Coping with Trauma:

 

Grief counseling is a form of psychotherapy that aims to help people cope with grief and mourning following the death of loved ones, or with major life changes that trigger feelings of grief (e.g., divorce, or job loss).

Grief counselors believe that everyone experiences and expresses grief in their own way, often shaped by culture.

 

 

Trauma is often conjoined with PTSD, with enduring symptoms of nightmares, triggers, emotional breakdown, depression, anxiety, panic, and flashbacks of the traumatic event or events. 

Remember, not all sad life events are traumatic. Traumatic events are subject based on the individual or circumstances.

Often, our brain and psyche attempt to protect us, our brain, and our emotions from a traumatic event. Often times you hear of people “not remembering” “blacking out,” or “playing with her puppy” as the trauma was occurring. These are dissociations where the psyche is trying to protect you.

However, our sensory memory remembers these events: what we heard, smelled, saw, felt/touched, and tasted. There needs to be a release of these sensory memories in order to help heal and reduce the traumatic pain and its symptoms.

Examples of trauma are below, and these can be chronic, long-lasting and gripping depending if proper help is sought:

• Sexual Abuse

• Rape

• Emotional Abuse

• Physical Abuse

• Car Accident

• Combat

• First Responder witnessing

• Witnessing a murder, rape, death

• Loss of loved one or pet

• Divorce

• Being cheated on

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Please note, this list only notes examples, as there are additional traumatic events.