Trauma is deeply personal. Furthermore, this is series will be a side of myself that I don’t allow the world around me to see. In this series, I will be sharing the raw and unfiltered inner workings of my mental illness and the affects trauma has had on my life. Maybe it is no different than everyone else’s struggles they have when talking about trauma. Then again, I feel like if I can share a part of my healing then someone can find a way to combat their trauma too.
Mental illness and trauma has changed my perspective and my perceptions of the world around me. The following questions are ones I was asked to complete recently by a trauma therapist. I haven’t had the mental capacity to work through these questions yet. I am supposed to do this trauma work with someone I trust, who understands my feelings and validates them, and who is supportive of my healing. I don’t do anything half ass, so I’ll just lay it out for the world at large. If nothing else, maybe it will help someone else to work through their mental mayhem while keeping me accountable to my own journey to healing.
21 Therapeutic Questions
The following is the list of questions that I was told to answer honestly and not filter out the feelings. These are supposed to be self reflective and help me to understand my needs, my feelings, and promote healing. This is just the starting point as this is my first trauma focused therapy experience for myself.
- How do I feel responsible for the pain and trauma inflicted on me in the past?
- In what ways do I allow the past to negatively affect my present and my feelings about the future?
- Who do I need to forgive and why?
- What experiences have I had with others that I believe I am still suffering from?
- Who has hurt me and why?
- How can I help heal the hurt that I’ve caused others to experience?
- In what ways do I allow my past trauma to manifest in my current reality?
- What behaviors do I exhibit when I am experiencing triggered reactions of past trauma?
- Am I upset with God about something that has taken place in my life? Why?
- Who do I want to as my support system in my life? What’s stopping me from allowing these relationships to be safe?
- How can those around me be supportive?
- How can I establish trust and build a firm foundation in my current relationships?
- What are some things that I like about myself that others have been critical of in the past?
- What do I need help with? Who can I rely on to help when asked?
- If my abuser/perpetrator is still involved in my life what boundaries can I set to protect myself moving forward?
- How can I change my actions and current behaviors to aid in my healing and growth?
- In order to heal from my past what can I do to aid in my recovery?
- What are ten things that I love about myself?
- What are ten things I am good at?
- What do I hope to achieve through therapy?
- Write a letter to myself about everything I feel about myself and let someone close to me read it. Allow them to fact check my self beliefs.
Trauma To Healing
The list of questions that are given is a week’s worth of trauma work. Understanding the response we have to trauma is important. Uncovering the deep rooted affects that trauma has had on how we speak, think, and behave is paramount to reversing the patterns. If we can self reflect and find the facts in the lies and begin changing our thinking we can begin to heal the hurts that have been holding us captive.
Recovery is the goal, but there is no quick fix or magic potion that we can take that will take away what has happened. I’m prepared to work with my trauma therapist to uncover how my own thought and behavior patterns are allowing the past to cling to my present. Grab a journal and join along or just watch the journey of healing. In the meantime, stay positive! We’ve got this! ☮️❤️😊~M follow My Threefold on Facebook!
Thanks for sharing this very important post and advice. the social workers for the agency I volunteered with that helps homeless working families, uses this approach calling it Trauma Informed Care (TIC). The PTSD for a mother (and father) and the children is significant when you lose your home. Yet, about 1/3 of the women were also domestic violence victims, so they left an abusive situation and needed a heavier dose of TIC. To your point, until we can understand the trauma, helping them recover is even harder.
Trauma informed parenting
[…] begin to think, behave, and react in ways that are reflections of that trauma. Yesterday, I gave a list of 21 questions to work through when processing trauma. Today, I will dive into those first three questions. In the […]