How Addressing the Root Cause Can Heal Trauma
Trauma can feel like an ever-present shadow, impacting our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
Let’s explore how addressing the root cause of trauma can help us heal.
We cope with trauma in the best ways we know how, but sometimes, those strategies can leave us stuck. While managing symptoms is important, true healing often involves addressing the root cause of the trauma.
What is the Root Cause?
The root cause of trauma isn't always a single, dramatic event. It can be a complex web of experiences that have been compounded over the years, leaving us feeling unsafe, powerless, or disconnected. This can include:
Single traumatic events: abuse, accidents, natural disasters, violence
Chronic stressors: neglect, poverty, bullying, discrimination
Attachment disruptions: unhealthy or unavailable caregivers
Understanding the root cause isn't about assigning blame but rather about recognizing how these experiences shaped our nervous system and emotional responses.
Why Address the Root?
Focusing solely on managing symptoms can be like treating the leaves of a weed without addressing the roots. It may provide temporary relief, but the underlying issue will persist. By addressing the root cause, we can:
Gain self-compassion: Recognizing the source of our struggles can help us be kinder to ourselves.
Develop healthier coping mechanisms: We can learn new ways to manage difficult emotions and situations.
Empowerment: Understanding the root cause can help us reclaim a sense of control and safety.
How to Address the Root Cause
The first point to consider is that the nature of trauma is emotional. As such, we have to address the emotional part of our mind i.e. the subconscious mind. Mainstream talk therapy primarily engages the conscious part of our mind, which is why it can often take years to experience any breakthrough.
To add to this challenge, the allotted time frame of a psychotherapeutic session is 50 minutes, which is barely enough time to experience any meaningful transformation. In fact, my perspective is that this format is more limiting and debilitating than freeing because it keeps us in suspended animation, anchored to our pain and suffering.
Clinical Hypnotherapy
In my practice, I address these challenges by utilizing the immense transformative power of clinical hypnotherapy and working in an intensive format that is defined in time. Our work together has very defined beginning, middle, and endpoints.
Clinical Hypnotherapy primarily addresses the subconscious mind, i.e., the emotional mind, where the trauma resides. The goal is to revisit and change the meaning we’ve assigned to events that altered our self-concept. Many of these events took place when we were young and couldn’t see things in their true perspective because our mental and emotional faculties were not yet fully developed. Revisiting these events and their meaning, as the adults we are today, we are likely to make a decision about their meaning.
The 15-hour intensive format is divided into three days. The first day is the full intensive day, during which we work for seven and a half hours straight. The second and third days are half-days, during which we address any remaining issues and triggers.
The Road to Healing
Resolving trauma does not have to be a life-long journey. The advantage of the Rapid Trauma Solution program is that, unlike traditional therapy, which primarily engages the rational conscious part of our mind, it engages the subconscious mind, the storehouse of our knowledge, memories, perceptions, and beliefs.
If you’ve been struggling to get the relief you need from conventional therapy, it may be time to look to clinical hypnotherapy for answers. You can set up your free consultation at avinoamlerner.com/apply.
