Most of the people that seek counseling have experienced some kind of trauma in the past. The trauma could be as a result of something that happened during childhood, physical abuse, bullying, parent’s divorce or some kind of sadness following the loss of a close person. Adults can also experience trauma as a result of assault, physical and sexual abuse or after being involved in an accident that could have lost their lives. Others gat traumatized after being diagnosed with a chronic disease like cancer.
These kind of traumas are quite understandable and most people go for counseling after experiencing one of these or one that is more severe. But besides the common presenting issues, the patient also suffers from other physiological issues such as depression and anxiety or problems with the relationship. These are some kinds of traumas that are not yet to be determined. One may be experiencing trauma as a result of difficulties that they underwent when they were still at schools like some kind of humiliation. Most kids are also traumatized due to poor parenting that could be considered not ‘normal’. Anything that could be leading one to undergo a painful experience can affect one’s life in the future.
When one seeks counseling after experiencing trauma. The first thing that the counselor will do is to identify that the patient is indeed traumatized and then find out what the trauma is. The counselors will be able to identify this by exploring the behavior of the patient. They also identify the patterns of how the victims present themselves and they will be able to identify what could be leading to the problem. This will lead to investigating the origin of these patterns that could be resulting to some kind of trauma. We can take an example where an employer could be having some difficulties with a fellow colleague at the workplace. The first step in dealing with such a situation is realizing that the victim takes the colleague as a bully and it is a case that they might have been bullied at school. The best way of helping the victim is by making them realize that they could be responding to a situation that is based on the old trauma. This will help them come with strategies for dealing with the current situation.
However, this approach may not be effective in some cases when the effects of the past trauma become so much spread or when they are unbearable. When the victim is in such a condition, the best way of counseling them should include eye movement desensitization and reprocessing which is commonly known as EMRD. This is a very powerful tool of counseling that uses eye movement or any other form of bilateral stimulation that can help the body’s natural processing capacity. This strategy aids in removing the emotional connections that could be triggering the present trauma. The victim will be freed from these emotions and they will be able to discover ways of dealing with the issues so that they can live free of the past.