Judy Keith, PhD, LPC-S

DEFINITION OF TRAUMA

Trauma is any experience that involves a threat to the integrity of the self or others.

Types of trauma include physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, death, deformity, and natural disaster.

GOALS OF TREATMENT

* Develop tolerance to traumatic feelings

* Learn how to work through your feelings a little at a time

* Learn to set aside your feelings when you get overwhelmed

* Practice healthy self-soothing skills

SIGNS OF UNRESOLVED TRAUMA

* Intrusive thoughts, images, feelings, and nightmares or flashbacks

* Inability to tolerate feelings and conflicts

* Staying stuck in the victim, rescuer, or perpetrator role

* Disorganized attachment pattern

* Self-destructive and addictive behaviors

* Self-mutilation / Thoughts of suicide

* Black and white thinking
 
* An innate belief in the "badness" of self

* Dissociation