Counsellor’s support to cope up Traumatic experiences

Traumatic experiences are triggered by life threatening events either to self or others. The response often involve some degree of fragmentation of thoughts and feelings. In this complex world, people are susceptible of array of traumatic experiences. Emotional trauma is visualized as inflicting severe harm to individual’s mental state. Traumatic events have profound impact on person and normally result in betrayed, helplessness, frightened, and feeling lonely.

Traumatic experiences in life not only impact on physical and psychological conditions of person, instead these events give deep spiritual wounds. Major causes of trauma differ extensively and include interpersonal violence, war, different crisis situations, and massive disaster. Other instances of traumatic events are death of family member, lover, friend, teacher, divorce, physical pain or injury (e.g. severe car accident), terrorism, relocation, parental abandonment, witnessing a death, rape, domestic abuse and prison stay. People who experience traumatic event may display shock and denial. Common responses of traumatic events may be bad temper, sudden mood changes, anxiety and nervousness, anger, depression, flashbacks or repeated memories of the event, difficult to concentrate, disturbed sleeping or insomnia, changes in appetite, intense fear of reoccurring in traumatic event, withdrawal and isolation from daily activities, worsening of an existing medical condition.

Persons undergo trauma must seek counsellor or mental health professional advice when they exhibit following responses:

-       Emotional outbursts

-       Severe aggression

-       Withdrawal

-       Continued difficulty in sleeping

-       Sustained obsession with the traumatic event

-       Serious problems at school or workplace

It is a challenging task of an individual to deal with such terrorizing experiences. Trauma counsellors have to focus on the client’s healing process. They need to grapple whole events as well as to engage with the complexity of traumatic responses. There are team of clinical professionals such as psychologist, counsellors, psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists, social workers who assess the impact of traumatic event on patient. Psychotherapists who deal with trauma survivors have comprehended that aftermath of trauma range from acute stress disorder, posttraumatic disorder and other serious psychopathological responses to existential crisis.

In order to effectively deal with traumatic experiences, first thing is to get help from someone to become safe. Person suffering from trauma must talk with friends or family members instead of living alone. To cope up with trauma, person must do varied activities like relaxing, going for walks, visiting beautiful places.

Psychologists or counsellors extend their support to people in understanding to deal with the emotional impact of a traumatic event. Threatening events or any type of trauma depress the person. Response to trauma is an acute stress reaction, which is for short span. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is effective treatment for trauma.

Important: This article is developed through environmental information and personal view of writer. Writer is not responsible for any disagreement.