy and mind-body exercises. It aims to treat trauma by connecting your mind and body with techniques such as encouraging detailed descriptions, breathwork and meditation.
How it helps:
This therapy aims to help you release stress, tension and trauma through your body. It will help you to respond more healthily with an increased trigger threshold and begin your journey towards peace.
Why Choose Sofia Wellness Clinic For Trauma and PTSD Therapy?
Passionate Counsellors
We believe that everyone deserves a chance to lead fulfilling and healthy lives.
Thus, we are strongly passionate about helping our clients overcome their traumas to redevelop skills to experience positivity again.
Safe Environment
We strive to create a safe and comfortable environment where you can speak about your experiences freely.
By creating a safe environment, we hope that you will be able to overcome the negative feelings from your past experiences.
Our Counselling Fees
| Consultation | Duration | Senior Counsellor | Counsellor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual Session (Initial) | 75 min | $250 | $220 |
| Individual Session (Subsequent) | 50 min | $180 | $150 |
| Out-of-Session Phone Call / Email | Per 10 min block | $35 | $35 |
Talking about your experiences with a therapist is a good first step towards recovery. The counselling sessions will involve processing your traumatic experiences and changing unhealthy beliefs about the trauma.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the different levels of trauma?
Trauma can manifest in 3 ways:
1. Acute trauma
This is caused by distressing events such as natural disasters, accidents or physical abuse. These events create trauma that can affect the way a person thinks and feels, causing excessive anxiety and panic.
2. Chronic trauma
Otherwise known as PTSD, this type of trauma is a result of a person being exposed to either multiple traumatic events or prolonged trauma. People who undergo them will need the help of qualified therapists to recover from the symptoms they suffer over time.
3. Complex trauma
This happens when a person is exposed to multiple interpersonal traumatic experiences. Seeking psychotherapy is highly advised as it impacts one’s mind severely and affects one’s ability to lead life normally.
What is the difference between trauma and PTSD?
Trauma and PTSD have similar symptoms, but they are different. Trauma is an emotional response to traumatic events and PTSD is a disorder that develops when one experiences traumatic events.
• Trauma
Trauma results from time-based events that you experience that may affect your psychological and even your physical well-being. Anyone may experience more than 1 type of trauma or more than 1 traumatic event.
Traumatic experiences lead to different types of trauma such as:
- ASD
- PTSD
- Relational trauma
- Developmental trauma
- Extreme or dissociative trauma
• PTSD
PTSD is a psychiatric condition that may occur if one witnesses or experiences a traumatic event. People with PTSD often re-experience the traumatic event repeatedly through flashbacks and nightmares.
PTSD affects daily activities and while some people recover completely, and some others do not.
How does trauma in children differ from trauma in adults?
Trauma in children and adults are similar except that adults are able to verbalise what they have experienced. Children usually have more difficulty in recognising what really happened during traumatic experiences.
However, it is easier to detect trauma in children as they are more likely to react physically to it.
