Trauma can occur at any moment or in any experience in life. This blog post will explore the situations that may create chronic trauma, the effects of chronic traumatization on life, and what and how to heal from chronic traumatization. A side note – even if traumatic experiences have occurred years or decades in the past, you can still heal. There’s still hope.
How Does Chronic Traumatization Start?
The phrase ‘chronic traumatization’ occurs from long-term exposure to intense life experiences. These situations have created large sensations of overwhelm, nervous system dysregulation, threat to self-perseveration, and fear. Chronic traumatization can occur later in life but occurs more commonly during childhood.
This is due to two main factors – one being a child has a level of dependency on adults to provide for him or her. So, the child is caught in the middle of needing to escape yet cannot independently take care of oneself. The second factor is that during childhood we are not only developing our innate abilities to cope but also physical, mental, and emotional growth. Thus, chronic traumatization can interfere with many of these domains of a child’s life as they grow older.
Effects of Chronic Traumatization in Life
As noted above, chronic trauma can impact many domains of a child’s life. Some of these domains may include:
- Social – chronic traumatization can interfere with one’s view of self and trust of others which will impact relationships later in life
- Self-esteem – trauma can create self-doubt and destroy a child’s sense of self-worth
- Emotion dysregulation – trauma can interfere with one’s perception and how someone regulates their emotion
- Mental health – exposure to trauma can activate genes and thus create mental health challenges
- Behavioral issues – trauma can not only dysregulate one’s emotional response but also the nervous system
How to Heal from Chronic Traumatization?
The use of evidence-based treatment when helping people heal from trauma is paramount. Two evidenced-based trauma therapies include:
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy – activates the body’s innate ability to heal from dysfunctional material stored in the nervous system
- Somatic Experiencing (SE) therapy – assists in building body awareness and completing the body’s trauma response which often becomes stalled during traumatic experiences
Trauma Therapist Near Denver and Cherry Creek
At Revitalize Mental Health PLLC, we know that bringing peace and calm to the body and one’s life is the byproduct of trauma healing. If you or someone you know has been impacted by trauma and their quality of life now struggles, we are here to support you. Call us now at 720.295.6703 or submit an online form here to set up a free 15-minute consultation call with a Trauma Therapist in Denver and Cherry Creek. We offer both online therapy sessions as well as in-person therapy to support people who desire to heal from trauma.
