Crisis and Trauma Counseling PDF

CRISIS AND TRAUMA COUNSELING Oshani Pitadeniya 1  What do you know about trauma? Are you comfortable sharing any personal experiences or thoughts related to it? Is there anything specific you would like to avoid or focus on 1/11/2025...

CRISIS AND TRAUMA COUNSELING Oshani Pitadeniya 1  What do you know about trauma? Are you comfortable sharing any personal experiences or thoughts related to it? Is there anything specific you would like to avoid or focus on 1/11/2025 2 ❖ Trauma is defined as a painful life experience and disrupts the biochemical balance of the brain's information processing system ❖ This imbalance inhibits information processing to continue the process to achieve an adaptive state. ❖ The perceptions, emotions, beliefs, and meanings obtained from these experiences are "locked" in the nervous system A traumatic event is a strong attack on a psychological condition and causes deep and prolonged pain or anxiety. 3 Trauma contains three commonalities: 1. It was unexpected 2. The person was unprepared 3. There was nothing the person could have done to stop the event from occurring 4 ❖ Traumatic events and experiences often lead to a desire to forget them. ❖ However, the experience cannot be completely forgotten. Psychological trauma creates an imbalance between the desire to deny and open out. Trauma is ? Responses to a traumatic event may Prolonged exposure to include ▪ Intense fear repetitive or severe events ▪ Helplessness such as child abuse, is ▪ Horror likely to cause the most ▪ Attachment severe and lasting effects.” 5 “Traumatization can also occur from neglect, which is the absence of essential physical or emotional care, soothing and restorative experiences from significant others, particularly in children.”​ (International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, 2009)​ ❖Anyone may be traumatized, and trauma affects everyone differently. ❖ Trauma affects people of all ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, cultures, faiths, and sexual orientations. ❖Trauma experienced by one or more members of a family or community can be passed down to future generations, known as "generational trauma." 6  How these traumas arise? Psychological trauma arises when a traumatic incident makes a person feeling powerless to overcome worry and panic due to perceived threat Children and adolescents may experience cognitive, affective, and behavioral issues as a result of psychological trauma. These symptoms may include disturbances in memory, school performance, and learning abilities, as well as withdrawal and loss of interest in interacting with others. 1/11/2025 7 Trauma and traumatic events include personal and private experiences and public experiences.​ ▪ Examples of personal and private events:​ Sexual assault​ Sexual abuse​ Domestic violence/interpersonal violence​ Witnessing domestic violence​ ▪ Examples of public trauma/traumatic events:​ 🞄 Natural disasters​ 🞄 War​ 🞄 Community violence 8 TYPES OF TRAUMA THERE ARE NUMEROUS TYPES OF TRAUMA 10  Developmental trauma Interpersonal trauma External trauma 11. Developmental trauma includes: Child abuse (sexual, physical, and psychological abuse) Neglect (withholding love, affection, and the necessities of life) Witnessing violence in the home Interpersonal trauma Childhood abuse: sexual, physical, neglect, psychological, witnessing violence in the home Experiencing abuse as an adult, domestic violence and / or any physical or psychological violence Sexual assault: any unwanted sexual contact Historical trauma: forcible removal from the family home, destruction of culture and language Loss due to homicide Torture and forcible confinement LGBT abuse and bullying Elder abuse: physical, sexual, financial, spiritual, cultural, psychological 12 External trauma War: combat, killing, fear of being killed, witnessing death and extreme suffering, dismemberment, having to flee your home/ country Being the victim of a crime Sudden death of a loved one Suicidal loss Loss of a loved one to homicide Sudden and unexpected loss of a job, housing, relationship Living in extreme poverty Natural disasters Accidents, vehicle, plane, etc 13 https://www.youtube.co m/watch?v=xYBUY1kZpf 8 14