Talking about Trauma won't heal you

Therapy in a Nutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Education, Health & Fitness:mental Health, Self-improvement

4.8 • 657 Ratings

🗓️ 22 March 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn the skills to Regulate your Emotions, join the membership: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership Talking about trauma doesn’t heal trauma. For a lot of people, it makes them feel much worse especially if you have PTSD. This is one thing that sets human brains apart from animals. When we visualize something, whether it’s a past trauma or a worry about the future, we perceive danger. And our brain triggers the same physiological reaction to perceived danger as it does to real danger. It triggers that cascade of stress chemicals that kick off the fight/flight/freeze response. Instead, I'm going to teach you an approach from narrative therapy, where you heal from trauma and PTSD by writing a new story, exploring how you trauma narratives impact you in the present moment and how to replace them with a practical visualization exercise. Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell Sign up for my newsletter: https://www.therapyinanutshell.com Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger Institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to another episode of the Therapy in a Nutshell podcast. I'm Emma McAdam and I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist.
0:07.0	And this podcast is all about taking the life-changing, but usually kind of complicated topics of therapy and boiling them down into simple, easy-to-understand concepts that you can use in your daily life.
0:19.0	If you find today's episode is helpful to you,
0:21.0	please pass it on to someone else who could benefit from it as well. Each podcast episode
0:24.8	comes from a corresponding video you can find on the Therapy in a Nutshell YouTube channel.
0:29.2	Also, these podcasts are educational and don't replace the advice or direction you may be receiving
0:34.1	from a therapist or other health professionals. Now please enjoy the episode.
0:38.3	Talking about trauma doesn't heal trauma. For a lot of people it makes them feel much worse.
0:44.3	And this is one thing that sets human brains apart from animals. When we visualize something,
0:49.3	whether it's past trauma or a worry about the future, we perceive danger. And our brain triggers the same
0:56.0	physiological reaction to perceived danger as it does to real danger. It triggers that
1:01.7	cascade of stress chemicals that kick off the fight-flight freeze response.
1:05.0	In the moment you bring it to mind, you are physically in your body reliving trauma and the more you think
1:11.8	about it the easier it is to get stuck in the fight flight freeze response so
1:16.3	rehashing trauma can actually reinforce the trauma making the fear and the panic
1:20.8	and the shame pathways in the brain thicker and stronger and making you feel
1:25.0	worse so in this video we're gonna talk about another way to process through trauma.
1:29.3	And it uses the exact same pathways in your brain that were previously keeping you stuck in flashbacks or in re-experiencing trauma.
1:37.3	And at the end, I'll give you an example, visualization exercise to show you how it's done.
1:42.3	Now, when I say that talking about trauma
1:47.5	doesn't heal trauma what I mean is that just talking about trauma won't heal it
1:52.4	and I'm not opposed to talk-based therapies they do serve a role but you can't
	...

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