Trauma occurs when an experience overwhelms the individual’s ability to process and resolve the emotional and cognitive impact. When this happens, therapy helps people heal and restore satisfaction to their lives. Whether you’ve experienced one extremely difficult moment that has overwhelmed you or you’re processing a lifetime of smaller traumas, therapy can help you recover and lead a more meaningful and fulfilling life once again. On this page, you can learn more about what trauma is and how therapy helps to resolve the pain and injury left behind by traumatic experiences. 

Why Do I Need Therapy for Trauma? 

People who have experienced trauma will have a range of responses. In the same situation, some people will be able to quickly move forward as if nothing happened, and others will experience adverse effects for days, weeks, and even years. Just like wounds to our physical bodies, our brains respond to mental and emotional wounds differently. Many people are ashamed if they feel they’re not able to move on when others could. Trauma recovery is not a competition. Everyone heals differently. Some people will stub a toe on the leg of a coffee table and say ouch and walk away just fine. Others may break the toe and need treatment to repair it. No one would ever say the person who broke their toe was weak for needing treatment the other person didn’t. On the surface, the injuries look like they should be the same. Just like this difference in physical injuries, there is often a difference in emotional and cognitive trauma, and it’s okay if you need support from a therapist to heal and reclaim your daily life. 

Does Therapy Help? 

Whether you’ve tried therapy in the past to heal from trauma with little success or avoided counseling because you don’t think it will help, we hope you will consider some of the many benefits of therapy for trauma outlined below and consider scheduling a counseling session with one of our trusted therapists: 

• Identify triggers – learn what triggers negative trauma responses and learn to manage triggers as they arise. 

• Learn coping skills – many people who experience trauma simply start avoiding anything that reminds them of their traumatic experience, but this can be very limiting. Therapy helps people develop healthier coping mechanisms. 

• Alleviate symptoms – the effects of trauma are myriad and varied, but therapy can help individuals alleviate the adverse effects of trauma and reclaim their healthy, thriving lives. 

• Process and integrate trauma – true healing following trauma is all about processing and integrating a painful experience, so you can re-establish safety, security, and stability.

Getting Started

When you’re ready to get started working with a therapist at LA Psychotherapy Group, we’ve made it simple to get in touch. You can call or text our team at (323) 617-3913 or use our online form to email a team member. Once we hear from you, we’ll schedule a complimentary consultation call. If you feel like therapy with one of our team members is the right option for you, we can schedule future sessions online or in person.