Trauma Treatment
Everyone has a trauma in their lives, but if the trauma affects your life in negative ways, it needs to be treated for better life. Common negative reactions to trauma
are: over reacting, under reacting and/or avoiding the object, place, time, smell, or something remind of the traumatic incidents even though there is no danger anymore around the person.
There are many different ways to experience traumas. It could be caused by big crimes/accidents as we watch in the broadcast. Or it could be a small incident in everyday life which does not affect everyone but a few. It does not matter how big the incident is for other people. It matters how the individual perceived the incident. Moreover, the small trauma is more easily ignored and more likely missing the chances of treatments. Especially small children who do not have clear logics like adults do, they try to understand the situations around them in their very unique way. These attempts may cause misunderstandings or misconnection between facts and emotions.
Not always but trauma might cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It seriously affects the person and people around him/her. The symptoms are more dramatic for PTSD and recommended to get immediate treatments.
Piling up unsolved trauma also induces depression, irritation, and other negative symptoms. Even for adults, it is difficult to catch the mood/behavior changes immediately and get a proper help. Please pay attention to children around you and suggest the help for them.
Common symptoms for children affected by trauma are: sudden onset of bedwetting and/or accidents in bathroom, suddenly lost interest in play or other things they used to enjoy, stop playing with other children, involving frequent fights, abruptly burst in tears and refuse to explain the reason. All children are unique and sometimes, the symptoms they show due to trauma are resembled to other disorders (such as ADHD, Asperger’s disorder, Bipolar). We need to make sure that these children get proper helps and prevent blaming themselves as “ I’m a bad boy”, “ My teacher does not like me because I am lazy”. It lowers their self-esteem and motivation.
If your child starts acting differently from before without clear reasons, please consult with your heath providers. I am also happy to answer your questions and provide treatments for children and adults.
Treatment approaches
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a method of psychotherapy that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma. EMDR is a set of standardized protocols that incorporates elements from many different treatment approaches. To date, EMDR has helped an estimated two million people of all ages relieve many types of psychological stress (cited from EMDRIA website: )
- Art Therapy/ Play Therapy---Using art forms (drawing, painting and more) to help understand the situations around them and get useful tools to overcome the situations. Unlike regular talking therapy, art can access different part of brain to activate memories. It’s very effective for children but also for any age clients.
