Emotional Regulation and Trauma Therapy

I became trained as a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional through the International Association of Trauma Professionals so that I could be better equipped to assist my clients in the healing process. For people coming to Great Lakes Therapy Center with the goal of processing past trauma, treatment may look different than they were expecting. After completing the intake process, therapy will not necessarily look like the typical talk therapy format. There are reasons for the variation in session structure when processing past trauma.

For those who are trauma survivors, starting sessions by going right into writing a trauma narrative or using talk therapy to process past trauma could be ineffective in the beginning. It could bring up intense emotions for a client all before they have built skills to manage these emotions. Before discussing past trauma, I want to make sure that they have the necessary education and skill base to be able to continue to function outside of therapy sessions before beginning to process past traumas.

In order to structure treatment in a way to best address trauma needs, treatment at Great Lakes Therapy Center may feel fairly structured in the beginning. Before even beginning to learn skills, it is necessary for trauma-focused therapy to provide education on what is happening with the body after experiencing trauma. While trauma responses can lead to challenges in one’s life, these responses are exactly what the body is wired to do when it survives a trauma. For those interested in learning more about ways that trauma has impacted the body, the books “The Body Keeps the Score” by Bessel van der Kolk or “Trauma is Really Strange” by Steve Haines can be helpful resources. While trauma symptoms can initially interfere in daily functioning, it is important to understand it is the body’s way of protecting itself.

Once an individual's trauma response is understood, skills-building can also be integrated into treatment to address the body’s way of continuing to activate the trauma response in situations where the individual is not at risk of harm or times in when acting without using skills may make the situation worse for the client. This is where Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) skills come into the picture! Learning DBT skills individually or in a group to regulate emotions and effectively communicate personal needs to others can assist in managing the body’s trauma response. 

DBT skills of distress tolerance and mindfulness can be applied to manage the trauma response while in situations that the client does not have control over or when the individual does not have the ability to immediately leave the situation. If someone is triggered by being in large crowds due to their trauma history, they may avoid going out of the home, which could negatively impact their social relationships and even their educational or employment opportunities. By utilizing distress tolerance skills taught in DBT such as grounding exercises, body scans, and distraction, the individual may be able to get through these moments where their trauma response is becoming triggered to be able to withstand being in crowds to serve their larger life goals. By learning these skills in a safe and therapeutic environment, the brain has the opportunity to understand and begin to memorize these skills. While working with a DBT therapist, they can provide support while these skills begin to be generalized into the client’s daily life.

As the skills begin to be applied effectively outside of therapy, the therapist and the client may begin to address past trauma through more traditional process-oriented sessions. As the client may become triggered, it is extremely valuable to have a trusted therapist to remind clients of skills learned can help keep the trauma response from becoming fully activated, while further generalizing these skills through treatment. 

The therapist is here to meet you where you are in treatment. This looks different for every individual and treatment will move at a pace that best fits each client’s needs. At Great Lakes Therapy Center, our therapists use DBT to find a balance between acceptance of the client as they are and working with the client to build and utilize skills to be able to understand and change patterns of behavior that may no longer be helpful or adaptive for that client.

If you are interested in learning more information about Great Lakes Therapy Center’s trauma-informed approach to therapy, set up an intake with any one of our therapists.