Author: Christina Bogdanova

Psychological trauma is the response of the mind, body, and nervous system to an experience so terrifying, threatening to physical integrity, or life-endangering, that the system becomes overwhelmed and unable to cope. Trauma is not the threatening event itself, but the individual’s reaction to it—whether it is personally experienced, happens to a loved one, or is witnessed.

When Does Psychological Trauma Occur?
Trauma arises when a person loses control in a traumatic situation and cannot prevent or escape the threat—whether due to natural disasters, accidents, or human violence. If the person manages to avoid the threat or reduce its negative consequences, trauma does not occur. Thus, trauma results from an experience that exceeds the individual's capacity to process and regulate the stimuli of the event.

Consequences of Trauma
Trauma leads to a loss of connection with oneself and one’s body, with others—affecting interpersonal relationships—and with life, narrowing or even halting curiosity, motivation for growth, and the ability to experience joy, pleasure, and fulfilment. Psychological and psychosomatic symptoms may develop, sometimes to the extent that they impair daily functioning and diminish vitality and psychological resilience. Acute stress disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may develop, sometimes co-occurring with other psychological and/or physical conditions.

Key Aspects of Trauma Therapy
The main goal in trauma therapy is to restore or improve quality of life, by overcoming and processing the negative effects of trauma on present-day experience. Trauma therapy focuses both on trauma recovery and the integration of traumatic memories and helps with:

• Achieving conscious, structured, and fulfilling daily functioning—through resourcing, goal setting, and reintroducing pleasure;
• Recognising triggers and managing symptoms—restoring a sense of control, reconnecting with personal strength and coping capacity, and completing blocked bodily responses;
• Accepting trauma as a defining, but not determining, experience—developing self-acceptance, overcoming shame and guilt, cultivating compassion, self-regulation, empowerment, and realistic self-assessment;
• Improving interpersonal relationships—trust, boundaries, and healthy assertiveness;

Recovery and Trauma Processing
Trauma recovery is considered achieved when several criteria are met. Symptoms are significantly reduced or fully manageable (e.g. dissociation, flashbacks, anxiety attacks, panic attacks, sleep or eating dysregulation). The individual is able to differentiate between triggers and the original trauma, and fulfil their life roles. There is a marked improvement in stress management and a measurable enhancement in quality of life.

Therapeutic work to achieve this includes: orientation to reality; sensory and emotional tolerance and regulation; grounding, centring, and balance; establishing and accessing inner resources; developing healthy interpersonal connections; and placing focus on post-trauma life events.

Several indicators show when a traumatic memory has been processed. The memory no longer triggers arousal, defensive responses, or symptoms. Related symptoms either disappear or occur infrequently and can be quickly regulated. Avoidance behaviours—of places, people, objects, etc.—linked to the trauma no longer dominate. The person demonstrates full engagement with life and recovers from everyday stress with relative ease.

Deep Therapeutic Transformation
This process involves transforming one’s relationship to and acceptance of the traumatic experience, including discovering meaning; reclaiming strength, control, and the ability to process and retain information; integrating fragmented elements of the experience; completing blocked movements or emotions; and achieving a sense of wholeness, safety, and closure.

Theoretical Foundations of the Subject ‘Working with Trauma
The subject "Working with Trauma" is based on the professional integration of theoretical frameworks, therapeutic principles, and tools drawn from:

• The Therapy of the Five Movements (a Neo-Reichian analytic body psychotherapy method),
• Somatic Experiencing (a neurophysiological trauma-healing method),
• Somatic Trauma Therapy (a body-oriented trauma approach),
• NeuroAffective Touch (a psychotherapeutic method for treating early developmental trauma through touch),
• Research in neuroscience and the work of therapists using other trauma-informed, body-centred approaches.

The course explores—both theoretically and practically—topics including trauma theory and principles of trauma work, the neurophysiology of trauma, and defence mechanisms. Trauma is clearly defined, and the three-phase trauma treatment model—considered the gold standard—is introduced. The course also covers: planning the therapeutic process; criteria for effectiveness across phases; differentiation between stress, traumatic stress, and post-traumatic stress; acute and post-traumatic stress disorders.

Students explore what happens in the brain, and in the autonomic and sensory nervous systems. The structure and functions of memory are examined, including how traumatic memories are formed and the principles of working with traumatic memory. Symptoms, neurophysiological and psychological defence mechanisms, resistance, and adaptive behavioural strategies are addressed—often more informative than verbal narrative and a valuable guide for the therapist—along with how to recognise, understand, and therapeutically work with them.