Trauma

Have you ever experienced a traumatic event that still lingers in your mind? Or are you wondering if you might be carrying unresolved trauma? Tension, anxiety, mood swings, and sleep issues can all be signs of a deeper, unresolved wound.

To avoid overusing the word 'trauma,' I’d like to add that not all trauma needs to be extreme. I sometimes refer to it as your mental 'bruises.' It’s important to understand that we don’t need to compare different kinds of trauma or make them seem more or less severe than how you experience them. What you feel matters and deserves to be taken seriously, fully acknowledged. By doing so, it becomes more manageable and, over time, easier to carry.

It’s important to understand that trauma isn’t the event itself, but how you experienced it. When the experience feels too overwhelming to process, your primary stress response (fight, flight, or freeze) may not be enough, or it may linger for too long. As a result, part of your personality might disconnect or fragment—this is the trauma part. We tend to protect this part because confronting it brings us face-to-face with the underlying fear and pain. That’s why we unconsciously develop survival mechanisms to avoid it. You may not even remember the event. Still, trauma is stored in your body, and your body will react when triggered.

In attachment trauma, the process is often longer and starts in childhood. It is often reinforced in adulthood through relationships with others, which can deepen its effect.

When your healthy part, your 'adult autonomous self,' is strong enough, the time may be right to begin facing your trauma step by step. This process happens under my guidance in a trusted and safe environment, at a pace that feels right for you. Although it may seem frightening, it's important to know that it is not dangerous. The situation from the past will not return.

The goal of trauma treatment is to integrate the trauma part into your personality so that you begin to feel whole again. Constantly protecting and avoiding this part drains a lot of energy. You will literally go from surviving to living!