Takeaway: Coping with trauma can be a painful, overwhelming experience– but it is possible to heal. Here we’ll break down what trauma is and which types of therapy are most helpful for recovery. Plus, I'll share some of my favorite activities that you can try on your own.

"No one gets through this life unscathed."

Nowhere is this more evident than with traumatic pain in its many manifestations.

So, how do you know if you're struggling with trauma? And if you are...how can you help yourself?

We'll also look at some leading types of therapy that can help, as well as trauma-informed therapy activities and coping skills that can be used individually and in a group setting.

What is trauma?

With all the conversation around mental health and PTSD, it's important to be clear about what it actually is:

Trauma is an emotional and physiological response to a highly disturbing event(s) or experiences in which you've experienced or witnessed a serious threat to life, physical self, or sense of wholeness, or moral injury/distress.

It is not the distressing event itself; however it can result from rape, war/combat, assault, child abuse, natural disasters, as well as bullying, undergoing medical procedures/treatment, sudden loss, psychological abuse, and more. Not all distressing experiences result in trauma; however the traumatic events that can trigger it are many.

Here's how it works: your body naturally releases special hormones when you're faced with danger to help you fight, run or act quickly ("fight-flight-freeze" response). However, if you're helpless, feel paralyzed or otherwise unable to effectively respond in a way that would relieve you of the threat - the fight-flight-freeze response gets "stuck" and lives in your nervous system, and trauma can result.

The mental health impact of trauma is real - but with the right therapy and support, PTSD symptoms don't have to be a life sentence for trauma survivors.

Signs of post-traumatic stress disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms can include (but aren't limited to):

Distressing reminders

Intrusive,PTSD-related thoughts and memories, as well as emotional distress or uncomfortable sensations when reminded of things that resemble the traumatic event(s) in some way.

Avoidance

Avoiding certain people, places, activities, situations (even thoughts, memories or conversations) that feel similar to certain aspects of your traumatic experiences.

Hypervigilance

Being "on guard" for potential threats to your well-being and perceiving threat even when there isn't any. Some trauma survivors get startled easily.

Flashbacks

Re-living the traumatic emotions or sensations in the present, triggered by emotional memories or reminders, a feeling from your five senses, or even an unrelated stressful experience.

Negative beliefs and painful emotions

Believing things like "no one can be trusted" or "I am bad". Anxiety, guilt, low self-esteem, horror, fear, irritability/anger, shame, and self-blame are not uncommon for trauma survivors.

Difficulty enjoying things

You may have difficulty feeling positive emotions and/or feel detached or estranged from others.

Dissociation

Feeling detached from yourself, your body or surroundings, or like things are unreal.

Nightmares and sleep problems

Insomnia, oversleeping or recurring, distressing dreams in which you experience the emotions or aspects of painful past experiences.

What about complex trauma (C-PTSD)?

If you were exposed to chronic, repeated trauma (often over a period of months or years), you may also experience the following symptoms:

Difficulty managing your emotions

Emotional health means being able to experience intense feelings that don't overwhelm your ability to cope. You may have strong emotional reactions that are out-of-proportion to what's actually happening. This can occur with both complex and non-complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

Negative sense of self

Worthlessness, a sense of failure, or low self-esteem are commonly experienced by C-PTSD survivors.

Difficulty connecting

It's hard to feel close with others and can result in relationship problems (e.g., intense or unstasble relationships, withdrawal, avoidance, etc).

The mental health symptoms resulting from traumatic experiences can seriously impact your emotional health, life, and relationships. Therapy treatment offers hope and a safe place to process your experiences, learn coping skills - and heal!

Healing from trauma

You might wonder, "do I even need therapy? Can't I deal with this on my own?"

While there are lots of ways to support your healing, treatment with a trauma therapist is always recommended to achieve deeper, transformational change and relief. Here are some different types of therapy to support the healing process:

Types of trauma therapy

Individual therapy treatment approaches that many trauma survivors have found to be helpful in healing post-traumatic stress disorder include:

EMDR

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy is a structured, phased treatment which incorporates coping skills and processing unresolved trauma with bilateral stimulation (back-and-forth eye movement, sound or touch). EMDR can lead to a significant and faster alleviation of PTSD symptoms compared to traditional "talk therapy" treatment.

Somatic Therapies

Somatic therapy (for example, Somatic Experiencing, sensorimotor therapy, and NeuroAffective Relational Model therapy) use targeted and guided awareness of bodily sensations and movement to help traumatic stress get physiologically "unstuck" and released from the nervous system.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

This therapy is particularly effective for post-traumatic stress disorder rooted in earlier life experiences. It's a user-friendly, non-pathologizing therapy that works gently-yet-powerfully with the "parts" of your psyche that hold distressing feelings and beliefs related to unresolved trauma and helps you live from your healed Self and the "8 C's." Learn more about this transformational therapy here.

Brainspotting

This mindfulness-informed therapy uses eye positioning and bilateral stimulation to process traumatic feelings and experiences that are "trapped" in the subcortical brain, thereby updating the brain's neural networks (how you think and feel). Learn more here.

Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy

Plant medicine has been a part of indigenous healing for centuries, and ongoing randomized controlled trial research is establishing it as a highly-effective treatment for PTSD. Many predict that this therapy will increasingly become a more mainstream treatment for PTSD symptoms.

Cognitive Processing Therapy

This short-term therapy treatment helps clients change unhelpful beliefs related to their trauma narrative to relieve emotional discomfort/mental health symptoms.

Prolonged Exposure Therapy

This post-traumatic stress disorder therapy treatment "desensitizes" people to their traumatic feelings, memories and situations in order to feel less distressed by them.

--> A note about Cognitive Processing and Prolonged Exposure Therapy...

While supported by randomized controlled trial research for post-traumatic stress disorder, there are concerns about the limitations and actual "real world" success rates of these therapy approaches:

"Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (and “Trauma Focused CBT”), talk therapies, and prolonged exposure therapies can make some changes in people’s distress, but traumatic stress has little to do with cognition—it emanates from the emotional part of the brain that is rewired to constantly send out messages of dangers and distress...Blasting people with the memories of the trauma may lead to desensitization and numbing, but it does not lead to integration: an organic awareness that the event is over, and that you are fully alive in the present. The VA [Veterans Administration] seems to be surprised by how many veterans drop out of prolonged exposure therapy. It would be helpful for them to find out why, but the likely answer is that it is re-traumatizing them."

- Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, PTSD researcher/author of "The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma (source: psychotherapy.net interview)

Trauma therapy activities for adults

A post-traumatic stress disorder therapist might use these individual therapy activities with clients. Note: these are abbreviated descriptions of therapy activities that happen over time, within a larger context of treatment interventions:

Mapping your Internal Family System

Through experiential self-inquiry using imagery, your five senses, art, mindfulness and/or other individualized methods, you identify and therapeutically dialogue/interact with the "parts" of you connected to post-traumatic emotional distress (for example, anxiety, addictive/compulsive behavior, anger, inner criticism, shame, etc.).

Over time, these parts can transform into supportive, non-harmful "allies" and your traumatic memories can be released through a process called "unburdening."

EMDR Memory Processing

After identifying a traumatic memory and practicing coping skills to emotionally self-regulate (i.e., calm yourself), your focus on the memory, the related negative self-belief, and associated feelings/sensations while doing several "sets" of bilateral stimulation (back-and-forth eye movement, tapping, or sound) to process the memory so it no longer causes distress. Learn more about EMDR here.

Somatic Pendulation

PTSD consists of not only painful thoughts and feelings, but also a dysregulated physiology. Working with bodily sensations in a safe, guided manner can begin to release your nervous system's "stuck" traumatic reactivity:

You first feel into the physical sensations, imagery or memories connected with feelings of calm, groundedness, comfort or neutrality (this is called "resourcing").
Then you notice the physical sensations and emotions connected with your trauma narrative.
To prevent overwhelm, you're then guided back into the sensations, imagery, etc. that re-connect you with a feeling of calm/neutrality.
This is done in a gradual, "titrated" way. Slowly and gently going back and forth between these states allows your traumatic responses to be processed safely, without re-traumatization.

It's important to work with an experienced trauma therapist with the skill to safely help you process your trauma. To learn more about my multi-faceted approach to healing PTSD, reach out!

Trauma group therapy activities

Mental health professional-facilitated group therapy can be a safe place to get meaningful social support and talk to other trauma survivors with similar challenges. In a group setting you and other members can confidentially process thoughts, feelings and experiences, and participate in ptsd group therapy activities that focus on the practice of coping skills and that identify ways to heal.

Here are a few group activities which can benefit you and other members :

Coping Skills

Post-traumatic healing relies heavily on user-friendly, emotional regulation coping skills to calm the nervous system's hyperarousal so you can effectively and safely process your thoughts and feelings while staying within your "window of tolerance."

Example coping skills include nervous-system balancing breathing techniques, grounding/engaging the senses, Emotional Freedom Techniques, Brainspotting, mindfulness and compassion exercises, and more.

Future Self

Each group member imagines a future, healed version of themselves. How does this person think, act, and feel? How have they changed? What have they learned? What do they want you to know?

Group members write letters from this future self, and/or share them with other group members. This process connects group members to their innate resilience, hope, wisdom and strength, which can be reinforced by the experience of other group members.

Psychoeducation

Learning about post-traumatic distress - and how it can be healed - is a big part of group therapy. Understanding the self-protective nature of your nervous system's reactions to painful life experiences can help you "de-pathologize" your trauma narrative and post-traumatic experience, and release the self-judgement, shame, guilt, and beliefs that hinder your healing process.

Having insight into the neurobiology of healing traumatic distress can also help you engage fully and effectively with trauma group therapy activities.

Healing Movement

Trauma lives in the body and growing research shows the effectiveness of PTSD-focused yoga, tai chi, dance therapy, and other somatic- and movement-oriented interventions for addressing post-traumatic mental health challenges. Trauma group therapy activities that include movement can work gently with your physiology to promote safe nervous system regulation, processing and release.

These trauma group activities for adults are just a few of the ways a therapist might work with group members in a group therapy setting. There are other group therapy activities that a therapist might use to benefit the needs of group members. You can try out a therapy group session to see if group therapy is for you.

5 trauma activities for adults to try at home

The following activities are not a substitute for professional therapy; however can be supportive additions to treatment (your therapist can help you learn how to individualize and incorporate them). As you try the following activities, be gentle with yourself. If you feel uncomfortable at any time, stop.

Grounding mindfulness

Mindfulness literally changes the brain's "wiring," reducing emotional reactivity and increasing well-being. It's important for trauma survivors to modify mindfulness activities with grounding, which is simply re-connecting with your senses for increased inner stability. For example:

Become aware of the feeling of cool or warm water running over your hands.
Run an ice cube over the back of your neck, arms or face, paying close attention to the sensations.
As you sit, notice how your legs/pelvis/back comes into contact with the chair/surface.
Focus on feeling into your weight as you stand.

Soothing breath

Sit or lie down comfortably.
With one hand on your belly and the other on your chest, feel the rise and fall of your breath - without needing to change it in any way.
If it's comfortable, begin to let your exhale be slightly longer than the inhale. Example: if you inhale for 3-4 seconds, try exhaling for 4-5 seconds. Do this in a non-forceful, gentle way. Try breathing in through your nose and out through pursed lips.

NOTE: if doing this causes anxiety, simply try turning your head gently and slowly from side to side (seated or standing) while you breathe naturally. Notice how you feel after a few minutes.

There are many other variations of breathing practices; experiment to see what feels best.

5-4-3-2-1

This mindfulness-based grounding practice can calm you when you're feeling anxious or agitated:

Find 5 things you can SEE in your surroundings. Notice the details: texture, patterns, reflection of light off the surface, movement.
Find 4 things you can FEEL: an object you pick up, the sun or breeze on your skin, a soft blanket, anything! Notice it's texture, weight, temperature and other physical aspects.
Notice 3 things that you can HEAR: for example, sounds that you may usually tune out, like traffic in the background, the hum of the refrigerator, or the wind blowing through the trees.
Find 2 things you can SMELL: a scented candle, flowers, the grass, air freshener, or smells in the air around you.
Find 1 thing you can TASTE: gum, candy, a beverage. Focus on the distinct flavors.

Healing Sound

Settle into a comfortable position. Become aware of your breathing for a few moments. Just allow it to occur naturally.
Take a deeper breath into your belly. As you exhale, make a deep "fog horn" sound with the sound "voooooo," letting the sound extend out as you slowly exhale.
Notice how the sound vibrates throughout your physical being. Try this for 3 to 5 minutes. This practice stimulates the vagus nerve, which can give rise to feelings of calm.

Container Exercise

Imagery can help lower the intensity of the distressing thoughts/feelings of PTSD:

Imagine a container: a box, vault, chest, safe, capsule, etc.
Notice the uncomfortable emotion(s) and any physical sensations, memories, thoughts or images. Allow these to transform into a color, shape, object or energy.
Picture this going into the container. Close it securely. Perhaps add a lock, bury or move the container to a safe location.
Optional: visualize a stream of pure, healing light or energy coming down from an infinite source above and washing through the container and its contents.

With practice, these can be effective coping skills to support you in your healing process!

Get individualized support in healing from trauma

Your pain is real - but you don't have to struggle on your own. More is known about post-traumatic healing than ever before and you can put this specialized knowledge to work for you!

My name is Elisa, and I know firsthand how the reverberating effects of PTSD can wreak havoc on your mental health and well-being. I've been fortunate enough to have experienced much of my own PTSD healing, and have dedicated my professional life to helping my clients heal, too.

I am trained in an array of specialized treatment approaches that can not only give you powerful coping skills to alleviate your day-to-day psychological distress, but that can help you heal the ROOT of your pain.

My compassionate, neuroscience-informed therapy draws from modalities such as Eye-movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), IFS-informed therapy, Brainspotting, memory reconsolidation techniques, Emotional Freedom Techniques, mindfulness- and somatic-informed therapy, and more. Post-traumatic stress disorder is my thing!

So if you're an anxious achiever, an overwhelmed thinker or burned-out professional who's feeling the effects of trauma...I'd love to talk with you about how I can help you find the calm, clarity and freedom that's waiting for you!

Reach out anytime to schedule a free, in-depth consultation here.

I wish you much healing!

5 Best Trauma Therapy Activities to Help You Recover