Healing TR Auma: A Brief Intervention For Women
Healing TR Auma: A Brief Intervention For Women
Healing TR Auma: A Brief Intervention For Women
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HEALING TRAUMA
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HEALING TRAUMA
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HEALING TRAUMA
What is Trauma?
Trauma is a response to violence or some other overwhelmingly negative experience. It
can happen in many ways: through the oppression of an entire group of people; through
discrimination based on gender, race, poverty, sexual orientation, gender identification,
disability, or age; through the repeated sexual abuse of a child; and so on. It can be
a result of emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse, as well as assault, war, natural
disasters, and political terrorism.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, defines
trauma as exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violence in
one or more of four ways: (a) directly experiencing the event; (b) witnessing, in person,
the event occurring to others; (c) learning that such an event happened to a close family
member or friend; (d) experiencing repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details
of traumatic events, such as with first responders. In addition, a traumatic event,
regardless of its source, causes significant distress or impairment in the individual’s
social interactions, capacity to work, or other important areas of functioning (American
Psychiatric Association 2013, 271–280).
Trauma occurs when an external threat overwhelms a person’s coping resources.
The type of trauma addressed in Healing Trauma occurs as a result of repeated trauma,
such as active discrimination, sexual abuse, physical battering, and emotional abuse.
Trauma also can result from the threat of abuse and from witnessing violence.
A traumatic event can affect a person in multiple ways. It can affect both the inner
self and the outer self. The inner self includes one’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and
values. For example, some women may come to believe that they can’t trust anyone and
that the world is a very unsafe place.
Trauma also can affect the outer self, which consists of one’s relationships and
behavior. Many women who have experienced trauma struggle in their relationships
with family members, friends, and sexual partners. For example, parenting is a
relationship that can become even more complicated by the experience of trauma. Some
women who have experienced abuse in childhood may find that their children remind
them of their previous abuse; consequently, they are flooded with the feelings they
experienced at that time. It is particularly risky when a woman’s child becomes the age
the mother was when her abuse began.
A woman may be triggered in her current life by reminders of a past traumatic
event. There may be nightmares and flashbacks to the earlier experience. This creates
a painful emotional state and affects subsequent behavior. The behaviors we often see
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HEALING TRAUMA
can be placed into four categories: retreat, harmful behavior toward oneself, harmful
behavior toward others, and physical health issues. Women often internalize their
feelings and are more likely to retreat or harm themselves, while men often externalize
their feelings and are more likely to engage in outwardly harmful behaviors. Both men
and women who suffer trauma are at risk for physical health problems.
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HEALING TRAUMA
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HEALING TRAUMA
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