Defining trauma

Trauma refers to a deeply distressing or upsetting experience that overwhelms a person’s ability to cope. It’s defined as “exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence.” There are lots of examples of trauma, from childhood physical and sexual abuse, to natural disasters, to motor vehicle accidents , to combat, to domestic violence and more. Fortunately, for individuals who have experienced trauma, there are many effective treatments that the therapists at Gabriel Counseling Services provide including Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Prolonged Exposure (PE), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for trauma (ACT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).