What is trauma?
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health defines trauma as “the lasting emotional response that often results from living through a distressing event” such as childhood or sexual abuse, bearing witness to violence, the sudden loss of a loved one, or an accident or natural disaster.
At The Newly, we often explain trauma as a psychological or stress injury that impacts how people function in their day-to-day lives. There are four sources of stress injury:
- Traumatic injury: Due to the experience or exposure to intense injury, horrific or gruesome experiences, or death.
- Grief injury: Due to losing someone, something, or even parts of yourself.
- Moral injury: Due to behaviours or the witnessing of behaviours that violate your moral values and cause inner conflict.
- Fatigue injury: Due to stress accumulating over time without sufficient rest and recovery.
Common effects of trauma
Trauma is sometimes tricky to recognize because it impacts people differently. For example, two first responders who experience the same distressing event will often not react the same; what is traumatic for one isn’t for the other.
Among other reactions, some common effects of trauma include:
- Having intrusive memories or thoughts
- Feeling disconnected from your loved ones
- Struggling to perform daily tasks
- Being irritable or having emotional outbursts
- Having trouble sleeping
- Overeating or undereating
- Using substances to numb emotions
- Avoiding people, places or things that make you feel uncomfortable
But with treatment and support, you can recover from trauma. At The Newly, we can help you learn to live better with your trauma and rapidly resolve your symptoms.
Trauma therapy at The Newly
At The Newly, we help people from all walks of life dealing with trauma learn healthier coping skills, improve their wellbeing, and, ultimately, engage fully once again in their everyday lives.
We offer trauma therapy programs to help clients process traumatic events before more severe forms of mental illness develop and tailored therapy for those already dealing with PTSD. If you’re not sure what kind of support you need, please give us a call or book a consultation anytime.
Our team is eager to help.
“It is such a privilege to work with people throughout their therapy journey and see the vast changes in their functioning. Not only does this make a difference in how they cope with life stressors, but also brings so much value and meaning back into their daily living,” says Jasmine Maser, a Registered Occupational Therapist and Clinical Practice Lead with The Newly. “Seeing them joking, laughing and engaging in life again is really beautiful.”
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