Trauma therapy for PTSD and C-PTSD
Trauma Therapy with CAP
Healing from trauma is a complex process that is unique to each individual. In treating trauma we have the goal of restoring people’s connections to themselves, their relationships, and their communities. At CAP we use a multidisciplinary approach when working with trauma. Creative Arts Therapies is used to create a safe space for nonverbal expression. Gestalt Therapy is a mindful, non-pathologizing, relational, dialectical, and existential approach that starts from the present moment working experientially to help people become aware of and process unresolved parts of our history in order to integrate experiences. For specific trauma work, Somatic Psychotherapy with the body in order to find safety and settling in our nervous system helping to find relief and deactivation.
How we understand trauma
Peter Levine the founder of Somatic Experiencing, a therapeutic method aimed at treating trauma and stress-related disorders, defines trauma as experiencing fear in the face of helplessness. Or as Bessel Vander Kolk, author of the book The Body Keeps the Score, notes, trauma is specifically an event that overwhelms the central nervous system, altering the way we process and recall memories. Both are useful frames in our work at CAP with people who have experienced trauma. Trauma is not only something that happened to us in the past it is something that lives in us in the present affecting our physical, psychological, and emotional worlds as well as shaping our worldview and ability to feel a sense of safety and connection with others.
What is the difference between Trauma, PTSD, and CPTSD?
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
From the APA: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, series of events, or set of circumstances. An individual may experience this as emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening and may affect mental, physical, social, and/or spiritual well-being. Examples include natural disasters, serious accidents, terrorist acts, war/combat, rape/sexual assault, historical trauma, intimate partner violence and bullying.
Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
C-PTSD differs from PTSD in that the length of the trauma is generally longer and the symptoms are more complex. With PTSD you can have a singular trauma that causes this response, such as a car accident. Generally speaking with C-PTSD the trauma happened over a longer period of time, such as child abuse, and may include multiple traumas. Although people with C-PTSD can experience all or many of the symptoms of PTSD they additionally often experience difficulties with emotional regulation. C-PTSD is most commonly misdiagnosed as Borderline Personality Disorder.
Why do we use somatic approaches when working with trauma?
Trauma occurs when there is a breach of boundaries that leads to immobilizing anxiety and fear. The effects of the event, rather than the event itself, determine whether it is traumatic. PTSD and CPTSD are the results of our natural defense, survival, and protective cycle being obstructed or impeded, leaving us with unprocessed and undischarged survival energy. Because our natural response is thwarted, we never complete the cycle, and our body never fully understands that the threat has passed.
To fully process and overcome trauma, it's essential to delve deep into the felt sense of the body to access the implicit memory where the traumatic material is stored. This is distinct from the explicit memory, which contains the story of what happened. Often, individuals make progress in dealing with the explicit memory of a traumatic event, but still experience symptoms because their body remains in a state of high alert, expecting danger despite the knowledge that they are safe.
What constitutes a Trauma?
Big T Trauma
Can include but are not limited to:
- war, combat, persecution
– serious accidents such as a car crash
– sexual or physical abuse
– domestic abuse
-child abuse, neglect
-witnessing death
-witnessing domestic violence
-the death of a loved one
– major surgery, life-threatening illnesses
Little t trauma
Can include but are not limited to:
– accidents and falls (such as a child falling off a bike and breaking their leg)
-hospital procedures (such as getting tonsils removed).
-a child’s family dog dying
-conflict with parents
-being raised in a household where there is a lot of shouting
-corporal punishment
-being bullied, shamed, mocked, made fun of, humiliated
-having parents with a psyciatric diagnosis
Disclaimer
As stated previously, we define trauma based on its effects on the nervous system of the body, rather than the event itself. The lists provided are meant as a general guide, as the level of trauma experienced by a person depends on various factors, such as the pervasiveness of the experience and the degree of intensity felt by the person affected. It's important to note that the body's ability to move through and integrate traumatic material is also a crucial factor in determining the level of trauma experienced.
“Trauma is not the story of something that happened back then," he adds. "It's the current imprint of that pain, horror, and fear living inside people.”
-Bessel van der Kolk