Disclaimer: The following information should not be taken as advice. It is for informational and educational purposes only from my experiences. Please seek pieces of training or supervision from qualified personnel. Also, I am not associated with any of the external links.
I know that processing trauma can be daunting for both therapist and client. Moreover, it can be harmful or ineffective if done before skills learning to help cope with difficult emotions (or numbness) that come with talking about the trauma(s). For this reason, I thought I would share a list of interventions/skills to consider.
I recognize that most of the following interventions will be focused on relaxation, though some do touch on self-care or cognitive interventions. Here's why:
Personally, my biggest concern is not to challenge intrusive/unhelpful thoughts , but rather the behaviors and habits of disassociation and other aspects of the fight/flight/freeze reaction. In trauma processing, I want to help my clients re-train their brains to not follow the same circuits and treat the trauma as a memory. Unhelpful or intrusive thoughts will be easier to challenge in a relaxed body. Consider reading The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk for more information.
Mindfulness of Bodily Sensations and Thoughts /Re-Building Connection to Body
First, I try to help client's do body scans. I typically start by pulling up a picture of an outline of a person. Then, I label different parts of the body with words like muscle tension, thoughts, heart rate, temperature, breathing, appetite, heaviness (ex. sinking stomach or heart), overall energy, etc. I go through a few examples of how these can change with various emotions. Then, repeatedly in various sessions, I help clients do body scans to identify these sensations and tie them to an emotion, especially if they struggle with numbness and disassociation.
Second, I might also have my clients practice things like mindfulness of the five senses when eating, drinking, sitting, etc. I simply want to help them strengthen that mindfulness skill.
Therapist Aid Interventions
Self-Care Assessment (Link Here)
Urge Surfing: Distress Tolerance Skill (Link Here)
DBT Distress Tolerance Skills (Link Here)
DBT Emotion Regulation Skills (Link Here)
Coping Skills: Anxiety (Link Here)
YouTube Videos
Square Breathing Video
https://www.youtube.com/embed/dJq82z4z_To
The Body Scanner! Mindfulness for Children
https://www.youtube.com/embed/xLoK5rOl8Qk
DBT TIP/TIPP Skill
https://www.youtube.com/embed/UuvH_j9O0f4
DBT Self Soothe Skill
https://www.youtube.com/embed/CwnHez9TC6c
DBT Mindfulness of Current Emotion
https://www.youtube.com/embed/NECs97k_8Z4
Self-Care Action Plan
https://www.youtube.com/embed/w0iVTQS8ftg
Thank you for reading and I hope something was helpful!
Please browse this website for more resources and books for social workers and mental health professionals!
Click below to read:
Please let me know what kind of articles you’d like to see in the future! Check me out on Instagram @eagersocialworker for post updates!