trauma, PTSD, and Dissociation
“There is no greater agony
than bearing an untold story inside you.”
There is now greater understanding of the role trauma plays in mental health. The definition of trauma has broadened beyond sudden and singular traumatic experiences to also include complex trauma, involving multiple events which are repeated and built up over time.
Both single-incident and complex trauma create changes in the structure of your brain, the function of your nervous system, and mental health markers like your mood, behavior, resilience level, and identity.
Single-incident traumas are experiences like witnessing or being the victim of a crime, medical trauma such as an injury/accident or heart attack, or even “moral injury” situations such as having to harm someone else in combat or self defense. Complex trauma describes a series of chronically traumatizing experiences. Some examples are; growing up in a emotionally or physically abusive/neglectful family; having or caring for someone with a serious prolonged illness; chronic minority stress (ex. racism, misogyny, homophobia); or living through terrifying historical events like the COVID pandemic or the Vietnam War.
Not everyone who goes through those things will experience them as traumatic, and not everyone who does will end up with PTSD or CPTSD. All nervous systems are different, age and previous trauma play a role in that, and our support systems also matter. Many traumatic experiences can be survived without developing PTSD, if there is adequate recognition of pain and enough social support for healing.
Therefore it follows that experiences through which survivors pain is invalidated, and their holding environments lacking in support and space to heal, are more likely to result in PTSD.
The good news is there is plenty of research that shows your brain is capable of change and healing no matter how long it’s been. Somatic therapies like EMDR can help restructure the brain and teach the nervous system to regulate itself better, increasing your ability to tolerate challenging experiences, create healthy attachment, and access feelings of strength, safety, and happiness.
As a trauma informed therapist, my focus is not to figure out what’s “wrong” with you but to help you make sense of what happened to you, and how you survived it. Using experiential process and depth oriented modalities we can work together to help you integrate your past, while also helping you practice new ways to respond and move toward healing.
Dissociation
Dissociation can be (but isn’t always) a symptom of trauma. It is one of the unconscious survival responses our bodies and minds use to help us get through stressors that are outside our window of tolerance. In those with a history of complex trauma, it can also be more than just a symptom, but a survival strategy that allows the brain to function despite chronic traumatic stressors, usually those which occur in childhood. Being exposed to stressors that cause dissociation continually at a young age can cause changes in the brain and disrupt the continuity of a person’s memory, sense of identity, and emotional responses.
Dissociation does not affect everyone with PTSD or CPSTD. But if you read the links above and you think it might affect you, or you suspect or have been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder, it’s vitally important to work with a therapist who has training in treatment of dissociation. Dissociation is an often invisible affect of complex trauma, and most therapists are not taught enough about how to recognize or treat it.
I am an Emerging Professional member of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. I have experience working with dissociation and dissociative disorders, and welcome clients who experience dissociation to any extent.
