Practices to Help Cope with Trauma

How do I cope with trauma? Who can help me?

There are many ways to cope with trauma. The medical community is in the beginning phase of understanding trauma. Many of the coping techniques recommended for healing from trauma are based on other ways of coping or understanding the body, not necessarily scientific trials. We do have some studies that suggest what might work. Because trauma is only partially understood by many members of the healthcare team, it may be up to you to start the conversation.

That’s right, it doesn’t seem fair that after all you’ve been through you have to advocate for yourself. Unfortunately, the reality is that many healthcare professionals will never bring up trauma. The good news is that the team will likely listen up and work to help you or find someone who can if you ask about it. Don’t feel discouraged if you need to bring it up more than once or to more than one member of your care team.

How and when do I begin the journey of healing from trauma?

The ironic thing about trauma is that it is a set of adaptations your brain has made to keep you safe. That’s right, trauma is actually one big coping strategy in and of itself! When you went through the big, hard, traumatic things, your mind was taking notes. It was making adaptations to keep you safe. The anxiety you feel was put there by your mind to keep you on alert, to keep you safe.

So the first step in the journey towards healing from trauma is to thank your body. Recognize how hard your body and mind have been working to keep you safe. You aren’t “disordered” or adding another diagnosis to your list. Your body has done exactly what you need it to do in order to keep you safe through a traumatic experience. 

Exhale a sigh of relief. You’ve already started your healing journey simply by recognizing that you lived through a traumatic experience. Now the ongoing work involves:

• Staying tuned into what your body is telling you. Avoid going through life on autopilot and letting others convince you everything is fine. 
• Identifying patterns that may have helped at one point in your journey, but are now making life harder for you. 
• Giving yourself compassion and reassurance. If you are safe, remind yourself of that often. If you are in a place where your physical wellbeing is threatened, ask yourself what you need to feel safer.
  • Are you currently facing a life-threatening diagnosis or a recurrence of disease? What would help put your fear into perspective? Do you need to meet with your healthcare team to better understand your prognosis? 
  • Are you preparing for an upcoming biopsy or scan that is filling you with fear? Explore these tips for coping with scanxiety. Ask your loved ones to support you through these challenging hours, days, weeks.

As you know, coping with trauma is hard work. Healing from trauma is not a straightforward path.  It is important to remember that your needs for coping strategies will change over time and depending on how much energy you have.

If you are in the midst of a physical health crisis, you’ll want to focus on coping strategies that are soothing and comfortable. Avoid doing deep emotional trauma work at times when the body’s energy is directed towards an acute (mental or physical) health crisis. 

The most important things when picking a strategy for coping with trauma are:

1. Does it feel comfortable and safe? 
2. Is the time commitment, cost, or other investment reasonable and acceptable to you?

Trauma coping techniques should always feel safe. While trauma work is hard and may lead to physical exhaustion and an emotional release, such as crying, it should never feel unsafe. Think about a safe environment and a safe person to be with you on this journey. It isn’t a good idea to work on trauma in a place where you have been traumatized. For example, if you have flashbacks from a time when you were hospitalized, you might not want to see a therapist and talk about your trauma in that same building. 

Healing from trauma should be a part of your life; it doesn’t need to become your whole identity. You are a whole person with a life outside of trauma. It’s ok to take breaks from working on your trauma. Healing from trauma shouldn’t cause more stress in the form of time commitments, financial burden, or mental or physical exhaustion.

Let's review some therapies for healing trauma.

Self-directed Techniques

The inconvenient thing about trauma is that its symptoms come at all times of the day and night, rarely do they wait until the therapy appointment you scheduled for a week from Tuesday at 3pm! So it can be helpful to have a few techniques you can use to help cope with trauma at home. First, it's important to realize that trauma is really the thing that happened to you. It isn’t one specific feeling or symptom itself. Trauma is experienced in the mind and in the body as:

• Irritability
• Anxiety
• Panic
• Fear
• Insomnia
• Depressed Mood
• Pain

The good news is that by calming the nervous system, you can relieve several of these symptoms by learning a few techniques. Here are three examples of coping techniques you can learn and use at home: Acupressure, Emotional Freedom Technique, and Progressive Muscle Relaxation.

Finding a Practitioner or Therapist to Help with Trauma

There are three main categories of professionals who might be helpful depending on your individual journey with trauma. You may create a team with one, two, or all three of these types of professionals. You may work with your team continuously, or you may keep them on standby for tough times. 

Mental Health Therapists

A mental health therapist is a good idea for guiding this process. You can find a  mental health therapist with special training in trauma by searching the internet, checking with your insurance company’s list of in network mental health providers, or even just searching the internet. In Minnesota, we have a resource called the  MN Trauma Project, which allows you to search for trauma specialists in the state. You may also ask your healthcare team for a referral to someone in your area. Consider working with someone who is licensed in your state. Mental health therapists can be licensed in many ways, and it varies from state to state. Here are some credentials you might look for. Most mental health therapists should hold a masters or doctoral degree in their specialty area as well as a state license. 

• Licensed Clinical Social Worker
• Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
• Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor
• Licensed Psychologist 

Psychiatric Providers

Though there are no medications to “treat trauma,” there are medications that can be used to manage the side effects you might be experiencing as a result of your trauma. Sometimes these can be prescribed by your main medical team if they feel comfortable treating trauma. Most often, they will want to refer you to a mental health provider who can prescribe medications. There are three main types of mental health medication prescribers in most states. 

• Licensed Psychiatrist with the credential MD or DO
• Licensed Advanced Practice Nurse with the credential PMHNP or PMHCNS
• Licensed Physician Assistant or Associate with the credential PA

Integrative Health Providers

Finally, if you are looking for more guidance on how to use integrative therapies to manage the symptoms of trauma, you might consider working closely with a provider of an integrative therapy. Though there are many, here are a few to consider. Licensure, certification, and training vary widely depending on the specialty area. A member of your healthcare team or your mental health therapist may be able to make a referral or help you understand a practitioner's level of training and credentials. Often practitioners who are certified but not licensed are not covered by insurance. Check with the practitioner to see if they work with your insurance before scheduling your first appointment.  

• Licensed Acupuncturist with the credential LA-C
• Certified Yoga Therapist with the credential C-IAYT
• Certified Music Therapist with the credential MT-BC
• Certified Art Therapist with the credential ATR-BC (In some states, art therapists are licensed mental health therapists, in other states, they may be required to have two credentials to practice independently. You can read more about each state’s requirements here.) 
• Certified Dance Movement Therapist with the credential R-DMT

Check out these national organizations for help finding someone in your area:

• National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
• The International Association of Yoga Therapists
• American Music Therapy Association
• American Art Therapy Association
• American Dance Therapy Association