Our therapists offer PTSD & trauma therapy in Paramus, NJ

My go-to approach for helping people in trauma therapy is using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) tools in sessions. I find CBT to be beneficial for working with trauma since it helps clients examine the thoughts that are often behind the trauma and understand how that may be affecting their feelings or behaviors. These tools also help to explore specific strategies to recognize problematic thoughts more effectively, and how to challenge these thoughts.

When working with a client who's experienced trauma, we will often work on first exploring the nature of the trauma and understanding the impacts that the trauma has had on the person's mental health. This can involve using narrative approaches, which is a way of further unpacking the trauma in detail. Then we can work on exploring the thought patterns behind that trauma and how to challenge these thoughts, as well as working on coping with trauma-related triggers and developing healthy coping strategies to work through the effects of the trauma.

I know a client is making meaningful progress in trauma therapy when they are reporting feeling a greater sense of calm and peace, have the ability to cope with their trauma-related triggers, and are able to go through their day-to-day life without the worries of their trauma negatively affecting their present life.

Clients can supplement their time in trauma therapy by spending time prioritizing their individual needs to improve their relationship with themself. This can include practicing more self-care, setting boundaries, spending more time focusing on hobbies or interests, and of course practicing the tools that they've been learning in therapy to help improve their mental health!

To prepare for your first trauma therapy session, you can identify some of the main reasons that you want to come to therapy at this time. Trauma can affect someone's life in a lot of ways, so any background information will really help your therapist determine a plan for how they can support you. Even though it can be difficult to discuss, knowing about the nature of your trauma and the impacts that it has had on you can help your therapist to best help you!