Trauma

Trauma is the lasting effect of stressful experiences on the brain and body, disrupting our mood, energy, relationships and thinking patterns. In this specialty page we will give a brief overview of what trauma is and how therapy can help, but we also have an extensive page describing our therapeutic approaches to trauma therapy that can be found HERE!

In the past, researchers and therapists used to believe that trauma was limited to significant accidents, abuse, and the atrocities of war. However, our understanding has grown of the wider range of traumatic experiences that affect our lives, including smaller or repetitive stressful events. Large events are referred to as big “T” traumas because they are easily recognized by most people, and smaller events are referred to as little “t” traumas. The significance of small “t” traumas is now better recognized and comprises much of the work we do as Trauma Therapists. We have come to learn that all of us experience a collection of small “t” traumas over our lifetime. Any experience where we feel overwhelmed, confused or powerless can activate our survival systems - flooding us with stress hormones and signals we are in danger. These stressful experiences can leave lasting impacts on the brain and body, disrupting our mood, energy, relationships and thinking patterns. Therapy can help with these symptoms.

A trauma therapist understands that stressful experiences leave lasting impacts — not only on our minds, but also on our bodies.