What Is Trauma Therapy and How Does It Work?

What is trauma therapy?

Trauma therapy is a specialized form of counselling that helps people process and heal from overwhelming experiences that continue to impact their mental, emotional, or physical well-being. These experiences include:

• Childhood emotional neglect or abuse

• Relationship violence, power dynamics, and betrayal

• Accidents, surgeries, or medical trauma

• Systemic oppression, racism, or discrimination

• Loss, abandonment, or growing up in survival mode

Trauma is about how your nervous system experienced the event. If something felt too much, too fast, or too soon for your system to handle, it can leave a lasting imprint.

Trauma therapy helps you not just talk about what happened, but also work with how it lives in your body, emotions, and relationships today.

What Happens in Trauma Therapy?

Every person’s healing process is different, but trauma therapy usually includes:

1. Building Safety and Stabilization

We begin by helping you feel emotionally and physically safe, both in the therapy space and in your own body. This can involve:

• Learning grounding and regulation skills

• Understanding trauma responses (fight, flight, freeze, fawn)

• Creating a strong, trusting therapeutic relationship

• Pacing the work so you don’t feel overwhelmed

We will take it slow. What’s important is that we establish a good relationship where you can feel safe. Diving into trauma will come later.

2. Exploring the Roots of the Pain

Once a foundation of safety is built, we can start to gently explore:

• Where current struggles might be rooted in past experiences

• What beliefs or protective patterns were formed during difficult times

• How these patterns may be affecting your relationships, emotions, or sense of self

This part may involve talk therapy, parts work (like IFS), or exploratory reflection, like journaling.

3. Processing and Integration

When you’re ready, we may use trauma-specific techniques to help you process stuck memories or patterns. These might include:

• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

• Somatic therapy to release tension or emotion held in the body

• Inner child or parts work to bring compassion to wounded parts

• Mindfulness and body-based tools to stay grounded during processing

The goal isn’t to forget or relive the trauma. It’s to help your brain and body realize that the danger is over, so you can finally move forward.

Types of Trauma Therapy Approaches

Some of the most common and effective approaches used in trauma therapy include:

EMDR Therapy

EMDR helps the brain reprocess distressing memories using bilateral stimulation (like eye movements or tapping). It’s especially helpful for PTSD, anxiety, and emotional flashbacks.

EMDR may not be the best route for everyone, depending on the person’s activation level. In that case, we will explore other approaches such as below.

Somatic Therapy

This approach focuses on how trauma lives in the body. Somatic therapy helps you notice and shift physical sensations, release stored tension, and build a sense of embodied safety.

IFS and Parts Work

We all have different parts of ourselves. Sometimes, some of the parts are stuck in the past. Many trauma survivors have inner parts that carry pain, fear, shame, or protective roles. Parts work helps you meet these parts with curiosity and care.

Attachment-Based Therapy

These methods explore how early relationships shaped your beliefs about love, safety, and self-worth. This is especially helpful for relational trauma and insecure attachment.

Is Trauma Therapy Right for Me?

You don’t need a PTSD diagnosis to benefit from trauma therapy. It can help if you:

• Feel anxious, on edge, or emotionally shut down

• Have difficulty trusting or connecting with others

• Struggle with self-worth, shame, or people-pleasing

• Feel “stuck” in patterns you can’t seem to change

• Have flashbacks, body memories, or emotional overwhelm

• Grew up in a home where your emotional needs weren’t met

Trauma therapy offers a path toward more emotional freedom, clarity, and connection—not just with others, but with yourself.

What Makes Trauma Therapy Different?

Unlike traditional therapy, trauma therapy is:

• Body-aware: It considers how trauma shows up physically (not just mentally)

• Paced and consent-based: You won’t be pushed to talk about things you’re not ready to explore

• Relationally healing: The therapeutic relationship itself becomes part of the healing

• Strengths-based: It honours your survival strategies and resilience, not just your pain

Final Thoughts: Healing Is Possible

Trauma therapy doesn’t erase what happened, but it can help you feel less trapped by it. Over time, many people find themselves:

• Reacting less intensely to triggers

• Feeling more grounded and emotionally present

• Setting healthier boundaries

• Reconnecting with joy, purpose, and trust

• Feeling at home in their bodies and relationships

You deserve that, too.

Ready to Begin Trauma Therapy in Ontario?

I offer online trauma therapy for adults across Ontario, with a focus on relational trauma, complex PTSD, and identity-based wounds.
As a queer, first-generation woman of colour, I co-create therapy sessions that work for you.

Book a free consultation to start your healing journey.