Let’s Talk About Trauma
Trauma has become a buzzword in pop culture, tossed around to describe everything from minor upsets to major life disruptions. Just last week, my 12-year-old daughter mentioned that her friend was 'trauma-dumping': a way of describing how a friend was sharing her personal family struggles in a way that felt one-sided and emotionally draining. But pop culture aside, what is trauma, really?
The Australian Institute for Health and Welfare (2024) defines trauma as experiences that overwhelm an individual’s ability to cope. It’s widespread: over 65% of Australians encounter at least one traumatic event by age 17. Despite this, many people don't seek therapy immediately or fully recognise trauma's impact until it disrupts their relationships, work, or personal well-being. Trauma can also manifest in other diverse ways including depression, physical symptoms (such as digestive distress or headaches), and even addictions (Fisher, 2021).
Trauma remnants can present in everyday life in two primary ways: as explicit memories or implicit memories. Explicit memories are specific, often vivid recollections of traumatic events, such as accidents, abuse or abusive figures. Implicit memories are less conscious but can be just as impactful. They appear as intense physical, perceptual, or emotional reactions triggered by ordinary events that unknowingly revive traumatic feelings and reactions in the body (Baumgartner, 2011). Many who come to therapy are unaware of the ways implicit memories affect their everyday lives.
Regardless of whether it is implicit or explicit memories that trigger a traumatised individual, trauma profoundly impacts both body and brain, leaving a lasting imprint that significantly affects how people navigate life post-trauma. Trauma memories have the power to activate primitive survival mechanisms in the brain, specifically within the limbic system and brain stem. These regions coordinate the physiological fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses: reactions essential for our ancestors’ survival against threats. However, when these survival mechanisms are activated, they temporarily deactivate higher functions of the frontal lobes, which govern complex thinking and emotional regulation. This shift towards the limbic system has potential to revert behaviour to a more primitive state (Matsumara, 2013). A person can thus be triggered by various external events or internal memories, returning them to a state of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. Without processing and integrating the trauma through therapeutic interventions, these states can continue to become triggered unconsciously and dominate one’s life (Fisher, 2021).
You may have seen this happen to a loved one: suddenly agitated, as if by instinct, in response to a seemingly minor sound or event. They might withdraw, leave a situation abruptly, or appear literally on the edge of their seat, perhaps in flight mode. Or maybe you've witnessed someone in a road rage incident, reacting disproportionately and seemingly triggered into fight mode by the stress of normal traffic events. These moments illustrate how trauma can control responses unless it’s addressed and integrated.
At Spacious Minds, I always approach trauma work with care, prioritising safety and stability from the outset. Trauma is best addressed in an environment where clients feel secure and supported, both within and beyond the therapy room. Without these supports, even a brief discussion of one’s trauma can activate survival responses, causing distress rather than healing.
Therefore, the first step in trauma therapy is to establish practical self-care tools that help you regain calm when you're triggered and operating outside of your window of tolerance. Through this work, we uncover your inner resources and build on them, helping you foster self-soothing techniques you can use beyond the therapy room. I also teach additional somatic (body-focused) and mind strategies that support your brain and body in reaching a safe, grounded state. From here, we begin to identify your unique trauma triggers: whether explicit or implicit and understand which survival responses you tend to fall into: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. By safely and gradually exploring your inner world, we cultivate self-understanding and insight that help widen your window of tolerance over time. With enhanced awareness, resilience, and practical strategies, we work together to navigate the complexities of your life and recognise where and how the residual energy of past traumas may be showing up.
Through trauma therapy it’s not that trauma simply dissolves; rather, therapy provides you with support mechanisms to develop a deeper awareness of your triggers and the wounds they touch upon. With this awareness, and through the cultivation of effective self-care strategies, you become more adept at guiding yourself back into your window of tolerance when triggered. This growing efficiency in managing responses to trauma, alongside an expanded self-awareness, gradually widens your window of tolerance over time. As we work together, you gain the tools and confidence to navigate life with resilience and engage more fully and freely in your present experiences. Through this process, we’re not erasing past experiences but learning to live alongside them, transforming how we respond. With each step, our awareness, self-compassion, and self-care grow stronger, enabling us to engage with life’s challenges from a place of steadiness and self-assurance.
In our work together, my role is to follow your pace. I don’t believe in exposure therapy or pushing you to share trauma details you’re not ready to discuss. Instead, you decide what feels safe to explore, and I support you along the way. Often, we can work around trauma details, minimising the risk of re-traumatisation while still making meaningful progress. My goal is always to create an environment where healing feels empowering and within reach, where we can safely explore and build resilience on your terms.
All of this said, trauma therapy requires skill, precision, and deep insight. Working with a therapist who lacks these can unintentionally narrow your window of tolerance, increasing the risk of unnecessary triggers and keeping you stuck in survival mode. In such a state, the brain’s higher functions - organising, relating, loving, and making sound decisions - are often suppressed. If you suspect trauma may be affecting your life, ask any potential therapist about their experience and confidence in working with trauma. It’s essential that they have the expertise needed to support you in a safe, compassionate, and effective way. Definitely look out for a PACFA (Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia) registered therapist and preferably one with a Masters degree in Psychotherapy and Counselling.
Finally, let me close by saying that trauma comes in all shapes and sizes. It isn’t only large-scale experiences like war trauma or systemic abuse that warrant trauma therapy. As we saw in the definition at the start of this article, trauma is any experience that overwhelms one’s ability to cope, and this varies widely from person to person. Trauma might look like child abuse, sexual abuse, bullying, workplace harassment, or other challenging life events such as childhood operations, serious illnesses, lockdowns, encounters with death, car accidents, assaults, or losing a job. The work of Thomas Huebl has shown how trauma’s impacts can even be intergenerational, passed down from trauma survivors of events like World War Two or the Vietnam War. Sometimes, trauma waits across generations for someone with the strength to confront and process it. Every form of trauma, no matter its origin or impact, is suitable for therapy. I look forward to working through these issues with you; it is truly a privilege to be part of your process.
References
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), (2024). Stress and Trauma. Australian Institute for Health and Welfare. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/mental-health/stress-and-trauma#trauma
Baumgartner, C., B., (2011). The Dark Side of the Moon: Trauma Transformation & Facilitator Development. (Unpublished thesis).
Fisher, J., (2021). Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma. PESI Publishing and Media.
Matsumara, K., (2013). Body and Soul Retrieval, A Process Oriented Approach to Trauma. (Unpublished thesis).
