What is trauma exactly?
We might call an experience traumatic if an event or a strain of events causes a deep, alarming sense of ‘too much, too soon, too fast. The brain signals our nervous system to switch into freeze, flight, or fight mode as it perceives an absolute state of the highest danger. The body stops digesting, and all renewal and refueling shut down to prioritize just one thing: survival.
Many of us will come across fearful situations throughout our lifetime, however, some people are unable to get back to a safe baseline state after these events have stopped occurring. Post-traumatic stress is often experienced as a continued state of fear in the mind and the body as if the traumatic event never stopped occurring. This state might present itself in the form of feeling constant stress, nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, depression, or other physical or emotional symptoms which are often categorised as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
PTSD caused by a traumatic event, or a prolonged traumatic time, can have a long-lasting and debilitating impact on an individual, especially when there is no treatment in place to support them. The constant state of hyper-vigilance wreaks havoc on our mental and physical well-being, as the overly activated nerves do not let the body get back to rest and restore mode.
Rather than suffering in silence, more and more people are looking for treatments available to help them manage PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and hypnotherapy is becoming a popular and effective treatment choice.
Hypnotherapy and in particular Rapid Transformational Therapy can help someone discover the real raw emotions, feelings, and thoughts associated with the traumatic event deep within. With the support of a hypnotherapist through a guided hypnotherapy session, we can explore and look within a person’s conscious and subconscious mind and review the traumatic event allowing for any thoughts to be reframed and behavioral responses to be changed, only this time with the client in the driver seat: giving them back the sense of control that is so needed.
Everyone will present PTSD differently; therefore, it is about working to find out what areas of support that individual needs help with.
Here are some associations of PTSD for which hypnotherapy can be beneficial:
Avoidance/ Dissociation
Some people will attempt to distance themselves from the trauma, rather than break down what has happened they will put themselves into shut down and try to pretend that the traumatic event never happened. It’s an example of the freeze response we have when we face terror. However, in doing this, people often shut down other important feelings and emotions as well! By shutting down or dissociating altogether, we might lose a sense of our entire emotional life, the bad, but also the good, and we feel like losing our true selves.
Although hypnotherapy for PTSD cannot erase the traumatic event from your memory, hypnotherapy allows the event to be examined, processed, and expressed. Allowing them to open their emotions again and see the world a little differently, reconfirming the event has passed, and ‘safe’ mode can be switched back on.
Loss of Control
Someone suffering from PTSD might also express a sense of loss of control, they often describe it as no longer feeling like they are in the driving seat of their life.
The trauma often happens beyond our control, and this very feeling of powerlessness over the event(s) happening can disrupt a sense of agency in a violent way. People feel like there’s nothing that they can do, concluding that bad things are just going to continue to happen to them, and nothing can be done to stop it.
Hypnotherapy can not only help shift this change of view caused by the traumatic events by accessing the subconscious, but sufferers can also be equipped with tools and resources to help them take back control of their lives beyond the session. For example, daily grounding meditations might also be supplied as part of their hypnotherapy for PTSD package.
Emotions & Personality Change
Trauma can have a long-lasting impact on an individual’s everyday life, affecting work life, relationships, and social life. It can sometimes shift someone’s entire perception and outlook for e.g. someone might begin to believe and act in accordance that the world is a scary, unsafe place.
During a hypnotherapy session, we can access the subconscious mind and release and reframe these thoughts and feelings, allowing them to see the world or situation differently once the hypnotherapy session has taken place. Empowering the client in knowing how strong, capable, and resilient he or she is, is one of the most important parts of this journey. This will allow them to start living a life that is no longer being controlled by the trauma.
Of course, everyone’s trauma experience is going to be different and there’s not one clear-cut action route that someone should take on their journey to healing. The great thing about hypnotherapy is that it really allows the hypnotherapist to tailor the session(s) to the individual and what comes up for them and what support they need to help them live their life again after experiencing a traumatic event or period in their lives.
If you are interested in using hypnotherapy to help with trauma or PTSD or know someone that could benefit; book your free discovery call today.
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