Trauma Treatment & Trauma Therapy Dubai
What is Trauma?
Trauma is not just about the event that we may have experienced- it is also about the meaning (or self-judgements) that we have drawn from it. The event or experiences may have overwhelmed us, feeling alone and unsupported, feeling unvalued, unloved, unworthy, misunderstood or unsafe.
Shocking single events are one-off events like accidents, loss of a loved one or a single assaultive experience but trauma can be a sequel of adverse childhood experiences as well, drawn from our home environments, from the institutions that we attended, from our neighbourhood, societies, cultures, religions. If we sense that these environments were critical, condemning, shaming, hostile, abusive, and neglectful, we have experienced it as traumatic. For a child, not feeling heard, understood, valued is traumatic as well. When certain roles are forced upon us to be someone who we are not, like a child that is parentified too quickly, made to feel responsible for others, forced to become self-reliant, not trust others for support, to push away their own needs can leave lasting imprints on us. Anything that covers up who we truly are and having to disown parts of ourselves is also trauma.
How does trauma manifest?
Trauma manifests in a variety of ways. The single event traumas may present as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is when one ruminates about what happened to them over and over again. The person dislikes talking about it, thinking about what happened, but the person is also unable to stop thinking about it at the sametime. The person may have nightmares, flashbacks of the scenes, or the emotions they experienced at the time of the event. Anxiety, panic attacks and depressive states may be part of this experience.
Childhood experiences show up in other ways. Relationships and parenting are one of the grounds where our childhood and attachment based traumas can show up. When we find ourselves struggling to live with others, without becoming constantly reactive, unable to regulate ourselves emotionally around others, or we distance ourselves from the very person who we need connection with, or seek closeness from people who we need to keep safe from, or live insular lives unable to connect with others, are some of the signs of deeper relational wounds that we may carry, without being aware of this.
What are the other indirect signs of trauma?
Trauma can show up in our ways of coping. We may seek refuge in comforting habits like procrastination, addictive habits, excessive eating or restricted eating. We may feel numb, disconnected, or throw ourselves into long hours of working, exercising, social media and being focused on something excessively to take our minds away from thinking or feeling bad or feeling alone. We may engage in controlling and safety behaviours like avoiding people, situations or engaging in checking, focusing, vigilant, watchful behaviours driven by anxiety and overthinking. We may manage our outer relationships excessively, and strive to be in control all the time. We may be self-critical, self-attacking, condemn or feeling resentful of others. Anxiety, panic attacks, depression, eating disorders, difficulties in regulating emotions, bodily symptoms unexplained without medical explanation, fatigue, bowel issues and so on can be also signs of a body holding unresolved trauma.
How can we heal from those experiences?
We heal naturally in many instances. We are all wired to cope with overwhelming and stressful life events. It is our inner ability, we have the inner wisdom to do this. But when this does not happen, negative experiences are like undigested food. Over time, it stays in our mind and body diffusing anxious and hopeless energy and replaying and re-enacting past experiences in the present and our future.
How can I be helped professionally?
Healing from trauma through conventional talk therapies, can have limited impact on a person. The therapies offered here at First Psychiatry Clinic are Internal Family Systems (IFS) and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing). Both therapies are powerful trauma healing therapies. Sometimes, we integrate both.
For more information on these therapies, please watch my videos: