Today, most of us recognize that our experiences play a role in how we feel and how we function in the world. Our past traumatic experiences impact our relationships, our self-care, our health and our bodies. However, there is often a misconception about trauma and what it is. People tend to minimize their trauma if they didn’t experience something that is life threatening. Research shows that there are life threatening traumas and then there are smaller traumas that accumulate over time. Let’s look at the difference.
Big ‘T ‘ Traumas
The DSM defines a PTSD trauma as any situation where one’s life or bodily integrity is threatened. A big T trauma is usually an event that leaves us feelings powerless.
These would be considered big ‘T’ traumas:
- Disaster
- Serious Injury
- Life threatening Illness
- Combat
- An accident
- Assault
Little ‘t ‘ Traumas
While little ‘T’ traumas aren’t at the level of big T traumas, they create significant distress in our lives and have accumulative effects.
- Loss of a relationship
- Divorce
- Bullying
- An overly critical parent
- Emotionally unavailable parent or spouse
- The death of a pet
- Being rejected by a friend group
While Little ‘t’s don’t involve violence or disaster, they do create significant distress. When a young adult has a breakup or is rejected from a friend group, this can create a similar trauma response that we see with a big T trauma. When the brain experiences a threat, our bodies try to protect us. We often go into fight or flight response. This is an appropriate reaction if you are reacting to a fire. However, our nervous systems cannot distinguish between an emotional threat and a physical threat.
Treatment
Whether its bit ‘T” trauma or little ‘t’ trauma, when we treat trauma, we assist our bodies and our minds with processing the trauma and healing.
Trauma can be treated through a combination of different evidence-based modalities. Somatic therapies are terrific for trauma, as they help us to detox traumas from our bodies. EMDR and Brainspotting are two examples of research based, fast acting somatic therapies. Cognitive approaches such as CBT are also helpful, as they help us to look at things in new ways, reframe, and develop healthy coping skills. DBT strategies can help us with stress tolerance and regulating our emotions.
At Modern Therapy and Wellness, we have practitioners that treat Big T’s and little t’s. Our practitioners use a combination of CBT, Brainspotting, EMDR and DBT strategies. We can see clients in person in New Orleans or virtually anywhere in Louisiana. We also offer low fee therapy. Email us at: Kelley@moderntherapyandwellness.com