Areas of Focus
Trauma
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“Repeated trauma in childhood forms and deforms the personality. The child trapped in an abusive environment is faced with formidable tasks of adaptation. She must find a way to preserve a sense of trust in people who are untrustworthy, safety in a situation that is unsafe, control in a situation that is terrifyingly unpredictable, power in a situation of helplessness. Unable to care for or protect herself, she must compensate for the failures of adult care and protection with the only means at her disposal, an immature system of psychological defenses.”
Traumatic events are overwhelming and produce extreme fear and helplessness. Memories of trauma are difficult to forget and may be re-experienced in both mind and body. Everyday experiences can act as triggers, reopening the original trauma and generating acute distress.
Childhood trauma is particularly damaging due to internalisation: a frightening external world risks becoming an internal blueprint of ever-present danger that persists into adulthood. Adult responses to perceived threat may then be disproportionate. Facing an imagined threat, an adult traumatised as a child may become fearful, withdraw, and disengage. Adult life can become organised around re-living the trauma and defending against it.
A widely used three-stage model guides trauma treatment. The first stage, establishment of safety, develops safety and trust with the therapist. It includes discussion of personal history, setting the pace of therapy, and identifying ways to manage difficult mental states such as anxiety, flashbacks, and anger. The second stage, remembrance and mourning, involves a detailed account of the trauma. This work reduces the intensity of the original experience, allows for a new understanding of what happened, and develops awareness of how present difficulties may relate to the past. The third stage, reconnection, develops a revised sense of identity. It includes greater autonomy alongside ongoing connection, maintaining one's own boundaries while respecting those of others, taking more initiative, and deepening relationships.
References
Herman, J. (1992). Trauma and recovery. New York: Basic Books.