More Than Just Talk: How Trauma Therapy Goes Deeper
- Ariel Seale
- May 1
- 3 min read
If you’ve made your way to this blog, you may already be wondering, what exactly is trauma therapy? More and more, trauma is being discussed in broader public and media conversations. This is a great thing, signalling a move towards breaking the stigma surrounding trauma and mental health! But this can also lead to some confusion or overwhelm for those seeking support with post-traumatic growth, raising questions about which of the many therapies is “right” for them.
The good news: there is no “right” kind of trauma therapy. At Bold Lotus Trauma Therapy, we firmly believe that therapy is not one-size-fits-all. That said, there are many evidence-based therapeutic modalities that have demonstrated positive outcomes for people who have experienced trauma. In this blog post, we will look at some of the key distinctions between trauma therapy and general therapy.
Trauma therapy falls under the umbrella of trauma-informed approaches. It’s important to note that trauma therapy is not about diagnosis, meaning you don’t need to have a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to receive trauma therapy. Your therapist will work alongside you to uncover your definition and experience of trauma. While the values and principles of trauma therapy can benefit anyone, usually it’s those who have experienced trauma that seek it out. Whether at the start of their therapeutic journey, or after trying several modalities, many find themselves gravitating towards trauma therapies for meaningful support. Why is this? Let’s consider the differences.
Differences Between Trauma Therapy and Talk Therapy
Therapy, or psychotherapy, is a broad term for various therapeutic modalities that aim to help people improve their mental well-being, gain self-awareness, and learn coping skills. Some therapeutic approaches use conversation to achieve this, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Narrative Therapy, to name a few.
While many therapy approaches can be adapted to address trauma, they are often used to support people to navigate anxiety, depression, interpersonal issues, stress, and life transitions.
Trauma therapy, on the other hand, uses specialized techniques to help people recover from the emotional, psychological, and physical impacts of traumatic experiences. Trauma therapy goes a step further than general and talk therapies, finding ways to process distressing emotions and memories, at a comfortable pace.
Trauma therapy is all about pacing and establishing safety and coping skills before delving into the trauma itself. And for some people, it’s not required to talk about traumatic experiences in detail in order to achieve post-traumatic growth.
Trauma-informed therapists recognize that trauma is stored not just in the mind, but also in the body – particularly the nervous system. This is why trauma therapy goes deeper than conversation, to work with the mind-body connection. In fact, this is what draws many people to trauma therapies, after feeling that traditional talk therapies are not enough.
Some modalities like Somatic Experiences (SE) and Sensorimotor Therapy focus on physical sensations to release trauma stored in the body, whereas Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) uses guided eye movements to process traumatic memories without overwhelming the nervous system. Trauma therapies often also use breathwork, grounding exercises, and mindfulness to achieve regulation.
Ultimately, both forms of therapy are valuable, but trauma therapy is uniquely tailored to help people move beyond the past and move beyond thought processes alone, in order to regain control of their life in the process of post-traumatic growth.
At Bold Lotus Trauma Therapy, our therapists each bring experience working with trauma. If you think that trauma therapy could support the growth or self-discovery that you are seeking, feel free to click the link below to book a free consultation. We look forward to hearing from you!
