Types of Trauma Therapy

After a person goes through a traumatic event, they often have difficulty resolving it and sometimes develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Living with trauma affects not only your mental health, but your physical health, too. Whether we know it or not, trauma often is at the core of many mental and behavioral health issues.

In this article, we’ll explore the different types of trauma therapy that Sequoia Behavioral Health has to offer. Some of these therapy methods were developed to treat trauma specifically, while others weren’t designed to treat trauma, but have been shown to help.

Trauma-Specific Therapies 

For decades, psychologists and psychiatrists have understood that traumatic experiences can follow a person for years after it happens. As a result, mental health professionals have developed a number of different ways to help people resolve trauma. The most common are: 

• Eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing
• Forward-facing therapy
• Somatic experiencing

These three types of trauma therapy help people store their traumatic memories correctly so they don’t feel the effects of it as strongly or at all.

Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR is the gold standard of trauma therapy. It mimics rapid eye movement (REM) sleep—the sleep stage where people turn short-term memories into long-term memories. EMDR is based on the idea that traumatic memories aren’t “stored” in our brains correctly. The client thoughtfully revisits the memory and the emotions it carries. At the same time, the therapist triggers REM through bilateral stimulation.

There are eight different phases in the EMDR process:

1. Planning and history taking
2. Preparation
3. Assessment
4. Desensitization
5. Installation
6. Body scan
7. Closure 
8. Re-evaluation

Most of these steps are repeated as often as necessary until the client successfully reprocesses their traumatic memory into a neutral one.

To learn more about EMDR at Sequoia Behavioral Health, read our full service guide here.

Forward-Facing Trauma Therapy  (FFTT)

Forward-facing trauma therapy is different from EMDR as it does not have the patient relive the traumatic event. Instead, the client focuses on the present and future by addressing the response to the trauma. Dr. Eric Gentry created FFTT to help trauma patients understand their reactions to trauma and learn how to fix them.

The goal of FFTT is to see what the future of the patient looks like when the trauma has been treated. The steps of FFTT are:

1. Identifying what triggers
2. Working to reduce the trauma symptoms
3. Facing the trauma and pushing through it
4. Implementing daily relaxation techniques

Though it might seem counter-intuitive, FFTT doesn’t work to fix the patient's reaction to trauma. Rather, the client faces their reactions and changes the way they deal with trauma. 

To learn more about FFTT at Sequoia Behavioral Health, read our full service guide here.

Somatic Experiencing

Somatic experiencing focuses on the body-mind connection in order to treat the physiological and psychological symptoms of trauma. Physical symptoms of trauma can include:

• Odd breathing patterns
• Tense muscles
• Irregular heart rate
• Digestion difficulties

Most people know the fight, flight, or freeze responses where our bodies respond to stress unconsciously. When someone experiences trauma, they’re responding to a threat long after it’s over. 

Somatic experiencing follows a five-step framework known as SIBAM:

• Sensation
• Imagery
• Behavior
• Affect
• Meaning 

The therapist guides the client through these five steps, discussing any physical sensations or emotional changes they experience while working to resolve the trauma.‍

Other Types of Trauma Therapy

While these therapies are aimed at treating trauma directly, there are a number of other types of counseling that are used to help. While they might not have been specifically developed for treating trauma, they can aid in treating it or even improving symptoms of PTSD.

Cognitive behavioral therapy, emotional freedom techniques, neurofeedback, and modern psychoanalytic therapy are all used to help treat PTSD and trauma symptoms. Often, they’re used in addition to trauma-specific therapies to treat the patient as holistically and comprehensively as possible. 

Understanding Trauma

Trauma can be defined as high levels of emotional, psychological, and physical distress caused by a disturbing experience. The symptoms and types of trauma depend on the person and the event that caused the trauma to start. 

Three Different Types of Trauma

Trauma can be put into three different categories: 

• Chronic
• Acute
• Complex

Chronic trauma comes from distressing events that occur repeatedly over an extended period of time. Experiences that can cause chronic trauma are bullying, neglect, violence, and extreme situations like war or combat. 

Acute trauma is a single incident. Acute trauma can be caused by things like mass shootings, assault, and car accidents.

Complex trauma is like chronic trauma in that it’s borne of prolonged or multiple experiences. The difference is that complex trauma involves an element of interpersonal relationships. The most common cause of complex trauma is childhood abuse and domestic  violenceThis is when multiple different traumatic events occur in someone's life.

Trauma-Focused Therapy at Sequoia Behavioral Health

Everyone deserves peace after experiencing trauma. At Sequoia Behavioral Health, we understand that trauma is often at the core of a number of mental health concerns. We treat every client with compassion and understanding in order to help them resolve their trauma to live a happy, healthy life. 

Our trauma-focused and trauma-specific programming ensures that everyone who walks through our doors can find help. Learn more about what to expect during treatment at Sequoia, or contact us today to start your mental wellness journey.