Why is Trauma Treatment essential for a balanced life?
Trauma changes people, and they may not even be aware of it. Don’t blame yourself!
PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a dysfunction that results from not being able to cope with extreme stress as a result of experiencing trauma.
Why does trauma occur?
In all cases of trauma, there is a change in brain function which leads to impaired response choice and unhealthy coping behaviours.
Causes. Trauma could result from shell shock or post-war syndrome, but you don’t have to experience war to become traumatised. Long term repetitive stress from abusive relationships or neglectful parenting can scar the psyche just as badly, and lead to lifelong issues with self-esteem, unhealthy overcompensating or avoidance strategies.
Trauma could also result from:
- Physical abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation;
- Verbal abuse and put-downs;
- Anti-social behaviour – (gossip, innuendo, victimisation over sexuality, race, size and a myriad of other physical, intellectual and emotional features and beliefs); or
- Hostile non-verbal body language.
How does Trauma manifest itself?
As long as a part of the brain retains the frozen memory of trauma, the trauma survivor continues to experience lack of ease and flow in life. They may show one or more of these responses (symptoms of trauma) when threats are perceived:
Fight:
– Uncontrolled angry or violent outbursts
– Irritability
– Mood swings
Flight:
– Anxiety
– Withdrawal
– Mood swings
– Feeling permanently damaged
– Nervous disposition, easily startled
Freeze
– Feeling shame
– Flashbacks
– Intrusive nightmares
– Feeling numb
– Have very few or dull emotions
– Depression
Fawn:
– Overly cooperative or accepting
– People pleasing
– Making excuses for others’ bad behaviour
The good news is, these common symptoms of trauma can be treated with hypnosis at root cause:
- Immobility: Withdrawal such as social phobia or agoraphobia.
- An impulse towards violence: Often turned inwards to become migraines, spastic colon, somatic patterns, fibromyalgia, or other medical conditions.
- Compulsive behaviours: Repetitive strategies to resolve and release frozen-in energy (self-harm, head banging, biting themselves, pulling their own hair, compulsive cleaning or hand washing).
- Severe Disempowerment: Low self worth, reduced coping ability.
- Denial: Release, relief or escape through substance abuse, eating disorders, or alcohol abuse.
Pathologies which might be rooted in past trauma include many (if not all) of the anxiety disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-5-TR):
Pathologies which might be rooted in past trauma:
- Generalised anxiety disorder
- Panic disorder
- Obsessive compulsive disorder
- Somatic symptom disorder or illness anxiety disorder (was called hypochondriasis)
- Eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia)
- Phobias (avoidance disorder like agoraphobia).
Other common disorders include hyperactivity, insomnia, nightmares, promiscuity and substance abuse and gambling.
(Source: ICHP)
How to find out if you have trauma in your life?
If you suspect that your behavioural disorder is a post-traumatic stress response, you can get a clearer picture by completing a quick survey. Contact me for a copy of your free PTSD self-report questionnaire (30 items).
Some people feel helpless when they remember their trauma and re-experience traumatic emotions frequently with little conscious control. But it can feel confusing, overwhelming, or worse if you are experiencing traumatic emotions regularly without knowing why.
Often, in cases of early childhood trauma or extreme abuse, the person’s psyche cannot cope and blocks out or represses the memory of traumatic event(s). They cannot recall anything. Yet the body still remembers, as it still responds with a strong negative reaction to triggers, which could be a smell, sight or sound associated strongly with the traumatic event.
This is called a repressed memory and it is extremely difficult to treat in conventional therapy including the popular EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) therapy. How can you reprocess something that you don’t even know exists?
How does Hypnotherapy or Hypnosis for PTSD /Trauma Healing work?
The process of healing of trauma with hypnosis involves several steps that bring about effective change:
- Build resourcefulness and establish safety in the present to address the past.
- Accept the event happened.
- Restore full narrative to complete gaps and loops, enhance recall, tell the unspeakable truth of what really happened as it is. (This allows us to put the story to rest at last!)
- Release frozen emotions and convert traumatic memory into autobiographical memory.
- Recreate the narrative with an empowerment in place.
- Integrate and Rehabilitate: develop resilience, long term recovery, a sense of meaning in one’s life, relationships, and a greater world view.
Sometimes, we can recode/reprogram the event or even wipe it out completely (override bad memories with better memories). More often, it is the recognition that:
Frequently Asked Questions
People with history of trauma respond differently from others and your hypnotherapist must recognise that and have appropriate hypnosis training in trauma-centered healing modalities. Always ask your hypnotherapist where they have studied, what modalities they use to treat trauma.
I have completed advanced diploma with specialisation in mental health and trauma recovery and fully trained in ICHP trauma treatment protocol, I am a clinical member of Australian Hypnotherapy Association with continuing supervising and professional development in these topics, member of Conflict Analysis and Prevention Centre and trainee with Bessel van der Kolk (world leading expert on trauma therapy and author of the bestseller Body Keeps the Score).
Due to nature of trauma it is recommended to allow quite a few sessions to process trauma, I usually ask to plan for up to 10 sessions and we measure progress with the client along the way. I have seen some amazing transformations in under 3 sessions but I also advocate for a staged approach to allow for integration and wisdom.
It is always a personal journey and you walk it at your own pace, every bit of the progress counts and I am there to support you.
Trauma therapy can be covered with your private health insurance and subject to specific fund and membership policy. I hold a current registered health care provider number that I can provide on demand for you to check with your health fund.
The only guarantee – is how you feel after the session. I extend my invitation of a free discovery session, so call now for a confidential discussion to find out if hypnosis for PTSD/ trauma healing is the right thing for you.
