Surviving trauma

Trauma is what happens to your nervous system after you’ve felt unsafe and scared, and powerless to escape or protect yourself. If that sense of danger can’t be resolved, the nervous system is likely to change. There’s some part that always remains on alert and afraid.

You may not even be aware that part of you is always striving to protect you. But this altered state can impact every choice you make and even how you look at the world and show up in everyday life and in relationships.

Many trauma survivors feel low self-worth. They can be harshly self-critical, and short on self-compassion. They’re quick to believe there is something wrong with them, or that they have done something wrong to make life hard. They may think they’re defective. They don’t usually see that the problems started with what happened to them.

As hard as it may seem, owning what happened to you can actually be healing.

Trauma happens. It’s very common. About 70% of adults have lived through at least 1 traumatic experience and one in five children suffered abuse.

Some children who experienced abuse at the hands of their caregivers repeatedly in childhood, were taught to keep secrets and not to name their feelings. These are survivors of complex developmental or relational trauma.

You may have figured out how to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and be “strong and tough.” Seeing yourself as a trauma survivor may feel like something to be ashamed of – a weakness or a sign you’re living in the past.

If you have survived trauma (in any form), you are literally a survivor of trauma. It’s not all you are, but it’s a part of you. I believe it’s something to be PROUD of! You made it through something hard and awful!

My clients who are trauma survivors are strong, amazing and brilliant. They learned incredibly creative tools (like dissociation) and other coping mechanisms to keep themselves alive and safe. And beyond that, they are in therapy doing hard work to create fulfilling lives for themselves! They are warriors. And if you’re here reading this, you are a warrior too.

#traumarecovery #traumahealing #traumasurvivors #mentalhealthawareness #counsellingpsychology #therapy