How Does A Psychologist Help Us With Post-traumatic Stress?
Traumas are an example of how memory is far from being a simple file of information that can be expressed in words; We also internalize other mental contents in the form of memories that have nothing to do with rationality or words, and that are basically feelings and emotions linked to experiences we have previously gone through.
Post-traumatic stress teaches us what happens when this “emotional memory” is affected by psychopathologies, interfering with our quality of life even when we are not thinking about our past.
However, no one is condemned to resign themselves to suffering the consequences of these psychological alterations; Here we will see how psychologists work to help people with post-traumatic stress.
First of all, it is important to understand the basic aspects of two phenomena that, although related, are not exactly the same: psychological trauma, on the one hand, and post-traumatic stress. Let’s see what they consist of.
Psychological trauma is a psychopathological alteration that appears in some cases in which people are forced to face experiences that generate high levels of anxiety and that in most cases are abrupt and disruptive in nature: car accidents, sexual abuse, the sudden death of a loved one, etc. Although these experiences are often related to violence, it can happen that people become traumatized by going through situations in which they suffer some form of more abstract discomfort that is not limited to a specific moment, but rather to more or less long periods (for example). For example, living with a family member who suffers from a serious illness).
In any case, what characterizes psychological trauma is that it produces a strong emotional impact on the person who suffers it, and this imprint is imprinted on the functioning of their nervous system, causing alterations in their emotional memory to cause problems in the rest of the psychological processes. . For example, this leads to situations in which a daily experience activates the memory of the experience that generated the trauma, causing the person to relive a good part of the emotional pain they felt at that moment.
On the other hand, if “trauma” (in the context of psychology) is the concept that refers to this general alteration in its latent state, We call post-traumatic stress the clearest manifestation of psychological trauma, which is reflected in a combination of symptoms linked to stress, anxiety and dissociation. Its most characteristic symptom is the flashback, in which the person remembers in a very vivid way the traumatic situation or an exaggerated and even more disturbing version of it, to the point that the experience of remembering and imagining overlap to the point of that he cannot pay attention to anything else and loses control of what he is doing.
How does a psychologist intervene to help someone suffering from post-traumatic stress?
These are the main keys to psychological intervention for patients who present this type of alteration:
1. Analysis of the cause of trauma and the triggers of post-traumatic stress
First of all, psychologists carry out a process of observation and analysis of the problem that has led the patient to seek help in therapy to make hypotheses about possible solutions in a personalized way.
Psychoeducation is based on informing the person about the alteration they suffer, so that they have greater knowledge about their experiences and discard myths that could have been harming them.
3. Systematic desensitization
As its name suggests, systematic desensitization involves help the patient stop being so sensitive to the mental contents that constitute the traumatic memory. To do this, they are assisted in sessions in which they remember part of these contents (following an ascending difficulty curve) and at the same time they are exposed to relaxing stimuli, so that these memories are no longer linked solely to stress and anguish.
4. Training in relaxation techniques
Relaxation techniques are a good help to keep anxiety levels lower and prevent the onset of post-traumatic stress crises without falling into the trap of trying not to think about those memories.
5. Cognitive restructuring
Through cognitive restructuring the person is helped to identify the belief systems linked to psychopathology (in this case, trauma) and to change them for other sets of beliefs from which to interpret reality in a more realistic way.
Do you need professional psychological assistance?
If you are suffering the consequences of psychological trauma and are looking for professional psychological assistance services to overcome it, contact me.
My name is Ignacio García Vicente and I am a psychologist specialized in caring for adults. You can count on my help in face-to-face sessions or online by video call.
