What is the treatment of childhood traumas like?

This is how psychotherapy intervenes to help overcome childhood traumas.

Trauma is one of the psychopathological disorders for which people most frequently seek psychotherapy.

Although they are complex phenomena, their importance in the field of mental health has given rise to decades of numerous scientific investigations on this subject, so that although today we do not understand 100% how they work nor are we able to predict how and when their symptoms will arise, very useful treatment methodologies have been developed to help patients who present this disorder, even those who have had the problem since their early years of life.

In this article we will focus on how childhood traumas are treatedThe article is a summary of the procedures with which we work as psychologists specialized in therapy.

What is psychological trauma?

Psychological trauma is a set of psychopathological alterations that affect the emotional memory from events associated with emotions linked to anguish and anxiety.. They arise when, in interaction with the environment, we experience something that marks us emotionally to the point of leaving psychological sequels in us, which will manifest themselves through a series of symptoms that damage our quality of life.

These sequelae are usually of an anxious-depressive type, affecting both self-esteem and thought patterns when perceiving reality in general, and also usually give way to crises in which intrusive thoughts or mental images in the form of "flashes" enter the consciousness of the person in a recurrent manner and cause their levels of anxiety or even fear to skyrocket in a matter of seconds or a few minutes.

In addition, unlike phobias, these experiences can be reproduced in a wide variety of situations.. As the traumatic events left a mark on the person, he or she is prone to "rekindle" that emotional imprint involuntarily from contexts that have very little to do with each other.

Psychological trauma can take many forms, with post-traumatic stress being one of the best known, and is classically triggered by catastrophic events such as car accidents or other violent situations in which one's own physical integrity is at risk. However, trauma does not always have to arise in this way. In this article we will focus on one type of trauma in particular: complex trauma, which is closely linked to childhood.

What is complex trauma?

Complex trauma is a type of traumatic type of disorder whose triggering event does not necessarily have to be punctual, but in many cases is constituted by situations that are prolonged over time.. Classically, this type of trauma begins in childhood, a stage of life in which we are especially vulnerable to harmful experiences that we cannot put an end to by our own means, given that we depend on the help and involvement of others to change the daily context in which we live (moving, changing schools, etc.).

Due to the nature of this psychopathological disturbance, often the complex trauma is based on the interaction between the child and one or more members of his or her family group, since it is the family that is the main element in the interaction between the child and the family.The family is the element that constantly forms the basis of the complex trauma. Situations that can give rise to the appearance of this disorder are parental negligence, sexual abuse by the family or friends of the family, constant humiliation at home and, in general, the dynamics of daily interaction in which the child is the victim due to physical or psychological attacks.

In addition, another characteristic of complex trauma is that its sequelae may take time to appear, or may even emerge for the first time after adolescence, generating a sort of "hiatus" between the traumatic events and the stage at which the symptoms manifest themselves.

This is indicative of the complexity of brain maturation processes, and also of the way in which the symptoms are manifested.and also of the way in which autobiographical memories and the concept of "I" are based on the constant re-signification of what is remembered. Often, we are only able to understand the implications of what we experienced in our childhood once we have entered adulthood, and it is then that emotional discomfort arises.

• You may be interested in, "What is trauma and how does it influence our lives?"

Treatment of trauma due to events experienced in childhood.

These are the most commonly used intervention procedures to help those suffering from childhood trauma.

EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

This type of psychotherapy is inspired by systematic desensitization.It has the advantage that it can be applied with relative ease to young children, since it is not based on abstract thought articulated through language.

It consists of a series of practices to facilitate the brain's re-processing of traumatic memories and to deactivate or attenuate the "emotional mark" that triggers the extreme discomfort of the trauma. That is, it makes it much easier to develop habituation to emotionally painful memories, making them lose power over the person.

• You may be interested in, "What is systematic desensitization and how does it work?"

Hypnosis

Hypnosis can also be applied in the clinical context to allow the person to improve his or her relationship with these traumatic memories, offering new "ways of access" to these memories that do not go through the anguish, stress, etc.stress, etc. It is based on inducing the person to a state of suggestion in which it is easier to make his or her associations between thoughts and feelings malleable, so that the most constructive and least harmful way of thinking about the events that occurred is sought.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy

Under this label there is a wide variety of therapeutic resources that can be useful in treating childhood trauma. The idea on which all of them are based is that in order to produce changes for the better in people, it is easier to achieve this through a twofold approach: modification of habits and modification of thought patterns..

Are you looking for psychological support in therapy?

At Psychological Center Cepsim we have a team of psychotherapists with more than 25 years of professional experience attending patients. Our work is based on a theoretical-practical orientation in which several techniques and methodologies are integrated, in order to adapt to the needs and the specific problem to be treated in each person. Get in touch with us through this page.

Bibliographical references:

• Blaustein, M.E.; Kinniburgh, K.M. (2010). Treating traumatic stress in children and adolescents: How to foster resilience through attachment, self-regulation, and competency. New York: Guilford Press.
• Briere, J.; Scott, C. (2006). Principles of Trauma Therapy: A Guide to Symptoms, Evaluation, and Treatment. California: SAGE Publications, Inc. pp. 37 - 63.
• Ford, J.D.; Grasso, D.; Greene, C.; Levine, J.; Spinazzola, J.; van der Kolk, B. (2013). Clinical significance of a proposed developmental trauma disorder diagnosis: results of an international survey of clinicians. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 74(8): pp. 841 - 849.
• Seligman, M.E.P. & Maier, S.F. (1967). Failure to escape traumatic shock. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74: pp. 1 - 9.
• Steele K.; van der Hart O.; Nijenhuis, E.R. (2005). Phase-oriented treatment of structural dissociation in complex traumatization: overcoming trauma-related phobias. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation. 6(3): pp. 11 - 53.
• van der Kolk, B. (2005). Developmental trauma disorder. Psychiatric Annals. pp. 401 - 408.