Trauma leaves more than just emotional scars. It can reshape the way we think, feel, and relate to the world around us.
Whether it stems from a single event or prolonged exposure to distressing situations, trauma can impact our brain function, disrupt important relationships, prevent us from engaging with work and interests, and even affect our physical health.
While trauma can have a significant impact on people’s lives, research has consistently shown that specific targeted therapeutic approaches are effective in supporting people to recover from trauma.
In this article, we’ll explore the nature and impact of trauma, define PTSD and its common symptoms, and discuss evidence-based treatments we use at Solasta to help clients process their trauma safely and start to feel more in control, connected, and able to enjoy life again.
What is trauma?
Trauma is the emotional, mental, and physical response when an individual experiences a life-threatening or extremely distressing event. Common traumatic events include experiencing or witnessing violence, serious accidents, a serious assault, natural disasters, or sudden loss of a loved one, serious illness or injury, and even chronic (prolonged) stress.
Exposure to or experiencing a traumatic event is a common occurrence in the lives of many people. An estimated 75% of Australian adults have experienced a traumatic event at some point in their life.
Trauma is not defined solely by the event itself, but by how a person experiences and makes sense of it. An event that is deeply distressing to one person may not have the same impact on another. Psychological trauma can influence a person’s thoughts, emotions, relationships, and physical health, and may contribute to difficulties such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, or depression.
What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?
PTSD refers to a set of symptoms that people can experience after exposure to a traumatic event.
Common symptoms of PTSD include:
- A sense of reliving the traumatic event in the form of flashbacks, distressing thoughts or images or nightmares related to the traumatic event
- Avoidance of people, places, and thoughts associated with the event
- Feeling flat and losing interest in usually enjoyable experiences
- Persistent negative thoughts about themselves, others and the world
- Feeling irritable, angry, over-alert or ‘on edge’
- Having trouble concentrating
- Trouble falling or staying asleep
Therapies used in the treatment of PTSD
There are several effective psychological therapies for PTSD. These treatments have been shown through research to be effective in reducing the symptoms of PTSD.
Here are three evidence-based treatments for PTSD:
- Cognitive Processing Therapy
- Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing
- Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Whilst these treatments have different processes, stages, and components, their aims are the same: to help you process the traumatic experience safely and reduce or overcome their negative impacts.
Below, we’ll discuss Cognitive Processing Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
Therapy for trauma: Cognitive Processing Therapy
About Cognitive Processing Therapy
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) focuses on how a person’s thoughts and beliefs about a traumatic event influence their emotions and behaviour. As mentioned previously, trauma can disrupt our core beliefs about the world – in CPT, these disruptive beliefs are called “stuck points”.
To help shift these beliefs and foster recovery, CPT supports people to identify, challenge, and modify these beliefs. Typically, CPT follows a structured and collaborative framework. However, it’s important to note that implementation can vary depending on your needs:
Psychoeducation and introduction
Through psychoeducation, your clinician helps you understand your experience of trauma, and how it is affecting your thoughts and emotions.
Identification of “stuck points”
Your clinician will help you identify specific negative thoughts of beliefs related to your trauma, such as self-blame, helplessness, or feelings of being under threat.
Cognitive processing
Here, you are supported to process the traumatic event through identifying your stuck points with the support of your therapist.
Challenging “stuck points”
Your clinician will guide you through a process of challenging your “stuck points”.
Safety, trust, power, and control
You’ll explore how the trauma has influenced your views on themes such as safety, trust, and control, while applying cognitive strategies to shift any maladaptive beliefs.
Self-esteem and intimacy
Your clinician will help you explore and shift problematic beliefs about self-esteem and intimacy arising from the trauma. These final sessions will also be used to help you prepare for the end of the therapeutic support and plan for future support needs.
Therapy for trauma: Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT)
About Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT) focuses on identifying and challenging unhelpful beliefs, developing effective coping strategies, and gradually reducing the emotional distress associated with traumatic memories.
For children and adolescents, TF-CBT often includes a caregiver component to support recovery and reinforce skills at home. For adults, the approach is tailored to their specific needs and circumstances, with or without involvement from a support person.
TF-CBT typically follows a structured framework known as the PRACTICE model. This outlines key components of treatment such as psychoeducation, relaxation skills, affect regulation, and trauma narration and processing. Sessions can be delivered individually or, where appropriate, with the involvement of a trusted caregiver or support person.
P: Psychoeducation and parenting skills
You’ll learn about trauma and how it effects the brain and behaviour. If relevant, parents or caregivers receive coaching in effective communication, behaviour management, and supportive responses.
R: Relaxation
You’ll be guided through strategies such as deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and mindfulness to help manage the physical and emotional symptoms of stress, anxiety, and trauma.
A: Affective Expression and Regulation
With support from your clinician, you’ll learn to identify, express, and regulate different emotions such as anger, fear, guilt, and sadness.
C: Cognitive coping
Here, you’ll explore the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. This stage helps you develop the skills to challenge unhelpful thinking patterns and beliefs that contribute to distress or avoidance.
T: Trauma narrative
This is a core component of TF-CBT and involves gradually recounting and processing the traumatic event in detail, helping you reduce fear and avoidance associated with the memory.
I: In-vivo exposure
If certain places, situations, or activities are being avoided due to trauma reminders, your clinician will support you in facing them gradually and safely, helping to rebuild confidence and a sense of control.
C: Conjoint sessions
When TF-CBT is used with children or adolescents, this stage often involves joint sessions with a parent or caregiver. These sessions help strengthen communication, build understanding, and provide an opportunity to share the trauma narrative together.
E: Enhancing safety and future development
This final phase focuses on equipping you with tools to stay safe, set future goals, and building lasting resilience and wellbeing.
Therapy for trauma: Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing
About Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a structured trauma-focused therapy that incorporates bilateral physical stimulation such as eye movements, tapping, or auditory tones.
The EMDR approach is based on the idea that, during a traumatic event, intense emotional distress or dissociation can disrupt the brain’s ability to properly process and store the experience. As a result, the memory may remain ‘unprocessed,’ stored in a fragmented way and disconnected from broader memory networks.
During EMDR, the individual is guided to focus on trauma-related images, thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations while simultaneously engaging in bilateral stimulation, often through eye movements. Processing may target past traumatic events, present-day triggers, or future situations requiring adaptive responses. While the exact mechanisms are still being studied, it is believed that this dual attention process supports the integration of distressing memories into more adaptive memory networks, reducing their emotional intensity over time.
To learn more about EMDR and the theory that underpins it, read this in-depth article by Emer Dunne, Clinical Psychologist at Solasta.
EMDR is comprised of several stages when being used to treat PTSD:
Phase 1: Understanding client history
Your clinician will begin by exploring your history, current challenges, the trauma you would like to reprocess, and your goals. This helps determine whether EMDR is a suitable approach and identifies which traumatic memories to target in treatment.
Phase 2: Preparation and education
Your clinician will walk you through the EMDR process and what to expect. Your clinician will also help you develop emotional regulation skills to ensure you feel safe and supported throughout the experience.
Phase 3: Assessment of target memory
Together, you’ll identify the specific traumatic memory to work on, including related thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and negative beliefs. You’ll also choose a positive belief you’d like to strengthen through the reprocessing work.
Phase 4: Desensitisation
This is where reprocessing begins. You’ll focus on the traumatic memory while following the clinician’s finger from side to side. This continues until the memory becomes less distressing, as measured by the Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS), ideally reaching a score of zero or close to it.
Phase 5: Installation
Once the distress has reduced, your clinician will help you strengthen the positive belief you identified earlier. Using the same bilateral stimulation, this phase continues until your Validity of Cognition (VOC) score—how true the positive belief feels—reaches the highest level (typically 7 out of 7).
Phase 6: Body scan
You’ll mentally scan your body for any lingering tension or discomfort related to the trauma. If any distress remains, earlier steps repeat until it resolves.
Phase 7: Closure
Each session ends with techniques to help you return to a calm state. Your clinician will also guide you through strategies for managing any emotions or thoughts that may arise between sessions.
Phase 8: Re-evaluation
You and your clinician reflect on recently processed memories to make sure your experience of distress is minimal and that your positive beliefs are still strong. If required, future therapeutic support is planned.
Psychologists providing therapy for trauma in Adelaide
At Solasta, our team of highly trained clinicians support children, young people and adults to navigate a range of challenges and conditions. When you request an appointment, we match you with a clinician with the right expertise and skills to help you shine.
Plus, with two convenient locations in Klemzig and Christies Beach, our therapy and psychology services are easily accessible.
About the author
Madeline Rac, Registered Psychologist
Madeline is a dedicated Psychologist, having earned her Master of Professional Psychology from Flinders University in 2023. She provides compassionate psychological therapy to adolescents and adults facing a broad spectrum of challenges, with a special interest in PTSD. Drawing upon evidence-based approaches, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing therapy, and Cognitive Processing Therapy, Madeline tailors her methods to suit individual needs.