How is the treatment of childhood trauma?

Traumas are part of the psychopathological alterations for which people go more to psychotherapy.

Although these are complex phenomena, their importance in the field of mental health has led to decades of numerous scientific investigations on this topic, so that while today it is not 100% understood how they work or able to predict how and when their symptoms will arise, they have developed very useful treatment methodologies to help patients who present with this disorder, even those who carry the problem from their first years of lifetime.

In this article we will focus on how is the treatment of trauma experienced in childhood, by means of a summary of the procedures with which we work as psychologists specialized in therapy.

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What is psychological trauma?

Psychological trauma is a set of psychopathological alterations that affect emotional memory from events associated with emotions related 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 sequelae in us, which will manifest themselves through a series of symptoms that damage our quality of lifetime.

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

What's more, Unlike what happens with phobias, these experiences can be reproduced in a wide variety of situations. As traumatic events left a mark on the person, they are prone to involuntarily “rekindle” that emotional imprint 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 classically it is triggered by catastrophic events such as car accidents or other violent situations in which one's physical integrity is in danger. However, trauma doesn't always have to come that way. In this article we will focus on a specific type of trauma: complex trauma, closely linked to childhood.

What is complex trauma?

Complex trauma is a type of traumatic-type disorder whose triggering event did not have to be punctual, but in many cases is made up of situations that last 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, since we depend on the help and involvement of others to change the daily context in which to live (moving, changing schools, etc.).

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

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

It is an indication of the complexity of brain maturation processes, and also the way in which autobiographical memories and the concept of "I" are based on the constant re-signification of what is remembered. Many times, we are only able to understand the implications of what we live in our childhood once we have entered adulthood, and that is when emotional discomfort arises.

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Treatment of trauma due to events experienced in childhood

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

EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

This type of psychotherapy is inspired by systematic desensitization, and has the advantage that it can be applied with relative ease in boys and girls of short age, since it is practically not based on abstract thought articulated through language.

It consists of a series of practices to facilitate the brain to re-process memories traumatic events and their “emotional brand” that triggers extreme discomfort is deactivated or attenuated of trauma. That is, it makes it much easier to develop habituation to emotionally painful memories, causing them to lose power over the person.

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Hypnosis

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

Cognitive behavioral therapy

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

Are you looking for psychological support in therapy?

On Cepsim Psychological Center We have a team of psychotherapists with more than 25 years of professional experience caring for patients. We work basing our work on a theoretical-practical orientation in which several techniques and methodologies, to adapt to the needs and the specific problem to be dealt with in each person. Get in touch with us through this page.

Bibliographic 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.