Emotional and psychological trauma come from experiences that, most often, involve a threat to your life or safety. It’s the level of extraordinary stress that robs your sense of safety and makes you feel like you’re powerless in a dangerous world. Now, traumatic experiences don’t need to involve physical harm, per se. The determining factor of trauma is the individuals’ subjective experience. Regardless of the external situation, the more you felt frightened and helpless, the more traumatised you’ll be.

• Single incident events - also referred to as shock trauma. ex: an attack (physical, sexual), an injury, accident or shocking event. This is especially traumatic if it was shocking to you (came unexpected) and even more so, if it happened when you were young. For more info on the difference between “big T” traumas and “little t” traumas.

• Repetitive, ongoing and consistent stress - is also referred to as complex trauma. ex: ongoing bullying, chronic childhood neglect, domestic abuse, living in a danger zone such as a war zone, or crime-filled neighbourhood, battling a life-threatening illness or facing an ongoing traumatic event.

• The Less Identified Traumas - what I call the “Silent Wounds”. These are the commonly overlooked situations that often cause trauma. ex: experiencing a deeply embarrassing or disappointing experience, losing someone close to you (due to death or moving cities), breaking up with a significant relationship in your life, or interacting with someone who is deliberately cold-hearted or cruel (at work or in personal life). This may also include feeling chronically ignored, unseen, or experiencing chronic stress for example: mum constantly yelling or seeing high conflict (or complete disconnect) in your parents while growing up. More on relational trauma, which is trauma that happens in relationships.

• Traumatic Stress - Traumatic stress refers to the experience of stress related to events you weren’t directly involved in but caused you a lot of distress. For example, when you hear about man-made disasters such as terrorist attacks, mass shootings, plane crashes, or natural disasters, such as a flood, tornados or fires. Although you may not have been directly impacted, watching the news and seeing horrific images can leave an imprint on your mind and body.

One important thing to note is that since we are all uniquely different, we all react differently to emotionally distressing or traumatic experiences. There is absolutely no right or wrong way to feel, think, respond or react. If you’ve picked up a belief or behaviour that is negatively impacting you, please don’t judge yourself; I encourage you to understand it as your mind’s attempt to coping with an abnormal situation.

How childhood trauma impacts your susceptibility to current trauma.

Trauma isn’t a magnet. It doesn’t know who to “pick” and traumatise, however if you’ve been traumatised before, are under a lot of stress or experienced a recent loss, your system will be more susceptible to being traumatised by a shocking event. This is especially true if you’ve experienced childhood trauma, as those are the developing years where your brain builds neural networks, learn to acclimate to environments as well as practises self-soothing.

A researcher named Felitti et al who trained under doctor Keisser (1998 developed the ACES assessment) and colleagues found that more than half of respondents reported at least one category of ACE, and one-fourth reported two or more categories of childhood exposures (Felitti et al.,1998). They found that people who had experienced four or more categories of childhood exposure, compared to those who had experienced none, had a 4- to 12-fold increased risk of adulthood health difficulties, including risks for alcoholism, drug abuse, depression and suicide attempts. The number of categories of adverse childhood exposures also correlated with an increased presence of physical health conditions, including heart disease, lung disease and cancer. These findings suggest that experiencing adversities in childhood is linked to poor health outcomes in adulthood, and the more adversities a child experiences, the more likely it is that they will experience these poor health outcomes in adulthood, which are strongly linked to risk factors associated with the leading causes of death in adults.

Common childhood traumas include:

• Being separated from a parent

• Being raised in a chaotic, unsafe or unstable environment (ex. alcoholic or mentally unstable parent/s)

• Experiencing physical, verbal or sexual abuse

• Experiencing neglect - emotional inattentiveness

• Being exposed to or experiencing domestic violence

• Experiencing serious illness

• Going under intrusive medical procedures

• Emotional Abuse

• Sexual Abuse

• Separation / divorce

• Narcissistic parent/s

A Road to Embodied Living -

The good news is that there are ways for you to let go of the pain, learn to trust yourself, reconnect with others and develop a safer way of being. I’ve worked with courageous individuals who, in their adult years, healed younger wounds. As one individual expressed:

“ I can’t believe this is how life is supposed to feel. I’m getting to knw what it’s like to be emotionally balanced and to feel like the world is a place I’m able to be in. I used to think the world was out to get me. But now I see I was shadowed by fear and easily affected by every small interaction. Now I can move through events and experiences with much more ease and strength.”

Those who took the time to work through traumatic events, memories and self-beliefs slowly reprogrammed their thinking and feeling and learned ways to better navigate the world. Doing this allows the individual to be able to fully dive into daily experiences. Regardless of if the trauma happened yesterday, last year, or a decade ago, your choices today can move you forward in ways that you need.

There are different trauma therapies to help you relieve the feelings, beliefs, memories or pent-up “fight-or-flight” energy that are stuck in your body. Common trauma therapy methods and methods that we offer are:

Somatic EMDR therapy which incorporates:

Somatic Experiencing

• Hakomi Method

• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

• Applied Polyvagal Theory

• Focusing, Dance/ Movement Therapy

• Somatic Stress ReleaseTM

• Internal Family Systems

• Somatic Attachment Theory

• Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)

• and Embodied Social Transformation

TRAUMA INFORMED COACHING:

applying Alison’s training and understanding of the presence of trauma to help people build resilience and move forward. Inspirational and solution-focused. As a trauma-certified coach, Alison helps people to grow beyond the traumatic imprint, finding meaning where they can so they may live richer, more fulfilling lives.

• Improve daily functioning and feel more confident in facing daily life interactions in work, family, love and self-care goals

• Provide a safe space in the therapy room and over time, expand that feeling of safety to how you feel in the world (less fearful, and more trusting)

• Help you re-own your personal power, comfortably own your autonomy and improve assertiveness

Help you understand the history of your trauma, and your symptoms and have a clear understanding of who you are, the impact of your trauma, generational trauma and your healing goals

• Significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression

• Ameliorate (and in some cases, eliminate) the uncomfortable triggers of trauma

• Safely process trauma memories

• Successfully shift your focus from the past to the present

• Address and resolve the need to use addictive/self-destructive behaviours that were created to manage your post-trauma pain

• Plan for the expected waves of emotional triggers, and help you to learn to use your toolkit of coping so you regain emotional equilibrium even after difficult moments in life

• Be able to attain dreams and goals that were not possible previously (due to avoidance, fears or worries)

• Find joy in daily life and face your life with more energy curiosity and openness