If you’re a survivor of abuse and violence, you can benefit from allowing yourself to process the trauma memories when you are ready. The threat of abuse and violence may have happened to you as a child or more recently, and these traumatic experiences are stored in your body and mind. 

Types of abuse and violence include, and are not limited to:

• Sexual abuse (rape, coerced sexual acts, incest, harassment…)
• Physical abuse (intentional physical injuries, mutilation…)
• Emotional abuse (psychological manipulation, gaslighting, blackmailing…)
• Stalking 
• Human trafficking (labor or sexual exploitation through force or deception…)
• Domestic violence (violence between members in intimate relationships, homicide…)

You may have survived the actual violent event, but you notice these childhood trauma or recent violent memories start to creep into your life. You might notice they haunt you in flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks, and unmanageable emotions.

Your mind and body store these violent memories to preserve your present survival and keep your daily function. However, if they continue to be left unprocessed for prolonged periods, you may start to experience depression, hypervigilance, anger, difficulty focusing or dissociation, to name a few trauma responses.  You may benefit from therapy to process these trauma memories in a safe environment. This allows your mind and body to reprocess and release the complex trauma memories. In doing so, you may be able to remember the traumatic experiences as an event that occured in the past, acknowledge your resilience, live a fulfilled life and thrive.