Processing Trauma: What It Means & How to Do It

What Is Trauma?

Trauma is a response to one or more extremely distressing events that overwhelms a person’s ability to cope. Traumatic events vary widely and may include sexual or emotional abuse, natural disasters, war, or systemic mistreatment. Each individual will experience trauma differently. Some may recover relatively quickly, while others may get stuck in a state of high alert, resulting in them developing post-traumatic stress disorder.

Impact of Trauma

The impact trauma has on the brain and body leads to distorted thinking and negative beliefs, such as “I am bad” or “I don’t matter.” Our bodies hold experiences and emotions from unresolved trauma. Our emotional reactions show up as anger, rage, being unavailable or too dependent, affecting work, family, and friendships.

What Does it Mean to Process Trauma?

Processing trauma means dealing with and understanding the emotions and thoughts that come from a traumatic experience. When trauma is processed, individuals can accept what has occurred and begin to move on with their lives. Processing trauma may involve talking about what had occurred, changing unhealthy behaviors that a person developed to cope, and releasing tension that built up in their body.

Trauma needs to be processed cognitively and somatically. Cognitive trauma processing involves making sense of what occurred. It can involve psychoeducation and reframing beliefs related to the trauma, such as self-blame for what occurred. Somatic trauma processing uses somatic therapy to release trauma that is stuck in the body. It usually occurs by moving the body through yoga, bilateral stimulation, and breathwork.

Why Processing Trauma Is Important

Processing trauma is essential for health and well-being. When trauma is not properly processed, it can result in distorted thinking and impaired functioning. The saying “trauma builds on trauma” underscores how unprocessed trauma can accumulate over time. If not dealt with, unprocessed trauma can result in an increasing array of PTSD symptoms, complicating and prolonging the healing process.

Unprocessed trauma can result in or perpetuate intergenerational trauma, where the trauma is passed down through families. This is especially common for traumas involving domestic violence, abuse (physical, emotional, or sexual), oppression, racism, war, natural disasters, genocide, and slavery. Addressing and understanding the roots of this intergenerational trauma is vital for healing and preventing its perpetuation, thereby promoting better mental health for future generations.

Trauma Processing & Post-Traumatic Growth

Trauma processing helps people heal from painful experiences and reset their nervous system. During this healing process, they can let go of deep-seated pain, emotional stress, and grief. This release can result in post-traumatic growth, where an individual grows stronger and more resilient.

Working through trauma allows a person to see life differently, appreciate it more, and open up to new chances. Our relationships with others improve, and we feel more supported by our community and in our spiritual beliefs.

Signs That You Need to Process Trauma

Unresolved trauma, repressed childhood trauma as an adult, or chronic trauma can show up in unexpected ways. Think about a time when you overreacted to being cut off by a stranger’s comment or felt overly irritated hearing children playing or crying. Maybe even being called out for being too aggressive with co-workers. Many find unresolved trauma shows up when at a social event, and they feel a fog rolling in, making it hard to focus.

Signs that you need to process trauma include:

• Trouble falling asleep or night terrors regarding the trauma
• Self-harm, including addiction, destructive relationships, cutting, negative self-talk, high-risk activity
• Struggling to focus and unable to complete tasks
• Lack of motivation
• Excessive guilt, shame or self-blame regarding the traumatic event
• Excess anger, frustration, and irritability
• Repeated PTSD flashbacks and intrusive thoughts about the trauma
• Avoidance behaviors, including avoidance of people, places or settings that are reminders of the traumatic event
• Dissociation or emotional numbness
• Persistent anxiety, nervousness, or panic attacks
• Hypervigilance
• Feelings of hopelessness or suicidal ideation
• Headaches or stomachaches without a clear medical cause

How to Start Processing Trauma

Asking for help is not easy, but it is often the best way to shift out of the trauma symptoms you experience. Professional help can offer the support, reflection, and relationship you may need to uncover what has been tucked away for so long.

Here is how to begin processing trauma:

• Recognize the trauma: Acknowledge the suffering you are experiencing, such as trouble sleeping, digestive challenges, autoimmune diseases, feeling shame, emotionally unstable, or fear of being alone may relate to trauma. Body experiences leading to emotional turmoil are clues to recognizing trauma.
• Seek professional help: When we get emotionally and physically out of sorts, feeling numb, isolated, ashamed, and disconnected, it is more than we can heal with friends, family, or on our own. Take the time needed to find the right therapist. Trust instincts and feelings as you decide. Keep in mind that not all therapists are trauma-informed.
• Settle into the process: Get settled into working with someone who honors, validates, and empowers you throughout the treatment, ideally helping you gain back the sense of control of your life. As you settle in, the process will continue with some feelings of grief, pain, anger, and sadness.  Know it is all part of the process and will keep moving as you gain back lost parts of yourself.

Therapy Options for Processing Trauma

Trauma impacts each of us differently. Some traumas may resolve in a short amount of time, while others may take longer. There are many different types of therapy for trauma processing, so you’ll have choices as to which works best for you.

Here are six types of therapy for trauma processing:

1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

One popular approach, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), is a short intervention process with specific steps to help children and adults address distorted or unsettling beliefs. TF-CBT is a talk therapy approach that focuses on shifting negative thought patterns about one’s trauma by revealing their non-beneficial nature in the present.  In trauma, we tend to generalize negativity from a single incident.  TF-CBT aids in reframing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The treatment can provide coping skills, education, and support, helping individuals process incidents and fostering mental well-being.³

2. Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) for PTSD is a way of processing trauma that uses alternate stimuli between the right and left hemispheres. Sometimes, a person has a negative belief that is driving their present-day behavior, and sometimes, they have physical distress. Either can be addressed using EMDR. An EMDR therapist will help the client reframe their thoughts and use the brain/body connection through alternate stimuli between the right and left brain to calm the nervous system.

3. Brainspotting Therapy

Brainspotting is a rapid, effective way to support your brain in healing, releasing, reorganizing, and clearing from trauma. Brainspotting relies on the idea that “Where you look affects how you feel.” It involves directing your eyes to specific positions to access information beyond what talk therapy provides. With the therapist’s assistance, your brain and body work together during the process. Your sensations and life experiences guide the healing, and you have the freedom to share as much or as little as you feel comfortable with.

4. Narrative Exposure Therapy

Narrative exposure therapy (NET) is an effective talk therapy for trauma. An NET therapist helps their client construct a chronological narrative with a focus on the traumatic experiences.  The client is asked for details as they relive the emotions while narrating the event. The client gains perspective by expressing and framing the event, distancing themselves from the trauma. This process helps re-author the narrative, empowering individuals to reshape their identity, fostering resilience, and promoting healing.⁴

5. Trauma Release Exercises

Trauma release exercises (TRE) are known to release the deep muscular tension in the body and release natural body reflexes and tremors. Developed by David Berceli, Ph.D. TRE is more physical than verbal. A series of gentle stretches and movements, it targets specific muscle groups aiming to calm the nervous system. This practice can help reduce overall stress levels, increase energy levels, reduce muscle pain, and help manage depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

6. Hypnotherapy

Originating in the 1800s with James Braid, hypnotherapy for PTSD is a contemporary mind-body treatment. Facilitating deep relaxation and focused concentration, hypnotherapy can help treat trauma symptoms and be an add-on to other forms of treatment. The process begins with identifying memories and accessing triggers. Next is the reframing, then the anchoring resources of confidence, safety, and control.

How to Find Professional Support for Trauma Processing

If you tried self-help and are still feeling numb and isolated and are having difficulty with daily responsibilities, professional help may be needed. An online therapist directory is a great resource for finding a therapist. You can search for therapists who are trauma-informed and also who take the insurance you have. Alternatively, an online therapy platform can be useful if you prefer to take therapy from the comfort of your own home.

Self-Help Strategies for Processing Trauma

Whether you want to start doing some trauma processing on your own or you are working with a therapist, self-help strategies are extremely important. They are tools to become more connected and grounded and heal from painful, sometimes forgotten experiences.

Here are some self-help strategies for processing trauma:

Journaling

Journaling has been known to improve mood, release stress, organize thoughts, and bring order when your world feels upside down. Journaling about one’s trauma can help put things in perspective, organize events, and release emotions. For example, if you are at the beginning of processing trauma and journaling about a  present situation, writing can help make connections to the roots of the pain and support processing the original trauma.

Writing down daily thoughts, waking up with freestyle writing, exploring something that is upsetting, or jotting down keywords to describe feelings and having internal conversations are all examples of journaling.

Here are some prompts to get you started for journaling about trauma:

• Thinking about my father makes me feel…
• Thinking about my mother makes me feel…
• I was never allowed to…
• I wonder why our family…
• Things that upset me the most are…

Outside boosts can come from journaling apps for your phone, such as Day One. One advantage is that you always have it available when you want to make an entry. It is private and protected. Some people will include photos and even post from their app to their social media.

Meditation

Meditation is a healing tradition that has been around for centuries. Meditation for PTSD has been found to help decrease stress and intrusive thoughts, as well as relieve sleeping problems, which are all ways of processing the impacts trauma has had on the body. Meditation also strengthens our thinking mind and calms our nerves, both impacted by trauma.

When beginning a meditation practice, it can be helpful to use a meditation app, such as Calm, which provides guided meditation, music, and other useful tools for meditating.

Art & Creative Expression:

When we can’t find a way to express ourselves with words due to the impact of trauma, art, music, or movement are great outlets. They connect with different parts of the brain. It helps us express ourselves beyond words and understanding so we can start to feel free.

Vergence

Vergence is an exercise that helps reduce anxiety and treats panic attacks, which are common after trauma. The process involves looking at your finger within 8 to 12 inches from your face, held at eye level, then looking past it and going back and forth, holding for up to 10 seconds at each spot. Within 4-6 cycles, symptoms calm down.⁵ The process helps us calm our body, open up our thinking, and release that frozen eye stare, supporting the processing of trauma.

Self-Soothing

Aroma therapy, singing bowls, playing musical instruments, baths, or hugging a tree are all helpful self-soothing techniques. Choose something soothing to one or more senses. Remember, trauma impacts your body, and the nervous system needs support. Along the way of processing trauma, we go through waves of feeling better and feeling overwhelmed.  Self-soothing tools help us calm our minds and body during rocky times.

Drumming

Trauma impacts our rhythm and movement. During the journey of healing trauma, finding ways to reconnect to our rhythm and sense of self is advantageous. Drumming, an ancient practice to process trauma, uses the body beyond words and helps shift stuck feelings such as anger, pain, frustration, and sense of being trapped.  Experiences like drumming in a group put one person’s rhythm in connection with another, helping to process isolation.^{6, 7}

How Long Does it Take to Process Trauma?

Every experience and person is different. Measuring trauma experiences to determine healing time is a pitfall. Trauma is a human experience and impacts each person differently. The time it takes to heal varies. Some processes take longer than others based on modalities used and working with the relationships, beliefs, and somatic experiences.

How Do You Know If You’re Processing Trauma?

Processing trauma is a gradual and nonlinear journey, often marked by setbacks, even as progress is made. Over time, you’ll notice signs your body is releasing trauma such as the intense feelings of disconnect tend to soften, and PTSD symptoms will no longer dominate your thoughts. As you navigate through this process, you’ll learn to trust in its effectiveness and begin to notice the subtle yet significant shifts in your emotional state and perspective.

Here are some signs that you are effectively processing your trauma:

• Increased self-awareness: Pause more, feel body sensations, or experience clearer thoughts. There is more awareness around trauma triggers and more plans to support healing.
• Feeling emotions: Notice times when crying or feeling sadness beyond anger. Anger may be experienced differently, and relief may be felt. You may feel less afraid in different situations and start to express feelings more.
• PTSD symptoms are fading: The PTSD symptoms felt may be subsiding or changing intensity. Notice reaching out for help and being less isolated. Shock, startle, and triggers will have shifted, and you may have more mindful awareness.
• Self-care increases: You express your needs and desires. You make time to eat well, exercise, and rest. You discover what soothes you and what does not.
• Relationships change: Discern who to spend time with and how to participate in conversations. You are using more reflective and non-violent communication and being more patient and less judgmental.
• Connect to inner child: Starting to dialogue with your inner child can help you heal. Noticing the difference between your younger wounded parts and the person you are today.