Childhood Trauma Therapy for Adults
In this post, I am going to present 4 types of childhood trauma therapy modalities for adults who struggle with trauma symptoms such as low self-esteem, nightmares, flashbacks, depression, or anxiety.
EMDR
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing, it’s an evidenced-based psychotherapy that helps people heal from trauma and distressful events. EMDR helps to clear up traumatic experiences such as unpleasant memories and stressful senses. For example, if you are triggered by someone yelling (which might remind you of a past incident such as a parent yelling at you when you were 6) this can evoke lots of distressful feelings in the present, you can either paralyze or fight back. With EMDR, we will clear out those memory networks related to that traumatic event. It’s important to clear the “yuckiness” from old memories because they affect your day-to-day life. I’d say that EMDR is a modality that helps clear out the yucky memories impacting your present. It does not mean that you will “forget” your traumatic memories, it means that those memories will not have power over you anymore.
Parts Work or Ego States
I like to say that within us many “subpersonalities” or aspects of the self have their own life of their own. For example, we have parts that are angry and sad, we have the inner critical parts that judge us harshly, and we have parts that are the voices of our parents (introjects) constantly criticizing us. We have so many parts, we are complex! The parts of us with destructive behaviors such as controlling, worrying, drinking, numbing, cutting, etc., “believe” that we are still small and powerless (they think we are stuck in the past as a child). This is one of the reasons these parts need to step up and protect us by doing what they are doing. For example, someone who can’t stop smoking: this person has a part that craves smoking in order to protect from distressful feelings and traumatic responses. The responses from these parts are connected to childhood trauma.
Inner Child work
Nowadays inner child work has gained popularity “Aw how precious!”, however, I want to point out that this is not about “cute” work “Oh my inner child, so cute!”. Let`s just say a couple of cute positive affirmations to your inner child and that’s it. NO. This kind of therapy takes WORK and effort. WHY? Because it takes willingness to be there for yourself, it takes willpower and choice to be there for the most vulnerable part of you who is suffering. I like to say that Ego States/Parts work is very similar to inner child work because all these modalities help you to strengthen your adult self so you can take care of yourself and live with authenticity. Inner child work facilitates a connection between you and your inner child so you can feel wholeness.
If you do not like the concept of inner child that’s ok, you can think this in terms of neuroscience: by strengthening your pro frontal cortex part of your brain (your adult self), you will be more present to manage your amygdala (inner child). It’s a connection between your pre-frontal cortex (thinking, reality, the present) with your amygdala (emotions, the past).
Psychodynamics
Psychodynamics is a type of talk therapy that helps you identify your unconscious thoughts, feelings, and past experiences and how they reflect on your current behaviors. The goal of this modality is to help you gain self-awareness, achieve transformation, and understand how your past experiences are impacting your present life today. I use psychodynamics in my practice, and I go beyond. I like hands-on approaches, such as the ones I presented above, so you can achieve greater emotional freedom. I like having my clients reflect, and develop insights that can be liberating (Psychodynamics), but, I also use hands-on trauma reprocessing and healing (EMDR and Parts Work) as well as helping my clients build a healthy relationship with themselves (Inner Child work and Ego States).
Conclusion
Many people who seek out therapy with me struggle with childhood trauma, past abuse, and difficulty navigating relationships with their families/parents. If you have difficulty with childhood trauma that is affecting your present day-to-day life, you are not alone. Therapy can help.
I use EMDR, Parts work, Psychodynamics, and Inner child healing to help clients overcome childhood trauma. I’ve combined my graduate degree with advanced training in EMDR therapy to provide my clients with relief and emotional freedom in the present.
If you want structured sessions and professional help with healing childhood trauma, feel free to contact me for a 20-minute consultation call or book an appointment to see how I might be able to help you.
