Trauma and how it affects our thinking and behavior is just now starting to be understood fully. Trauma-informed therapy is an evidence-based psychotherapy that aims to address the needs of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder and other difficulties related to traumatic life events. A cognitive-behavioral therapy program is often utilized in addiction treatment to address underlying mental health issues and to teach valuable coping strategies to overcome your addiction.
What Is Trauma?
Trauma is an event that takes away a person’s sense of safety and well-being. This can be physical, emotional, or sexual. The main thing is that the person experiencing the event feels they are in some danger, and they feel they have no control over the event. Personal tragedy, a natural disaster, a car accident, or the severe illness or death of a loved one all qualify as trauma. Some people may not even be aware after many years that the feelings at the time were so bad it is still causing issues. Individuals push the memory so far back that they don’t remember it at times. The trauma will always be there, and the changes it has made in a person’s mind will remain. This is when trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy is often suggested as treatment.
Benefits of Trauma-Informed Therapy
By understanding the effects of trauma, a counselor can approach things from a different perspective. It’s necessary to understand why you reacted in an unhealthy manner in certain situations. Trauma-informed therapy:
- Help re-establish a sense of safety
- Makes identifying relapse triggers easier
- Helps establish effective coping skills
- Decreases trauma created stress responses
- Helps process the trauma
Many people who enter drug and alcohol rehab have experienced past trauma. The type of trauma that was experienced may differ, but the results are a person with extreme stress-related conditions. Often they suffer from anxiety and a constant feeling of being unsafe. If they were young when experiencing trauma, they may still not have had the chance to try to make sense of the whole situation. This is why it is essential that the therapist first establish a safe environment for the client. If that sense of safety is not there, further trauma may occur. In a trauma-informed therapy program, safety is always first.
Trauma-Informed Therapy Programs
Trauma-informed therapy establishes a sense that the world isn’t entirely an unsafe place. The client then begins to get back the sense of having power over their own life. They begin to understand that they can learn ways to help the anxiety that are healthy. Focus is often on the client’s strengths. The therapist shows how these strengths have played out. The therapist then provides you with the power to call on those strengths in the future. A multitude of addiction therapy programs used in conjunction with trauma-informed include but are not limited to:
- Dual Diagnosis Treatment Program
- EMDR Therapy Program
- Nutritional Therapy Program
- Motivational Interviewing Therapy Program
Trauma-Informed Therapy at The Ranch
Trauma changes every aspect of a person’s life. If you believe you or a loved one is going through things today that may have their basis in trauma, contact us. We will discuss the possibility that trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy may be the best path. Trauma may have clouded the earlier chapters, but it doesn’t have to do the same with the rest. Contact us at 1.844.876.7680 for a trauma-based therapy program that you can count on.
