When a child feels threatened, life can become overwhelming. Emotions can start to feel out of control. Or sometimes there is no emotion at all. Sleep can be scary and difficult. Engaging with friends can feel hard. Concentrating in school can feel impossible. The body gets stressed and doesn’t feel right. The world just doesn’t look and feel like it used to. And when everything feels like too much, a child can take it out on themselves and others. We can help.
Young people who have experienced trauma can feel lost. Their experience can leave them with overwhelming thoughts and feelings, making it hard to cope. And when the brain and body can’t cope, mood and behavior will change. You may have noticed your child has more difficulty controlling their emotions. They complain that they can’t focus. They are having a hard time remembering and learning in school. They complain about stomachaches and headaches since their trauma. They no longer trust the people around them. They may even lash out. Your child may withdraw from friends or activities they once liked. Experiencing trauma can make it hard to be a kid.
What is Trauma?
Trauma is when an individual witnesses or experiences an intense event that poses a real or perceived threat to their life or well-being. Or, a close loved one or family member. The trauma experience and related thoughts and feelings can overwhelm a child’s capacity to cope. Difficulty coping creates significant physical and emotional responses.
Children and young adults who have experienced trauma go into the fight-or-flight mode more quickly. Thus, this stress mode becomes more automatic for them. This “survival” reaction tells the brain to gear up the body to defend against danger. The heart starts racing. Breathing starts to speed up. Muscles get tense, and digestion slows down. While this response is adaptive in a trauma experience, sensitivity to ongoing fight-or-flight responses can lead to behavioral and emotional problems down the road.
Childhood Trauma can lead to:
Emotional regulation challenges
Behavior changes and problems
Challenges with memory and learning
Poor physical health
Reduced cognitive functioning
Reduced social skills
Common Symptoms of Trauma in Young People
Every young person responds to trauma differently. Below are some of the common symptoms associated with trauma and post-traumatic stress in young people.
Behavioral changes:
Re-enactments of the trauma
Avoidance or withdraw
Self-destructive and self-harm behaviors
Sexualized behaviors
Violence
Bullying
Traumatic bonding with an abuser
Substance abuse
Emotional changes:
Emotional numbing (very little emotion)
Irritability and aggression
Somatization - physical symptoms with no underlying medical cause, often related to the body’s stress response
Physical and emotional hyperarousal (often characterized by emotional swings or rapidly accelerating anger or crying that is out of proportion to the apparent stimulus)
Trouble sleeping
Intrusive and reoccurring thoughts of the traumatic experience
Flashbacks
Trauma-induced hallucinations or delusions
Cognitive (thinking) changes:
Difficulty concentrating
More negative view of the world, themselves, and others
Foreshortened future - feel as though their life will somehow be cut short
Dissociation - a disconnection between a child's sensory experience, thoughts, sense of self, or personal history
A sense of guilt for their role in the abuse
Feelings of powerlessness
A sense that they are in some way “damaged goods”
A fear that people will treat them differently because of the abuse
Trauma-focused Therapy
The overarching goal of trauma-focused treatment is to help a child get their life back. To do this, trauma therapy focuses on teaching coping tools. These tools help resolve the child’s symptoms of distress and improve their everyday functioning. Other important goals of trauma therapy are to enhance the child’s sense of safety, improve family communication and ensure a child is on track for healthy development.
At Thinking Tree, we can help your child learn both cognitive (thinking) and behavior (body) strategies to treat symptoms associated with trauma and post-traumatic stress. These tools rewire the brain and nervous system. Thus, making stressors and memories less threatening and reducing symptoms.
Therapy for trauma in Maryland is available for children and teens, ages 6 through 18.
The Thinking Tree Psychology Approach to Treatment of Trauma
Change can happen. If you are concerned that your child has experienced trauma or their response to trauma is affecting their everyday life, we can help. Employing Trauma-Focused Cognitive and Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT), we can guide your child down the path of healing and healthy development.
We can help your child:
Reduce negative emotional and behavioral responses to the trauma
Correct unhelpful beliefs and attributions related to the traumatic experience (e.g., a belief that the child is responsible for the abuse)
Learn skills to help them cope with ordinary life stressors
Significantly reduce intrusive thoughts and avoidance behaviors
Help them cope with reminders of the trauma and associated emotions
Reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, disassociation, behavior problems, sexualized behavior, and trauma-related shame
Improve your child’s trust in others
Increase social skills
Develop improved personal safety skills
Become better prepared to cope with future trauma reminders
We can help non-offending parents:
Cope effectively with their emotional distress
Increase skills to respond optimally to and support their children
What is Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) is an evidence-based treatment model designed to assist children, adolescents, and their families in overcoming the negative effects of a traumatic experience. As the most researched and most supported of current treatments for childhood PTSD and trauma, TF-CBT is designed to reduce negative emotional and behavioral responses following child sexual abuse, domestic violence, traumatic loss, and other traumatic events. Children can learn to cope with trauma and integrate coping tools into their lives so that they can move on safely and positively. TF-CBT also helps parents who were not abusive to cope effectively with their emotional distress and develop skills that support their children.
Three primary therapy components of TF-CBT:
Cognitive therapy - This component aims to change behavior by addressing a child’s thoughts or perceptions. Particularly those thinking patterns that create distorted or unhelpful views
Behavioral therapy - This component focuses on modifying habitual body and brain responses (e.g., anger, fear) to identify situations or stimuli, such as those similar or related to the trauma experience
Family therapy - This component examines patterns of interactions among family members to identify and ease problems.
Who can benefit from Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
Children and teens, ages 3 – 18 years old (or older ages if cognitive functioning is in this age range)
Children with known trauma history – single or multiple incidences
Children with prominent trauma symptoms, as mentioned above
Children with symptoms of PTSD
Children who show behavioral problems, including age-inappropriate sexual behaviors
Children who show elevated levels of depression, anxiety, shame, or other dysfunctional abuse-related feelings, thoughts, or developing beliefs
Children who have a family who is willing to be involved: symptoms can improve in the absence of caregiver involvement. But, children and teens tend to do the best in treatment when a parent/caregiver is involved.
Non-offending parents (or caregivers)
If a child displays severe behavior problems, alternative interventions may be needed. Generally, any individual who is having significant behavioral problems or significant safety issues (such as suicidal ideation) should receive services to address those concerns before initiating TF-CBT.
Begin Therapy for Trauma in Severna Park, MD
Your child’s trauma does not need to control their life. Therapy can help your child learn to cope and thrive and be themselves again! Our Severna Park office has caring clinicians who can help. To start your therapy journey, follow these simple steps:
Meet with one of our caring clinicians
Start helping your child get their life back
**Please note: Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is no longer available at Thinking Tree; however symptoms of trauma can present and be treated in many different ways. The treatment approach of one of our caring clinicians may be a great match for your child! Call today to learn more and get started.
Other Mental Health Services at Thinking Tree Psychology
Trauma therapy is not the only service we offer at Thinking Tree Psychology in Severna Park. Thinking Tree Psychology offers a wide range of counseling and therapy to help children, young adults and families thrive. These include anxiety treatment, therapy for young adults, family therapy, ADHD intervention, psychoeducational testing, and pain management support. At this time, we are also offering telehealth therapy services as a convenient, safe way to work with a mental health professional. Please visit our therapy overview page to learn more about additional therapy services. Feel free to visit our FAQ page as well.