Triggered by Trauma? Therapy Can Help.

A whiff of perfume. The sound of a siren. Pink carnations at the grocery store. A leather jacket. Ocean salt water in your mouth. It happens without warning or clear explanation. Something you see, hear, taste, touch, or smell suddenly brings a wave of dread or a jolt of alarm. It’s almost as if your body is cued to suddenly remember and entrap you in a moment from the past; a moment that defined the worst seconds, hours, days, or decades of your life.

It’s not your imagination. The chemistry and neurobiological processes of our minds and bodies can literally have us feeling stuck or ready to flee, fight, or freeze at the hint of a trigger. Our gut reactions tell us that we are in danger again or have us walking around on eggshells, waiting and ready for the next bad thing to happen.

This is trauma and its effects when the stress and strain have become disruptive and debilitating.

Therapy can help. With compassion, skill, and intention, individualized coping skills can be introduced. Triggers can be targeted. Relief can be realized. And you won’t go at it alone. The memory may not disappear, but the intense reaction to it can be dulled.

Trauma may be part of your story, but the triggered reactions, pain and suffering do not have to be your final chapter. Let therapy be your plot twist so you can rewrite the pages of your past with healing and resilience. Let therapy help you reimagine the chapters of your future with hope and purpose. This isn’t about happily ever after. This is about healthily ever you. The triggers and the trauma do not have to continue to be the main characters of your life.

Reclaim your story. Reach out for help. Relief is possible if you are willing to do the work and take the first steps. Choose today to be your turning point.