When you have experienced trauma, the path to healing rarely follows a straight line. Your nervous system may stay on high alert long after the danger has passed. Memories may intrude when you least expect them. You might find yourself avoiding places, people, or activities that remind you of what happened. These responses are your brain’s way of trying to protect you, but they can make daily life feel exhausting and disconnected.
The good news is that effective trauma treatments exist, and research continues to reveal more about how they work and who they help most. At Mason Family Counseling in Mason, Ohio, our licensed clinicians use evidence-based approaches tailored to each person’s needs, history, and comfort level. Understanding your options can help you take an informed first step toward feeling present in your own life again.
What Makes Trauma Therapy Different from Regular Therapy
Trauma therapy specifically addresses the ways traumatic experiences get stored in the brain and body. Unlike general talk therapy, trauma-focused approaches recognize that trauma is not just a “bad memory” but an experience that changes how your nervous system functions. Your brain may have difficulty distinguishing between past danger and present safety, which is why trauma responses can feel so automatic and overwhelming.
Effective trauma treatment typically moves through stages. The first stage focuses on stabilization and safety, helping you develop coping skills and a sense of control. Only after you have tools to manage distress does processing begin. The final stage involves reconnecting with life, relationships, and activities that matter to you. This phased approach prevents retraumatization and builds lasting resilience.
Understanding EMDR Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, commonly known as EMDR, has gained significant attention as a trauma treatment since its development in the late 1980s. The approach uses bilateral stimulation, typically eye movements following the therapist’s hand, while you briefly focus on traumatic memories, associated feelings, and body sensations.
How EMDR Works
EMDR operates on the theory that traumatic memories become “stuck” in the brain’s processing system. Normally, your brain processes experiences during sleep and daily reflection, integrating them into your broader life narrative. But traumatic events can overwhelm this natural system, leaving memories stored with their original intensity, complete with vivid sensory details and powerful emotions.
The bilateral stimulation in EMDR appears to help “unstick” these memories, allowing your brain to process them the way it would process ordinary experiences. After successful EMDR treatment, the memory remains but loses its emotional charge. You might remember what happened without feeling like it is happening again right now.
Who Benefits from EMDR
Research published by organizations like the American Psychological Association supports EMDR as an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes EMDR as a strongly recommended treatment for PTSD based on clinical evidence.
EMDR may be particularly helpful if you have clear, specific traumatic memories that continue to intrude. It can work well for single-incident traumas like accidents, assaults, or witnessing violence. Some people appreciate that EMDR requires less detailed verbal discussion of traumatic events than other approaches, which can feel less overwhelming.
Considerations with EMDR
EMDR may not be the best first step for everyone. If you have complex trauma from prolonged or repeated experiences, especially in childhood, you may need more stabilization work before beginning memory processing. EMDR also requires the ability to tolerate brief, intense emotions as memories are activated. Your therapist should conduct a thorough assessment to determine if EMDR is appropriate for your situation and timing.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Trauma
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, remains one of the most widely researched and utilized approaches for trauma treatment. Trauma-focused CBT specifically adapts the broader CBT framework to address the unique patterns that develop after traumatic experiences.
How Trauma-Focused CBT Works
CBT is based on the understanding that thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are interconnected. After trauma, you may develop beliefs that feel true but actually reflect the distorted processing of traumatic events. You might believe the world is completely unsafe, that you are fundamentally damaged, or that what happened was your fault. These beliefs, though understandable, can keep you stuck in suffering.
Trauma-focused CBT helps you identify and examine these stuck beliefs. Your therapist guides you in gathering evidence, considering alternative perspectives, and developing more balanced ways of understanding what happened and what it means about you, others, and the world. This is not about positive thinking or denying reality but about updating your mind’s automatic conclusions.
Components of Trauma-Focused CBT
The approach typically includes psychoeducation about trauma responses, which helps normalize what you are experiencing. Understanding that your reactions are common responses to abnormal events can reduce shame and self-blame. Cognitive restructuring addresses distorted thinking patterns, while exposure elements help you gradually face avoided situations or memories in a controlled, supportive way.
At Mason Family Counseling, clinicians often combine trauma-focused CBT with grounding skills and distress tolerance techniques drawn from Dialectical Behavior Therapy. This combination provides both the cognitive tools to change stuck thinking and the practical skills to manage overwhelming emotions when they arise.
Who Benefits from Trauma-Focused CBT
Research strongly supports CBT for PTSD and trauma-related conditions. The National Institute of Mental Health identifies cognitive behavioral approaches among the most effective treatments for PTSD. CBT may be especially helpful if you notice that your thoughts keep you trapped in fear, guilt, or shame. It provides clear, practical skills you can apply between sessions and continue using long after therapy ends.
Somatic Approaches to Trauma
While cognitive approaches focus on thoughts and beliefs, somatic approaches recognize that trauma lives in the body as much as in the mind. After traumatic experiences, your nervous system may remain dysregulated, keeping you in states of hyperarousal (anxiety, hypervigilance, difficulty relaxing) or hypoarousal (numbness, disconnection, fatigue). Somatic therapies work directly with these bodily patterns.
How Somatic Therapy Works
Somatic approaches help you develop awareness of physical sensations, including tension patterns, breathing changes, and areas of numbness or holding. Rather than analyzing thoughts, you learn to notice what is happening in your body moment to moment. This awareness itself can be healing, as many trauma survivors have learned to disconnect from physical sensations as a protective mechanism.
Somatic therapists guide you in releasing stored tension, completing defensive responses that were interrupted during traumatic events, and building capacity to tolerate physical sensations without becoming overwhelmed. The work might include gentle movement, breathwork, or simply bringing curious attention to what you notice in your body.
Types of Somatic Approaches
Somatic Experiencing, developed by Peter Levine, focuses on releasing trapped survival energy through a process called titration, which involves approaching traumatic material in small, manageable doses. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy integrates body-focused interventions with traditional talk therapy. Even mindfulness practices, when applied to trauma treatment, often include a somatic component, teaching you to observe physical sensations with compassion and without judgment.
Who Benefits from Somatic Approaches
Somatic approaches may be particularly valuable if you notice physical symptoms related to your trauma, such as chronic pain, digestive issues, or tension that will not release despite relaxation efforts. They can help if you feel disconnected from your body or struggle to identify emotions. Some people find that talking about trauma does not seem to shift their stuck patterns, but body-based work creates movement where words could not.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Trauma
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, offers another evidence-based option that has shown promise for trauma-related conditions. Rather than focusing primarily on reducing symptoms, ACT emphasizes living a meaningful life even while difficult experiences and emotions are present.
The ACT Approach to Trauma
ACT teaches psychological flexibility, the ability to stay present, open up to difficult experiences, and take action aligned with your values. For trauma survivors, this might mean learning to notice intrusive memories without getting pulled into them, accepting that some distress may be part of your experience while still moving toward what matters, and reconnecting with the values that trauma may have obscured.
The approach does not ask you to like your symptoms or pretend they do not bother you. Instead, it helps you change your relationship with difficult experiences so they have less power over your choices and actions.
Choosing the Right Approach for You
With multiple effective options available, how do you know which approach might work best for your situation? Several factors can guide this decision.
Consider Your History and Symptoms
If you have single-incident trauma with intrusive memories, EMDR or prolonged exposure may work efficiently. Complex trauma from prolonged or repeated experiences often requires more stabilization work and may benefit from phased approaches that combine elements from multiple modalities. If cognitive patterns like guilt, shame, or distorted beliefs dominate your experience, trauma-focused CBT addresses these directly.
Consider Your Preferences
Some people want to talk through what happened and understand it from new perspectives. Others prefer less verbal approaches. Some want structured homework and clear skills to practice. Others need more space to process at their own pace. Your preferences matter because you are more likely to engage fully with an approach that fits how you process information and experience the world.
Consider Your Therapist’s Training and Fit
The relationship with your therapist often matters as much as the specific technique used. A skilled clinician will conduct a thorough assessment and recommend approaches based on your individual needs. They will explain their reasoning and involve you in treatment decisions. And they will adjust the approach based on your response and feedback.
What to Expect from Trauma Therapy at Mason Family Counseling
At Mason Family Counseling, trauma treatment begins with careful assessment of your history, symptoms, and goals. Our clinicians use a phased approach that prioritizes stabilization first. You will develop grounding skills and coping strategies before any processing work begins.
Treatment draws from multiple evidence-based approaches, including trauma-focused CBT, DBT-informed skills for distress tolerance, ACT for reconnecting with values, and mindfulness and somatic strategies for nervous system regulation. This integrative approach allows your therapist to tailor treatment to what you need at each stage of healing.
Sessions are paced to your comfort. You will not be forced to share more than you are ready to share or move faster than feels safe. Many clients begin with weekly sessions and taper frequency as skills strengthen and symptoms decrease.
Ohio Resources for Trauma Support
Beyond individual therapy, additional resources can support your healing journey. The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services provides information about programs throughout the state. Local support groups offer connection with others who understand trauma experiences firsthand.
If you are in crisis, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline provides free, confidential support 24 hours a day. You can call or text 988 to speak with a trained counselor. For emergencies, call 911.
Taking the First Step
Deciding to seek help for trauma takes courage. You do not need a formal PTSD diagnosis to benefit from trauma therapy. If traumatic experiences are affecting your daily life, relationships, sleep, or sense of safety, you deserve support.
Mason Family Counseling offers trauma therapy at two convenient locations in Mason, Ohio, with telehealth available throughout the state. Our team verifies insurance and explains costs before your first visit so there are no surprises.
To schedule your first appointment, contact our Cedar Village Drive office at 513-548-3725 or our Tylersville Road office at 513-548-3650. You can also visit our contact page to request an appointment online. Our clinicians are ready to help you begin reclaiming your life from trauma’s grip.