Patty Dumont

This is an approach often used and assists clients in learning to manage difficult emotions as well as emotional regulation. Emotions can be rather complex and understanding that allows for individuals to develop emotional intelligence. So many live in a world of emotion being anger, sadness, happy, or fear. I often work with clients in really examining emotions as if they were peeling layers of an onion because under their anger for example, may be disappointment or even betrayal which are very different emotions than anger, thus coping with that emotion may be very different. Many of us were not taught the complexity of emotions. I will say even doing this work for as long as I have and understanding the complexity, at times, I find it takes me a bit before the "lightbulb" goes off that I understand the root emotion I am experiencing. Anger is a safe emotion but it is simply an iceberg, where underneath the water is emotions that are much more painful and difficult to face/cope with

There are a variety of approaches that are effective in healing from trauma. I think there are many factors to consider with any approach as well as what the trauma involves. Sometimes processing in the way this is asking would require one to "relive" the events as part of the processing. There are other ways in which trauma can be managed with a client have to bring up every painful detail they likely have spent years suppressing. It is so important for therapists to assess the type of trauma as well as supportive factors that clients may have. Understanding how a client can manage "processing" is the first concern. I always insure clients understand and can utilize grounding techniques. Sometimes sessions need to be more than 1x per week for a short time. I think a good analogy is trauma is a wound. A wound that over time has at least scabbed over. When you reopen that wound, you need to be able to open it and get it bandaged back up all in a 50 min session. I always insure that clients have someone who will see if the start to "bleed" through the bandage between sessions as it can be harmful and unsafe to take a client back to a trauma if the can not manage things that may reemerge like flashbacks. There are many other modalities such as EMDR which can be very effective.