We live in a sad world filled with hurt people. Pain is passed down through generations, with seemingly no end in sight. It’s left to us, the present generation, to pick up the pieces as best as possible. In a bid to heal, some might have to face childhood memories that are difficult to deal with.
If you feel you can tick this box, then you’ve come to the right place. Here are some pointers you can use to hopefully confront childhood trauma. It won’t be an easy journey, but the first step is the most important.
Revisiting Formative Years
A childhood can be a lot to unpack alone; thankfully, no one ever has to do that. However, you need to be ready to seek help and get a professional involved. But before you venture into the world of therapy, either as a returner or for the first time, there are some options you should be aware of.
If you’re new, you’re more likely to encounter information about advanced treatments like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, which you can learn more about at ninayashin.com. However, there are other options.
Cognitive Processing Therapy
When you choose to sign up with a therapist for trauma-related issues, this is one of the most likely methods you’re likely to encounter during your sessions. It’s conversational in nature, but you might also be asked to write things down if needed.
It’s based on resolving the conflicts between pre-trauma beliefs and post-trauma information. When you go through a difficult time at each point in your life, you pick up something that stays with you and might not necessarily be healthy. A good therapist will help you unravel the web and find a healthy way forward.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
This process was initially designed to help kids and teenagers heal and adapt their behavior. It’s based on the notion that thoughts, emotions, and behavior are linked and affect one another positively and negatively. Under this notion, one’s thoughts could spill into one’s healthy or unhealthy actions.
The trauma-focused version addresses past incidents as a possible cause for present action. A therapist helps participants tie their trauma to their thoughts, emotions, and actions, revealing a healthy way forward in the process.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
EMDR is a relatively new approach to solving problems of the mind compared to some of the other methods on this list. It involves invoking rapid eye movement while simultaneously addressing past traumatic events.
It’s not as heavy as the other methods; instead, it focuses on how memories are stored in the mind. It hopes to change the stressful thoughts and emotions tied to an event that may be holding you down or, in the case of childhood trauma, negatively impacting you in the long term.
By helping to unravel this mess of thoughts and emotions, EMDR hopes to kickstart the healing process and hopefully get you to a point of acceptance and peace.
Narrative Exposure Therapy
This works wonders in helping people establish a coherent narrative of the events in their lives. It works wonders when addressing trauma, as time can often distort our memory of events. It’s important to properly confront traumatic events from our childhood, as they have a greater effect on the way we live our lives than we might know.
Narrative exposure therapy is a walkthrough of sorts with the help of a trained psychologist. It helps you address concerning events chronologically while incorporating a few positive events into the retelling. It can be very helpful when done correctly.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy
Prolonged exposure is fundamentally similar to facing your fears. When you go through an especially harrowing experience, your mind automatically creates walls around it in a bid to keep you sane. However, repressing these memories long term can have adverse negative effects.
When you choose this approach to deal with childhood trauma, you face the events in your past gradually, going over every detail until you can fully accept what happened and learn to move forward.
Play Therapy
This approach was designed to help children who might have gone through a traumatic experience. Children might be incapable of processing their emotions or communicating their feelings. So, a helpful approach is to use playing as a study device. A trained psychologist can learn much about what a child has been through by observing how they play. They can also use the same approach to help the child confront and process their pain and trauma.
Conclusion
Childhood trauma is no joke and can become a major problem if left unattended. Your thoughts and emotions will continue to fester and might leave a lasting scar if you aren’t intentional about finding help. Reach out to a professional today so you can begin your healing journey and find peace. Remember not to let the challenges of the last affect your future.
