I sometimes say that my job is being a “trauma therapist.” What does that mean? I have family members who are doctors and nurses at a hospital that is a Level 1 Trauma Center, yet they don’t do anything like the work I do. It has always interested me that we would all say we work with trauma, yet our job descriptions are vastly different. How can we all identify our work this way?
Comparing Trauma Work
For my family, working in a Level 1 Trauma Center means their hospital can handle the most critical medical cases and provide access to services for every possible problem. They specialize in their fields and learn the latest techniques to stay on the cutting edge of medical care.
That is also the type of work I do for mental and emotional traumas. The traumas I see aren’t gunshot wounds or car accidents, but they might be the critical invisible wounds that are left after someone has experienced an assault or a car wreck.
There are subtle cases that come to my family’s Trauma Center, too. There might be patients with an infection that went unchecked and became a major problem a year later.
Likewise, my clients haven’t always experienced obvious traumas. For instance, they may have been told on a few occasions that they can’t do anything right. In the moment, they brushed that off. But over time, those comments led to an infection that has taken over their self-esteem.
Each of us working with trauma aim to prevent and rehabilitate injuries. My family members in the medical field do that by prescribing medication or referring to physical therapy, while I teach coping skills or how to process emotional memories.
Whether it is an obvious gash or a cancer that grew slowly and invisibly, Trauma Centers need to be able to handle it all. And trauma therapists do, too.
One Last Thought
I have been watching The Pitt on HBO Max, a show that follows ER doctors on their shift. In the ER, they treat everything from a woman in labor to a kid needing stitches. Despite one of those cases being significantly more urgent than the other, both patients required emergency treatment at the ER. The kid getting stitches doesn’t need to feel guilty for being there just because his level of urgency was less than the lady giving birth.
That’s how I encourage my clients, too. Trauma can manifest in numerous ways, but it is all worthy of being recognized and treated properly. Comparing wounds isn’t done at the Trauma Center, and it isn’t done in my office either.
As a trauma therapist, I use trauma-informed tools in my practice. One such tool is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Stay tuned for my next article, which will describe EMDR!
Written by Hannah Clark, MA, APC
hannah@restorationcounselingatl.com, ext. 122
Roswell and Woodstock locations
Hannah’s philosophy is that counseling is for everyone. Just like we take our cars to get the oil changed, mental health works the same way. The check engine light comes on, and we need to take a look under the hood. Hannah enjoys counseling individuals age 18 and up. She utilizes EMDR therapy to help with trauma and PTSD. She also sees individuals for issues such as grief, depression, anxiety, boundaries, life transitions, and spiritual or emotional abuse. Hannah previously worked for a college ministry and enjoys helping college students and women in (or formerly in) ministry.