Trauma comes in all forms and it leaves a scar or impact on your soul.

Some people think of trauma and war time Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or sexual assault come to mind. These are definitely traumatic events and fit the trauma definition. But there are really two “classes” of trauma and the impact they have on each of us can be very different.

Big “T” traumas are those significant events that most people would see as traumatic – witnessing death, going to war, rape or molestation, a car accident, some form of physical injury.

Little “t” traumas are those seemingly small instances where we are beat down but taken individually, don’t seem like all that much and we often brush them off. But, taken in their totality these can be just as significant as a Big “T” trauma, depending on the person. Little “t” trauma might be something like being unfavorably compared to a sibling all your life – you begin to believe you’re not good enough or not worthy of love. Over time these “little wounds” manifest in big ways.

Big “T” and little “t” traumas are traumatic and they impact each of us in different ways. In fact, there are about 10 ways that trauma lingers in our system and we often don’t realize it’s there. Sometimes we act in certain ways as if we’re trying to recreate the original trauma and then “fix it.” Other times we have constant fear or live in a state of “hyperarousal” that looks like ADD but in reality is the manifestation of our trauma. These are just two of the ways trauma can impact a life.

At Counseling & Recovery Partners, we have multiple approaches to reprocessing and resolving trauma. Our clients have successfully reprocessed and “worked through” traumas of many kinds and have found peace of mind and a calmness that was unavailable to them before treatment.