Can You Heal From Your Trauma Without Psychotherapy? Part 2

In my last article,  Can You Heal From Your Trauma Without Psychotherapy - Part 1, I began with a very qualified "yes" to this question.

Healing From Trauma

Part 1 of this topic focused on the barriers to finding a therapist which often forces people who want therapy to deal with their trauma on their own. 

In the current article, I'll discuss the types of self-help interventions you can use on your own to heal from trauma and some of the challenges involved in trying to heal certain types of trauma on your own.

Generally speaking, you can try to heal on your own with one-time traumatic events that are mildly disturbing--although what is mildly disturbing to one person is severely disturbing to someone else. As a result, you have to know yourself well without being in denial about how you're affected by your unresolved trauma.

Healing From Trauma on Your Own Without Psychotherapy

Under certain circumstances, which I'll discuss in this article, individuals do heal from trauma on their own without psychotherapy.

Healing From Trauma

Many individuals who have a natural resilience, a strong support network and self-directed coping strategies have healed on their own from mildly disturbing traumatic events.

I'll discuss the limitations and risks in the next section of this article.

With the exception of complex trauma, chronic trauma, depression, panic attacks, severe flashbacks, substance abuse or debilitating anxiety and other related conditions, many individuals can heal from trauma without therapy.

Another exception is if a one-time traumatic event occurs and you have a history of complex trauma. Under these circumstances, the one-time event can exacerbate long-standing complex trauma, so it's not advisable to try heal on your own. You need professional help.

Whether or not you can heal from trauma on your own depends on certain personal factors including (but not limited to):

• The severity of your trauma
• The duration of your trauma
• The frequency of your trauma
• Your internal resources and coping skills
• Your personal access to a safe environment

It's not unusual for individuals who experience trauma to underestimate the severity, duration and frequency of their trauma, so you have to be objectively honest with yourself.

In addition, if someone is accustomed to living in an unsafe environment, they might have a blind spot about their current circumstances because it's familiar and seems "normal" to them. So, once again, you need to be objectively honest with yourself, which can be challenging.

When Is It Possible to Heal Independently?

Since trauma affects the brain's survival wiring and nervous system, the possibility of healing independently requires a combination of emotional, mental and physical strategies:

• Somatic and Nervous System Regulation: Trauma traps the body in a continuous state of fight, flight or freeze. Individuals who have unresolved trauma often benefit from physical practices like trauma-informed yoga, breathwork and rhythmic movement to signal to their nervous system that they are safe now. 

Healing From Trauma

• Structured Self Reflection: Tools such as expressive writing or structured journaling allow individuals with trauma to safely externalize their overwhelming feelings, identify trauma triggers and track behavior problems without immediate judgment. 

• Relational Safety: Healing from trauma rarely, if ever, occurs in isolation. Building trusted relationships with safe friends, family members or peer support groups help build a sense of shared belonging and mutual trust.

• Psychoeducation: Reading evidence-basesd literature on trauma recovery can empower individuals to understand their emotional flashbacks and dismantle self-blame objectively. Although developing insight into your trauma isn't the same as working through it, psychoeducation is a good first step.

What Are the Risks and Limitations to Healing Independently?

While self healing is possible, trying to navigate healing from trauma entirely on your own has distinct challenges that should be carefully considered:

• Risk of Retraumatization: This is a very important consideration. The unchecked excavation of deeply repressed, distressing traumatic memories without professional stabilization from a mental health professional can inadvertently reinforce neural pathways of fear, anxiety, panic and amplification of panic and anxiety. 

• Blind Spots: An individual's psychological defense mechanisms, including dissociation and emotional numbing, can hide underlying trauma responses. This makes identifying a trauma response very difficult to identify and resolve on your own.

• Symptom Severity: Self-directed methods to healing trauma are generally more effective for localized, single-event trauma (e.g., a one-time argument with a loved one when the relationship is normally healthy, a close call with a car accident where the accident never occurred and other similar one-time events). Complex trauma, chronic trauma, persistent panic attacks, severe flashbacks, substance abuse and depression are among the conditions that shouldn't be handled independently. Under those circumstances, a qualified mental health professional is required.

• Avoid Reliving Instead of Revisiting the Trauma: Retelling your trauma, whether you do it on your own or you talk with a therapist who isn't a qualified trauma therapist, will be retraumatizing instead of healing.

Healing From Complex Trauma

Complex trauma stems from chronic, repeated interpersonal violations such as childhood abuse and neglect and other similar conditions.

Complex trauma fundamentally alters your brain structure, your nervous system and relational trust.

Trauma therapy remains the gold standard for complex trauma.

Why is Self-Healing Not Advisable For Complex Trauma?

Here are some of the major reasons:

• The "Window of Tolerance" Danger: Healing complex trauma requires processing traumatic memories without tipping into panic or shutting down with dissociation. Without a trauma therapist to help you monitor your "window of tolerance", processing deep trauma on your own can lead to unintended retraumatization (see my article: Expanding Your Window of Tolerance to Overcome Emotional Problems).

• The Relational Wound: Complex trauma is usually caused by people. Since the hurt happened in a relationship, true rewiring of your attachment system and relational trust requires a safe, consistent relationship--the type of relationship you have with a skilled trauma therapist.

• Nervous System Hijacking: Trauma lives in the trauma-focused and emotional parts of the brain and body--not just in the logical part of your brain. It is extremely difficult (if not impossible) for you to talk yourself or think yourself out of an automatic biological panic without professional help.

When Self Help is Not Enough

Self-guided healing is more likely to work for mild symptoms and establishing baseline stability.

As previously mentioned, professional help is needed if you have complex trauma, panic attacks, depression, substance abuse problems, flashbacks, relationship problems, debilitating anxiety or other symptoms that affect your daily functioning.

Before You Try to Heal Your Trauma On Your Own, Consult a Professional: If you are considering whether or not to try to heal without therapy or you want to make sure you'll be safe on your own, have a consultation with a licensed mental health professional who is a trauma therapist. 

A skilled trauma therapist can assess whether you can safely try to heal on your own or if you need professional help.

Getting Help in Trauma Therapy

If you decide to pursue trauma therapy with a licensed mental health professional, you have various choices with regard to trauma therapy modalities:

The Top Down Approach to Trauma Therapy

The top down approach to trauma therapy includes cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) which challenges your distorted thoughts and beliefs related to your trauma. The problem with CBT, in my professional opinion, is that it usually leaves out the mind-body connection and it often doesn't go deep enough.

Trauma Therapy: Top Down and Bottom Up Approaches

The Bottom Up Approach to Trauma Therapy

I recommend the Bottom Up approach to trauma therapy, which are also known as Experiential Therapies (see my article: What is the Difference Between Top Down and Bottom Up Therapies?

Experiential Therapy tends to be more effective for processing trauma than traditional talk therapy like CBT (see my article: Why is Experiential Therapy More Effective Than Traditional Talk Therapy to Overcome Trauma?).

Experiential Therapies are mind-body oriented therapy that get to the root of the problem by focusing on the mind-body connection (see my article: Experiential Therapy and the Mind-Body Connection: The Body Offers a Window Into the Unconscious Mind).

Bottom up Experiential therapies include:

• Somatic Experiencing Therapy (SE)

• AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy)

• Somatic IFS Therapy (Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy)

• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy)

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, IFS/Parts Work Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples, Somatic Experiencing and Certified Sex Therapist.

As a trauma therapist, I have helped many individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

I offer a free 10-15 phone call before I sent up a first appointment.

You can call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me to make an appointment.

Also See My Articles:

How Does Somatic Experiencing Process Emotions? 

Experiential Therapy, Like EMDR, Helps to Achieve Emotional Breakthroughs

Combining EMDR and IFS Somatic Parts Work Therapy 

How Does AEDP Heal Trauma? 

What is Somatic Resonance and Why Is It Healing?

What is Bilateral Stimulation (BLS) in EMDR Therapy?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy is a safe and effective therapy for processing trauma (see my article: How EMDR Therapy Works: EMDR and the Brain).

Bilateral Stimulation as Part of EMDR Therapy

EMDR has been used to treat trauma since the late 1980s when it was developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro. 

In addition to being a clinician, Dr. Shapiro was also a researcher, so she did EMDR research which demonstrated the effectiveness of EMDR to process trauma.

A key component of EMDR therapy is Bilateral Stimulation (BLS).

What is Bilateral Stimulation (BLS) in EMDR Therapy?

Let's start by defining BLS.

BLS is the use of a stimulus that activates both sides of the brain and the body which allows the processing of memories, emotions and bodily sensations which are "stuck" in the nervous system as a result of trauma.

By activating both sides of the brain and body, BLS allows more effective processing of trauma than regular talk therapy.  

Bilateral Stimulation as Part of EMDR Therapy

Clients often report feeling less distressed by traumatic memories while using BLS because BLS has an integrative function. 

In other words, instead of being "stuck," traumatic memories get integrated with other experiences so that, over time, a client's distress level decreases until these memories are no longer distressing.

In the late 1980s, when Dr. Shapiro was developing EMDR therapy, BLS only consisted of eye movements (eyes moving back and forth while following the therapist's hand).

As other EMDR therapists contributed to the development of EMDR therapy, they discovered that other types of BLS worked just as well as eye movements. 

So for instance, many EMDR therapists had clients hold a set of tappers in their hands for BLS.  The tappers buzzed back and forth from the right side to the left and back again. These therapists discovered that tappers were just as effective as using eye movements as a form of BLS.

Dr. Laurel Parnell, who developed Attachment-Focused EMDR therapy, is known for using tapping as BLS where either the therapist or the client taps alternately on their arms or knees.  

Some clients like to listen to music with headphones where the music goes from one ear to the other back and forth. 

The advantage of using BLS that doesn't involve moving the eyes back and forth is that clients can close their eyes while processing a traumatic memory so they can tune into what's happening in their body, which is an important part of EMDR therapy, a mind-body oriented therapy.

Why is BLS Used in EMDR Therapy?

EMDR research has shown that using BLS as a key component to EMDR therapy and makes it a powerful modality for processing trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), other forms of anxiety and depression--to name just a few mental health issues where EMDR has been found to be highly effective.

Other Forms of BLS in Everyday Life

Aside from EMDR therapy, there are other forms of BLS in our everyday life.

Common examples of bilateral stimulation in everyday life include:

• Walking or Running: When you walk or run, you move one leg and then the other so that walking becomes a bilateral experience.

• Swimming: When you swim, you alternate using your arms and legs, which is a bilateral experience.

• Biking: When you ride a bike, you alternate each leg as you pedal, which is a bilateral experience.

People often report that when they walk, run, swim or bike, they feel better.  Many people say they come up with solutions to problems even if they're not actively thinking about these problems.

People also report feeling more relaxed after engaging in one of these activities, similar to how many clients experience BLS as part of EMDR therapy.

How is BLS Related to Memory Reconsolidation?

BLS is thought to be similar to REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.  

REM is a phase of sleep where memories are reconsolidated.

Since BLS activates both sides of the brain, similar to REM, it allows for communication and integration between fragmented parts of traumatic memories which have been stored in different parts of the brain.

EMDR Processing and Memory Reconsolidation

During EMDR reprocessing of a traumatic memory, the memory is brought back into consciousness during BLS and it is restored into long term memory with less vividness and intensity.  This is how memories that are "stuck" get "unstuck."

Over time, processing traumatic memories using BLS during EMDR sessions, makes the traumatic memories less distressing. When memories are restored in long term memory with less distress, the client experiences emotional healing.

They also understand on an emotional level (not just on a cognitive level) that the trauma is from the past and they no longer feel the negative impact in the present (see my article: Reacting to the Present Based on Your Traumatic Past).

This process is not something that happens in just a few sessions, especially if the trauma is longstanding and complex.  However, EMDR therapy is usually faster and more effective than regular talk therapy.

Also, see my article: EMDR Therapy Online is Just as Effective as EMDR in Person

Getting Help in EMDR Therapy

If you have been unable to resolve traumatic experiences on your own, you could benefit from working with a Trauma Therapist who does EMDR therapy.

Getting Help in EMDR Therapy

See my article: EMDR Therapy - When Talk Therapy Isn't Enough)

Working through unresolved trauma can help you to lead a more meaningful life.

About Me

I am a licensed New York City psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT, Somatic Experiencing and Sex Therapist.

I work with individual adults and couples.

I have helped many clients overcome unresolved trauma using EMDR therapy and other forms of trauma therapy (see my article: What is a Trauma Therapist?).

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.