Trauma Recovery

Tall ladder to single window symbolizing trauma which can be helped by a PTSD therapist Chicago

What is Trauma?

There are, broadly speaking, two types of trauma.

Acute trauma, sometimes called “Capital T Trauma,” is a term for incidents like natural disasters, assault, sexual violence, car crashes, combat, or any other type of incident that fills a person with fear and horror with threat to physical safety. It could be your own safety, witnessing it happen to someone else, or exposure to knowledge it happened to someone close to you.

Complex trauma is always interpersonal, usually happens repeatedly over time, and may or may not involve physical harm. Verbal abuse, emotional abuse, betrayal, neglect, are some examples.

They both suck.

If you’ve experienced either, we’re deeply sorry you had to go through it.

 

Our Approach to Trauma

We are not going to make you re-experience your trauma in every session. We don’t think that’s helpful. If you experienced a trauma, you didn’t have control over what happened or how long it lasted, so we believe in giving you control over when you’re ready to talk about it and how much. 

At Satya Counseling, our approach to treating trauma focuses on how it’s affecting your life today. There may be difficult or painful memories you really need to process, and we’ll absolutely provide you with support and compassionate listening as part of the healing process. Then we’ll empathetically explore how it’s affecting you now, and collaborate on what you need to recover from it and gain resilience. 

Trauma written on frosted glass with an open pocket watch dangling in foreground

Effects of Trauma

Some people can experience a trauma without developing trauma-responses; others don’t. Remember, a trait isn’t a symptom, and a symptom isn’t a disorder!

Untreated trauma will rule your life. Depression, anxiety, intense shame, self-doubt, emotional flooding, nightmares, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, intrusive memories, difficulty regulating emotions, hypervigilance, memory problems, avoiding reminders of the trauma, and chronic pains can drain the joy and vitality from your life.

Many trauma survivors we work with had been in therapy for years without receiving education about or treatment for their trauma, and started believing they are somehow “broken” or “damaged goods.”

 

Racism, hate crimes, and cultural gaslighting

BIPOC individuals and the LGBTQIA community are especially vulnerable to trauma and PTSD, facing risk factors such as: 

  • Microaggressions
  • Discrimination
  • Systemic oppression
  • Cultural gaslighting
  • Threats, intimidation, verbal abuse
  • Exposure to horrific news events
  • Hate crimes
  • Burnout and exhaustion from justifying your trauma, emotions, and existence to people with more privilege who expect you to educate them
Impression of shouting face and hands pressing against gray material
Two men and one woman in business attire with their heads in the sand

Additionally, the LGBTQIA community is statistically more likely to be ostracized from family. BIPOC humans in the US are especially vulnerable to intergenerational trauma, as well as statistically having fewer resources due to economic disparity from systemic racism and discrimination. 

Too often, individuals with privilege use that privilege to avoid talking about it. We are acutely aware that our profession has a history of pathologizing the LGBTQIA community, blaming women for staying with abusers, and turning a blind eye to the trauma that comes with racism.  The medical profession produced “science” that lawmakers seized to justify imperialism, enslavement, racism, and other atrocities. The DSM, our medical community’s guide to treatment and diagnosis, just added Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and removed homosexuality from disorders in 1980. 

We’ve come under fire from other therapists who told us that that we shouldn’t bring politics into the therapy room.  We counter that someone who faces an exponentially-growing murder rate for traits like skin color or gender identity cannot feel safe with more willful ignorance. 

We won’t pretend that mindfulness and therapy will insulate you from injustice or ongoing trauma. However, we can commit to a safe space to talk openly about anxiety, depression, and trauma without minimizing or denying how these factors affect you.

Take Charge of Your Recovery

You are not a lost cause. You are not hopeless.

If you’re sick of being stuck — sick of hearing “that sounds so hard” or “just let go of it” — tired of missing out on what matters to you — fed up with your history dominating your thoughts and emotions. Call us. Email us. Schedule online. Let’s create the change you want.

Open bird cage with feathers flying out in front a blue sky

Sick of Being Stuck?


    In-person sessionsTeletherapy sessions


    Weekday morningsWeekday afternoonsWeekday eveningsSaturdays