Better Selves Counseling offers Trauma Therapy in Pompano Beach from our main office. With immediate availability, our counselors are equipped to offer evidence-based trauma therapy in Pompano Beach through Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT Therapy), Narrative Exposure Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Inner-Child Therapy.
Through in-person and telehealth options, we offer trauma therapy near Deerfield Beach, Oakland Park, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Lighthouse Point, Coconut Creek, Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, and communities across Florida. Better Selves Counseling offers Trauma Therapy in Pompano Beach from our main office.
Understanding Trauma: Why It Matters
When I was a counselor-in-training, I learned a lot of new ideas related to mental health counseling. As soon as I experienced enough time within my program to notice trending topics in our course discussions, I quickly saw that ‘Trauma’ and, namely, Trauma Counseling were popular topics – and for good reason.
Trauma is defined by the American Counseling Association as “an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, crime, natural disaster, physical or emotional abuse, neglect, experiencing or witnessing violence, death of a loved one, war, and more.” With this definition in mind, one may be quick to see how important discussing trauma can be. Trauma can seemingly happen anywhere and at any time. Understanding trauma comes with discussing important ideas about how trauma impacts us, how trauma can persist, and how people can thrive after trauma through therapy
How is Trauma Therapy Different?
As a traumatic event occurs, people may initially react with shock, denial, or disillusionment. After several days from the event, a share of those people may experience issues such as difficulty with concentration, avoidance, hypervigilance, nightmares, flashbacks, sleep issues, and negative mood changes. Within six months, many more people who experienced the event may share these issues in ways that interfere with their psychological well-being. People having to miss work, avoid important places, or decompensate in a variety of harmful ways is not an unusual happenstance in the context of trauma. The intensity of the trauma can destroy a person’s livelihood. The duration of the trauma can persist in ways that encompass what feels like a lifetime of lived experience. The happenstance of trauma can occur in ways that directly threaten our sense of self, safety, belonging, and reality.
The field of trauma counseling, or traumatology, explores not only how trauma manifests but also how recovery and growth after a trauma occurs. Traumatology does so with a deep appreciation of how trauma is processed in the brain. In loose terms, trauma happens where the brain witnesses an intense event. The individual often witnesses the event with all five senses and emotional systems at the forefront of the event, and the logical part of the brain shortly follows. A person’s ability to make meaning of the event is deeply compromised by the severe overwhelm on the sensory and emotional system – so much so that memories, processed in the emotional center of the mind, becomes stuck and sometimes lost. Unfortunately, trauma can also vary in complexity due to factors such as loss, harm, and history of trauma.
From a basic neurocognitive perspective, the question for trauma counseling usually is concerned with how the brain reprocesses the memory in meaningful ways that emotional and sensory systems are no longer overwhelmed. From a human perspective, the question for trauma counseling is concerned with how a person can make meaning of a trauma in a way that promotes growth, identity, safety, and belonging.
When considering a counseling approach that works for you, there are several ideas to consider. Such ideas include therapeutic rapport, counseling approaches to trauma, counseling experiences associated with trauma, lived experience, and timeline.
Therapeutic Rapport: The Foundation for Healing
Therapeutic Rapport is a critical change variable that reflects the quality of the relationship between counselor and client. A trauma-informed counselor is quick to exercise empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard. A trauma-informed counselor knows how important attunement is through both the counseling skills they show that they’re listening and the questions they ask. A trauma informed counselor knows to be sensitive to the direction you want to take in therapy, and will always work to honor your boundaries. When these qualities come together, trauma counseling research shows us that positive outcomes in therapy tend to happen when the quality of the therapeutic relationship is high. The single-most important marker of rapport is the degree to which how deeply a client trusts their counselor.
Choosing a Trauma Approach that Fits
Counseling approaches are really important to consider as well. Over the past thirty-five years there has been an abundance of new ways of thinking about trauma from a counseling perspective. The single-most popular approach to trauma counseling has become EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) due to its seemingly novel approach to facilitating change and the institution that was created beneath it. At the same time, some say that creativity is something borrowed. EMDR is not an exception, as central themes within the modality are confluent with other, long-standing, evidence-based approaches such as Exposure Therapy, Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT Therapy), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT Therapy), Narrative Exposure Therapy, and Gestalt Therapy.
While there is an abundance of other evidence-based approaches to trauma, a tell-tale sign of whether an approach works for you can be found by discussing with your counselor about their perspective on Post-Traumatic Growth. A central change idea in traumatology, Post-Traumatic Growth is an empowering idea defined by Psychology Today as a “positive psychological change that some individuals experience after a life of crisis or traumatic event”. The idea of Post-Traumatic Growth implies that growth doesn’t invalidate our experience with harm but a deeper and more helpful understanding about our sense of self, safety, belonging, and community. When it comes to evidence-based practices (even including the most popular ones), all rivers lead to the same ocean. Having a counselor who can emphasize post-traumatic growth from a sensitive, non-judgmental perspective must be vital in your selection process.
The Role of Lived Experience and Perspective
The counselor’s lived experience can be important in ways that are not obvious. For example, a prospective client in their selection process may rule out counselors with limited practice experience. However, many times over, an abundance of post-graduate counselors often use their passion for trauma-informed care to drive their commit toward study and practice early in their career. Post-graduate counselors (pre-licensed counselors, associate counselors, and registered interns alike) may be driven toward appreciating trauma-informed care with high levels of commitment to evidence-based practices in comparison to seasoned clinicians. Counselors who can speak to trauma from both a deeply informed and balanced point of view are often people who have the requisite training, professional support, and know-how to tend to needs with immediacy.
Timeline: Go at Your Own Pace
Timeline matters. Many efforts in counseling are focused on discovering the most effective approaches to care, and some are more pressed to heal within the most efficient span of time. Some modalities often advertise that the timeline of their approach can be mitigated by specific counseling modalities that promise timely outcomes. While a modality working expediently for a single individual is not unusual, traumatology research actually suggests that the reprocessing timeline can significantly vary due to the history and complexity of trauma or loss experienced. With this in mind, the single most important factor to consider is whether the approach is sensitive to the time and pace which you are willing to take on. Secondly, being weary of some approaches promising enhanced timelines behind significant pay walls would be wise. This is because research often demonstrates that trauma treatment is hardly a one-size-fits-all approach, and trauma therapy through other approaches are highly accessible.
Concluding Thought
When I think from my training in trauma-informed care, coupled with my direct experiences with traumatic events and post-traumatic growth, I identify important factors such as therapeutic rapport, counseling approaches to trauma, counseling experiences associated with trauma, lived experience, and timeline. When it comes to trauma-informed care, I believe that trust and confidence in the therapeutic process is vital to post-traumatic growth in a clinical setting.
Trauma Therapy in Pompano Beach – Call Today!
At Better Selves Counseling, we’ve supported countless clients across Florida in navigating trauma, building resilience, and moving toward a better self. Whether you’re struggling with the aftermath of a specific event or coping with years of accumulated stress, our team is here to help.
We offer immediate openings throughout the week, and we’d be honored to walk with you or a loved one through this season of life.
Qualified Supervisor – FL
Sources:
American Psychological Association – Understanding Trauma
https://www.apa.org/topics/trauma
National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN)
https://www.nctsn.org/what-is-child-trauma
Psychology Today – Post-Traumatic Growth
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/post-traumatic-growth
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) – Trauma and Violence
https://www.samhsa.gov/trauma-violence
National Institute of Mental Health – Coping With Traumatic Events
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/coping-with-traumatic-events
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS)
https://istss.org