What is Holistic Trauma Therapy?

Awareness of trauma therapy has been increasing over the years as more people, both within and outside of the mental health community, are learning more about the effects of trauma on mental health. Trauma has admittedly become a buzzword in recent years, for both the good and the bad. However, the changing perspective of those striving to learn more about trauma and accepting how much it does affect our lives has helped decrease the overall stigma around trauma therapy. 

The are many different approaches to trauma therapy integrating various theories, techniques, and skills. Some focus on the mind. Some focus on the body. Some prioritize processing past events while others explore your current symptoms. Since every individual is different and trauma is a unique experience for everyone, it is really beneficial for there to be many ways to address it. 

It’s Literally Everything…

So what then, is holistic trauma therapy? For me, the term holistic has two major parts. First, holistic means to view all of the parts as a whole instead of focusing on individual parts. In trauma therapy, this means approaching mental health with the perspective that everything in your life is interconnected. 

Have you ever noticed when you feel depressed your body also becomes fatigued? Or when you haven’t eaten in a while you begin feeling anxious or moody? Ever feel more stressed around tax day or election season? A holistic therapist approaches mental health from beyond just the mind. Since everything in your life affects your mental health, it is important to address all of those things. Otherwise, it’s like trying to pull a block from a Jenga tower and being surprised when it all falls down!

During therapy sessions, I help my clients view their mental health within the framework of everything else that touches their lives. We discuss daily routines, support systems, physical health, spirituality, culture, and yes, even politics. As a liberation-based therapist as well as a licensed clinical social worker, I utilize a systems approach in individual therapy. This means understanding that all of the systems that you are a part of or that impact you in any way should be addressed. 

Your experience is never just internal; it will always be affected by your environment. Think about a child who is unhoused. They may not have enough food, water, or medical care. They have to sleep outside in harsh weather. They may not have transportation to get to school. They don’t have appropriate clothing, nutrition, and many other critical supports needed for healthy development. If we only focused on that fact that the child reports feeling depressed or anxious, we may encourage them to use better coping skills or think more positively about their situation. However, their internal experience (sadness, hopelessness, fear, worry, etc.) is being affected by their external environment (unmet needs and lack of resources). 

You can’t think positively to avoid the mental health damage of an abusive household. You can’t use better coping skills to escape the effects of discrimination and oppressive legislation. A holistic approach to therapy recognizes how many systems like your home environment, family, finances, work, religion, access to resources and supports, politics, and community environment all play major roles in your mental health.

In addition to external and environmental factors, holistic therapy also recognizes how other aspects of your life experience are integrated with your mental health. This can include your physical health, sleep, diet, exercise, daily habits, and social life. Your mood and mental state can be greatly affected by all of these things. Many vitamin or mineral deficiencies can lead to mood disorders and even psychosis. Lack of sleep can affect cognition, memory, judgement, and mood. Exercise is recognized as the most effective treatment for depression. Physical contact and social support has been shown to decrease stress.

Addressing your mental health without examination of all the other parts of your life will have it’s limits. With holistic trauma therapy, we can see how trauma is affected by your past experiences, current environments, overall health, social supports, daily activities, and all other aspects of your life. This helps provide a holistic view in which to create deep healing and lasting change.

Below the Surface…

The second major part of a holistic approach to therapy is addressing the root of the problem not just putting on a bandaid to better cope with your emotions. Bandaids are great for small, temporary issues. But if you want to heal from deep hurt like relational trauma or abuse, we will need to explore everything that was impacted in order to have genuine healing, growth, and change.

This is why I love the word “radical” and use it in my practice name. The term radical means to go the root or origin of something. Some very effective therapies focus on the symptoms and provide solutions to better manage those symptoms. For example, if you are struggling with communication in your relationship, a therapist can help you with different communication skills. Or if you experience anxiety, a therapist can support you in learning healthy coping skills and emotional regulation techniques to better manage the anxiety.

These are great interventions for many experiences. However, when addressing complex trauma, it’s important to not only manage unpleasant experiences better but to understand why this is your experience in the first place. This does not necessarily involve reliving your past or recounting an unpleasant event. What is important is going below the surface feelings and exploring the core beliefs that have developed over the years. Why do you feel anxious around certain people? Why do you feel like you don’t have a purpose? Why is it difficult for you to speak up for yourself?

With holistic trauma therapy, we can explores those “why’s” to find stronger “how’s” to heal and grow. We identify the internal beliefs that are harmful or just not aligned with who you really are. We discover the new beliefs that are healthy and supportive. Then, we work through how to replace them and strengthen them over time. 

Healing the Harm…

So what does this actually look like for those wanting to heal from relational harm like religious trauma or narcissistic abuse? When you experience harm, you get injured. How deep that injury is or how difficult it is to heal from that injury depends on many factors. This can include how intense the harm was, the length of time the harm was occurring, and the supports you had at the time to aid in recovering from that harm. The resulting injury from harm is called trauma. That trauma can be physical, psychological, emotional, social, sexual, spiritual, or any combination depending on what happened. 

Just like a broken bone cannot heal properly if it is not provided the appropriate environment and treatment, non-physical trauma can also be delayed in its healing and can even lead to further compounded trauma. This is why you can experience abuse as a child but the trauma follows you well into adulthood. The injury was never healed, and the scars impact your current ability to function in your life. 

With holistic trauma therapy, we examine how harmful relationships, systems, or events created injury, or trauma, to all aspects of yourself. How did it affect your mental health, physical health, sleep, eating habits, finances, relationships, ability to regulate emotions, and default patterns of dealing with conflict or stress? We examine how different systems like your family, religion, culture, community, work, or politics either help or further compound your trauma. 

Then we dig to the root. What are the beliefs you hold about yourself and your connection to others? What do you feel you deserve? Do you trust yourself? Do you feel worthy of attention, success, or recognition? If not, why? What do you believe about love and connection? What do you believe about family? What are your spiritual beliefs? Who are you?

Many of these questions are difficult to answer. Others may be easy to answer but are hard to understand why you believe them. Many of our most concrete belief systems were never adopted by choice. We are often inundated with beliefs that were never really ours. They were taught by family, preached from a pulpit, insinuated by loved ones, broadcasted on TV, voiced by a politician, or spoken by friends or coworkers. We claim them as our beliefs, but we often are not able to explain why we believe what we do. Beliefs are formed from any thought that is repeated and reinforced over time. It is something you continuously think and find proof to support it. The thing is, beliefs aren’t always true. And you can always find some form of proof for anything. If you repeat something enough, it will become a belief.

The Result…

Once we identify the harmful beliefs and understand where they came from, then we can release them and replace them. This process is called deconstruction. Letting go of what is not for us and letting in what is aligned, healthy, and true. By digging to the root of why we do what we do and experience life the way we do, we can actually create real change and reclaim our authentic identity. This helps gives voice to our pain, heals the trauma, and provides a path towards a life on your own terms. 

This can be a lengthy process. It took time to learn these beliefs, and many of them have existed since you were very young. It takes small, realistic steps and repetition to replace them. Along the way, we also work on building skills for emotional regulation and coping, revising daily habits to align with your goals, and creating support systems to better address your current experience. By addressing what we can change in the present while healing past trauma, we create a space for growth, self-acceptance, and serenity.

Holistic trauma therapy has proven to be very effective with those who have experienced relational and systemic harm and are looking for how to heal their trauma. If this is something you are interested in exploring, schedule a free consultation to meet with me and learn how this approach to healing trauma may benefit you. 

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