The Emotional Impacts of Trauma on Relationships and Connection
Trauma is often discussed in strings of clinical language that the average layman may not be well acquainted with — symptoms, diagnoses, neurobiological changes, and nervous system impacts. These ways of looking at trauma can be very valuable to educate and validate. But they don’t always paint the clearest emotional picture of what trauma actually feels like to live with.
Why Trauma Can Be Difficult to Put into Words
Trauma is often discussed in strings of clinical language that the average layman may not be well acquainted with — symptoms, diagnoses, neurobiological changes, and nervous system impacts.
These ways of looking at trauma can be very valuable to educate and validate. But they don’t always paint the clearest emotional picture of what trauma actually feels like to live with.
There are many subtle ways that trauma presents itself within our lives.
It can influence beliefs about ourselves.
How easily we trust others.
How safe the world may seem.
And how connected we feel within our relationships.
Trauma’s impacts are often deeply personal and difficult to explain.
At Beyond the Labyrinth Counseling, my passion is to help you process your trauma while also helping you feel truly understood within the emotional experience of it as well.
There’s something very powerful about being met right where you are, and then feeling seen and held there.
How Trauma Can Shape our Inner World, Sense of Self, and Connection with Others
Traumatization has a unique impact upon
our bodies,
minds,
spirits,
and
connectedness.
This can create a severance in our ability to commune and connect with our innermost place of the self ( i.e. - our identity and sense of purpose), while also impairing our ability to connect outwards with the world around us.
One can liken this experience to suddenly finding yourself within
the endless labyrinth
with its curving complexities,
contradictions,
and question marks.
There are experiences within this world that sometimes touch our soul so deeply that they leave a lasting imprint upon our bodies and minds.
We feel forever changed.
Yet, we don’t always know what this change means.
How to wrestle and reckon with it.
How to pen a new chapter. Maybe beginning to doubt if the next one is even worth it.
We struggle to look
(beyond)
ever preoccupied with what came
(before)
Within the labyrinth we sometimes find ourselves unreachable by our loved ones and others outside of its walls.
Unable to lay the burdens down which bind us.
Haunt us.
Sometimes there’s comfort within the labyrinth’s isolation.
Here, we may feel safer for a period of time.
But on a long enough timeline, the very isolation that once brought relief can sometimes birth an unwelcome visitor
… a unique degree of despair,
hopelessness,
alienation,
and stagnation.
These emotions, and the darkened headspaces which metastasis from them can slowly gnaw away at the core of our being.
Sometimes leaving us feeling unrecognizable to ourselves.
Parts of us may even feel frozen within the past. Unthawed with time. Seemingly paralyzed.
The world continues to turn as it always has.
Slowly passing us by.
From our dim view
in a dark house
without a name.
And as life continues to move forward … you struggle to feel fully connected or, really, even a part of it anymore.
There isn’t an easy way to quantify the amount of pain you’ve been through.
The amount of times you’ve tried to explain it but the words seem to fall so flat against this deeply intangible wall that’s been resurrected around you.
Others may try to peer through a window within this wall.
Speak advice to you.
Other times? To misjudge or criticize.
Maybe some voices of loved ones, friends, or even strangers have been warm and well-intentioned, but their words never land quite “right”.
How Trauma Therapy Can Help You Reconnect with Yourself and Others
Greetings! My name’s Jessi Mann.
I’m a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Fort Wayne, Indiana with a history of complex trauma.
I’ve walked my own labyrinth’s endless, winding corridors.
I’ve felt the defeat.
Sorrow.
Grief.
Self-Doubt.
Isolation.
The anger inflicted by the dark pools of injustice.
I’ve also learned what it means to TRANSFORM and OVERCOME.
I know what it’s like to step into an unshakeable yet humble confidence.
To find my purpose and truly live it.
To embody radical authenticity without fears of rejection.
To look at the once impassible wall of darkness that life brought to my doorstep.
And shout back at it, “You can’t hold me here any longer! I’m more than my pain and past circumstances. Watch me let the light back in! Watch me blossom … and grow taller than any redwood you’ve ever seen or dared to dream of!”
One of my biggest strengths as a therapist is my capacity to truly empathize with the women who choose to work with me.
And my shared ability to balance nonjudgment with a sensitive tenderness to speak truth to you when you need to hear it the most.
I’m here for the wild ride of it all!
Together, we can work towards mending old traumatic wounds and begin to shed light on the areas you feel stuck within.
So that you can begin to find a way out of your own labyrinth, towards a richer pasture beyond.
There’s purpose & hope which can be born from the adversity we have overcome!
Curious about a therapy that can help you process trauma?