Imagine carrying a heavy suitcase everywhere you go. As time goes on, it becomes heavier, and making a new step feels harder and harder. You haven’t packed the suitcase yourself,  yet it’s filled with the weight of fear, shame, and painful memories. 

That’s what going through a traumatic event (or a series of traumatic experiences, for that matter) feels like. It often happens in your childhood where, unfortunately, parenting and trauma intertwine. In the future, your mental health deteriorates, but you don’t understand where the problem lies and what caused it because the scars are invisible. 

Well, the good news is that there is a therapy for childhood trauma, and with the right therapeutic approach, healing childhood trauma is possible. Let’s talk in detail about the main types of trauma therapy and find which one is right for you. 

Understanding Trauma-Focused Therapy

Trauma therapy is a specialized approach that helps individuals address childhood trauma, process traumatic experiences under professional psychotherapeutic guidance, and eventually heal from those traumatic memories. Its ultimate goal is to help you reclaim control over your life so you can move on with clarity, resilience, and emotional balance.

And no, 'trauma' isn't something Millennials and Gen Z invented to justify a lack of motivation in life. Trauma has always been part of the human experience, but only recently have we begun to fully acknowledge its impact on our mental health. 

Anyway, back on track. Here’s a list of the goals that trauma-focused therapies aim to achieve:

• Effectively process past trauma (unresolved childhood trauma included). Therapy allows individuals to confront and process their memories in a safe, controlled environment. For instance, if you want to resolve emotional abuse stemming from your childhood, you might revisit those memories through narrative exposure therapy, a method that helps integrate traumatic experiences through the structured retelling of your personal story, in a safe environment under professional guidance.
• Identify and change negative thought patterns. Painful experiences often lead to the emergence of unhelpful beliefs and negative thoughts about oneself and the world. Here, the therapeutic power lies in the ability of a psychotherapist to help you identify those distorted thought patterns and replace them with healthier beliefs about yourself and the world around you.
• Build healthy coping mechanisms. Therapy helps you identify triggers and further develop healthy coping strategies. Let’s say you’re scared of loud sounds because they’re somehow related to your past trauma. While in therapy, you’ll practice grounding techniques, like focusing on your breath or using a calming mantra so you know how to calm down when you hear a loud noise in the future. This is just an example as trauma informed therapy methods vary greatly.
• Improve emotional regulation. Individuals who experienced trauma might find it hard to self-regulate, which often comes along with post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, or depression. During therapy, individuals learn how to respond to challenges with less emotional overwhelm.
• Promote post-traumatic growth. Healing from childhood trauma isn’t just about returning to the way things were before. Trauma informed therapy encourages growth and self-discovery — in the end, you learn how to keep your mental health stable and turn your traumatic memories into a source of inner strength, resilience, and wisdom. 

Now let’s find out the types of therapies available, how trauma sensitive interventions work, and which one might be the best option for you.

CBT for Healing Childhood Trauma

Well, CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy is an evidence-based method of psychotherapy when it comes to understanding child trauma and treating it fast and effectively. According to this approach, thoughts, emotions, and behavior are interrelated aspects of human functioning, and changing one can change the others.

In the 1960s, Dr. Aaron Beck developed this approach to help patients overcome depression. But soon, therapists discovered that CBT helps individuals alleviate anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, and, yes, treat childhood trauma. 

At the core of cognitive behavioral therapy TF lies an idea that changing your thoughts changes your emotions and behavior. 

Trauma, especially early childhood trauma, often leaves individuals with deep-seated, negative beliefs about themselves and the world, such as "I am unworthy" or "I am unsafe." During a CBT session, a trauma-informed therapist helps you define those unhelpful beliefs and replace them with healthier ones. 

So, how exactly does CBT work? Trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy is like traditional talk therapy but often with homework and practical behavior-related exercises, a specific number of sessions, and well-defined goals for each session.  

Here is what cognitive behavioral therapy often looks like:

1. Assessment and goal setting. Your first sessions will be devoted to identifying trauma-related symptoms, triggers, and goals for therapy. 

2. Identifying and challenging negative thought patterns. You’d learn to recognize those unhealthy thoughts that are linked to your child trauma and unexpectedly pop up in your head. Your therapist might even ask you to write down those thoughts in a separate journal for a better understanding of your trauma triggers. 

3. Challenging and reframing your thoughts. All this terrifying whirlwind of shame, self-blame, and fear is happening in your head. Oftentimes, it has nothing to do with the reality around you at the moment. That friend who didn’t call in time? It’s not about you — they were busy and they apologized. But still, you were angry and felt abandoned. That feeling of abandonment is a result of consistent childhood abuse, and it has nothing to do with your friend. Still, you felt it. And that’s where trauma focused CBT helps you check in with reality, find evidence that challenges your beliefs, and helps you form a balanced perspective.

4. Developing healthy coping strategies. Beyond thought work, CBT helps you develop healthy coping mechanisms to manage trauma-related stress. And let’s be honest, that chronic stress is huge. Mindfulness, relaxation techniques, and journaling often become a part of your healing and help you stay grounded when trauma reminders surface. 

5. Behavioral experiments. To treat childhood trauma, clients often have to engage in activities and situations that help them test the newly formed beliefs. Think of it as a prolonged exposure to your fear. For instance, you’re scared of meeting new people because you perceive them as a source of unpredictability and threat. While in therapy, you might start by imagining new scenarios and then gradually progress to meeting someone in a safe setting. That’s in a nutshell. The key idea is to show you that regardless of what your fear is, growth and safety can co-exist even in surroundings that once felt overwhelming. 

By the way, you might have also heard about cognitive processing therapy (CPT). CPT is a specialized version of CBT focused on trauma, especially PTSD. It helps you understand how a particular event changed your beliefs and guides you to reshape those thoughts.

A mental health services administration would tell you that both approaches are effective in treating trauma in adults. However, if you’re dealing with a very specific trauma-related problem like PTSD, CPT might be just what the doctor ordered (pun intended). But if you have to deal with trauma AND manage the emotional impact of mental health conditions like anxiety or depression, going for cognitive behavioral therapy TF might be a better idea.

And don’t worry, a qualified mental health professional will approach your situation with compassion and ensure you don’t get traumatized during sessions. 

Now let’s take a look at other TF approaches that have ended on our list. 

Benefits of EMDR Therapy for Childhood Trauma Recovery

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is truly a groundbreaking approach in the field of trauma treatment developed by Francine Shapiro in the 1980s. Similar to trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy that we’ve talked about earlier, eye movement desensitization therapy helps individuals overcome trauma and heal from deep emotional wounds.

The core idea in EMDR therapy is that when you experience a traumatic event, it gets ‘stuck’ in your brain and doesn’t allow you to move on. Instead, it replays like a broken record each time you encounter even the slightest trauma reminder. 

EMDR sessions have a goal to let you ‘relive’ the memory but in a safe space and view it from a more detached perspective. The sessions are structured around bilateral stimulation, which literally means making both sides of your brain work together. 

To make it happen, a mental health professional would ask you to follow a moving light with your eyes, listen to sounds that go back and forth between your ears, or tap your hands. Sure, that sounds silly and you might wonder ‘How can it be effective?’ Well, the thing is, such kind of stimulation helps your brain process memories in a new way. It helps your brain integrate traumatic memories into a new context so you can finally stop feeling like that traumatic situation has never ended — you need closure. You’ll still know that the event happened, but it will no longer affect you as it did before.

Exploring Somatic Therapy as a Therapy for Childhood Trauma 

We all know that feeling when you have to take an exam, and suddenly, your shoulders tighten, your stomach churns, and your heart races. You can no longer focus on the task because your body is actively reacting to stress. Yeap, that’s how mind-and-body connection works 🙂

Somatic therapy helps break trauma cycle stored in the body. Because guess what, trauma doesn’t only lead to negative mental health symptoms — it worsens your overall physical well-being. Each time you find yourself in a situation that reminds you of those adverse childhood experiences, your body reacts as if it’s reliving the trauma all over again. Your heart races, muscles tense, and stress hormones flood your system. 

It’s as if you’re in a constant state of hyperarousal, which can cause chronic stress, fatigue, and even a weakened immune system if left untreated. 

Dr. Peter Levine, a pioneer in somatic therapy and author of Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, explains that trauma often gets "stuck" in the nervous system. According to Levine, this happens because the body can’t complete its natural fight, flight, or freeze response to a stressful event. In other words, it’s as if you’re constantly living in a state of threat. 

Here are a few structured therapy techniques that contribute to the healing process.

Grounding Technique

The goal of this approach is to anchor you in the present moment. A licensed mental health counselor would typically guide you through a simple exercise where you press your feet firmly into the ground, feel the texture of the floor, and name five things you can see. This technique is especially helpful if you want to create a feeling of safety in a present triggering situation and reduce PTSD symptoms in the long run.

You can use it during a commute, in the midst of a panic attack, before a stressful presentation, while waiting in a crowded space, or in any triggering or anxiety-inducing situation to create a sense of safety and presence.

Body Scans

The core idea of this technique is to help your body feel relieved by directing your attention to physical sensations. During the exercise, a person who has experienced trauma is asked to ‘scan’ their body from head to toe, paying attention to the feeling of tension, pain, or warmth in specific areas. The goal is to acknowledge and release physical sensations tied to trauma so your body can reset and relax. 

Tension Release Exercises

At first, the idea of this particular technique might sound unusual.

Tension release exercises (TRE) use small, controlled shakes to help your body let go of tension and literally “shake it off.” It was developed by Dr. David Berceli, a trauma recovery expert, who observed how animals naturally shake to release tension after stressful events. Inspired by this, he created a simple yet powerful method to help people release deep stress.

For example, you can lie on your back with your knees bent, feet on the floor, and gently lift and lower your hips to create small tremors in your legs. Another way is to stand and lightly bounce on your feet. 

Because this technique is kind of fun and involves movement, TRE is great for children and adolescents presenting with stress and unresolved feelings related to trauma. 

❗ Please keep in mind that TRE requires gradual progression to avoid overwhelming the nervous system, especially for individuals with intense PTSD symptoms.

Movement-Based Techniques

Trauma often keeps your body in the ‘freeze’ mode, which means you can’t successfully release that tension in muscles. Movement-based techniques like yoga, stretching, or dancing gently nudge the body out of that frozen state. 

Sure, these activities don’t directly resolve trauma in adults or childhood trauma. In fact, they often complement other approaches like trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy. All in all, they help individuals reconnect with their bodies, regain a sense of control, and release the built-up stress.

Role of Support Groups in Childhood Trauma Recovery

Going through a traumatic event as a child or a young adult might feel pretty isolating. If you didn’t experience trauma free parenting (for instance, your parents suffered from mental health conditions or substance abuse), it can be even harder to navigate the emotional aftermath as an adult. All in all, it was impossible to bring your abusive parents to family therapy as a child, right?

That might sound like a cliche (and we’re fully aware of that 😏), but the good news is that you’re not alone. According to the World Health Organization, more than two thirds of people experience some form of trauma in their lives, and joining a support group can be a powerful way to start understanding childhood trauma and begin healing. 

All those adults that you’ll meet in support groups were once traumatized children who were silenced and didn’t have safe surroundings to express and process their thoughts and feelings. You'll share your experiences with others who have gone through similar struggles and get a sense of community that fully supports and understands you. 

Here are 3 things that support group therapy offers: 

• You’ll learn new ways to cope with triggers and stress. People in group sessions will teach you more about breaking trauma cycle, tips for self-care, how to deal with triggers, and how to build new, healthy habits for your mental health.
• You’ll feel less isolated. Once you realize that others have gone through a similar traumatic event, you’ll feel less lonely and misunderstood. Who knows, you might even form healthy relationships that help support your journey toward recovery.
• You’ll gain strength from shared recovery. Adults heal. Though, obviously, it takes time and a lot of work. When you see others heal, it may inspire and motivate you to continue your own journey. But please, remember that everyone recovers at their own pace. 

Each trauma in adults is unique, but through shared experience, individuals can find comfort, understanding, and strength.

Choosing the Right Therapist

Your therapist is someone who understands where you're coming from and equips you with the skills you need to navigate even your darkest days. It’s essential to find someone you trust wholeheartedly. But don’t worry if it takes time to find the right fit, especially if you’re dealing with trust issues caused by that specific traumatic event.

Here is what to look for in a therapist. 

Experience and Expertise

No, it doesn’t mean that a specialist with 10 years of experience is better than one with 5 years. What truly matters is the issues a therapist specializes in. Let’s say you grew up with a narcissistic parent. In that case, you’d benefit from a mental health professional who focuses on narcissism. 

Or let’s say you’re looking to treat PTSD — you’ll want someone skilled in methods like cognitive processing therapy (CPT) and familiar with concepts like prolonged exposure therapy. You get the idea. In the end, it’s about finding someone who truly understands what it feels like to walk in your shoes.

Therapy Technique

Different therapists have different styles. Some might use art therapy or play therapy, which are great creative outlets for expressing and processing your emotions. However, the best approach depends on the specific problem you want to address. For instance, if you want to treat PTSD, approaches like cognitive processing therapy (CPT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) might be more effective compared to art therapy or play therapy that we’ve mentioned above.

Trust and Compatibility

That’s all great. But expertise and technique mean nothing if you can’t trust the person. Trust and compatibility are non-negotiable in the therapeutic process. Here is how to find out whether a particular therapist is a great fit for you:

• Trust your gut first before trusting others. Do you feel like they’re really listening to you? Do you feel safe and respected? Let’s say you’ve been traumatized in your childhood and now have come to learn how to provide emotional security for children as a parent yourself. During the session,the therapist judges you or makes you feel uncomfortable — that’s a red flag. A good therapist creates a safe space where you can open up without fear of criticism or judgment.
• Style of communication. Some therapists are more direct and straightforward in their communication, while others take a gentler approach. Regardless of the expertise, their communication style should be comfortable to you.
• Shared goals and approach. It’s important that you and your therapist are on the same page about what you want to achieve in therapy and how to get there.

Final Thoughts

Therapy for childhood trauma offers more than just relief. With the right therapeutic approach, you can reclaim your narrative, regain control over your life, and build a life that thrives beyond the shadow of past pain.

Imagine living a life without that emotional baggage where every step feels lighter. Regardless of the approach you choose from the list in our article, just remember that healing starts with a tiny step toward clarity, peace, and possibility. ✨🌱💫

References 

Greenman, P. S., Renzi, A., Monaco, S., Luciani, F., & Di Trani, M. (2024). How Does Trauma Make You Sick? The Role of Attachment in Explaining Somatic Symptoms of Survivors of Childhood Trauma. Healthcare, 12(2), 203. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12020203

Kuzminskaite, E., Penninx, B. W. J. H., van Harmelen, A.-L., Elzinga, B. M., Hovens, J. G. F. M., & Vinkers, C. H. (2021). Childhood trauma in adult depressive and anxiety disorders: An integrated review on psychological and biological mechanisms in the NESDA cohort. Journal of Affective Disorders, 283, 179–191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.01.054

van der Hoeven, M. L., Bouwmeester, S., Schlattmann, N. E. F., Lindauer, R. J. L., & Hein, I. M. (2024). Family therapy and EMDR after child abuse and neglect: Moderating effects of child attachment style and PTSD symptoms on treatment outcome. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2024.2416288

Wang, S. K., Feng, M., Fang, Y., Lv, L., Sun, G. L., Yang, S. L., Guo, P., Cheng, S. F., Qian, M. C., & Chen, H. X. (2023). Psychological trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder, and trauma-related depression: A mini-review. World Journal of Psychiatry, 13(6), 331–339.

Wang, S. (2024). The association between childhood trauma and adult mental disorders: A general overview. SHS Web of Conferences, 193, 03004. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202419303004