What to Expect from Trauma Therapy Services in St. Louis

When your child or teen seems anxious, angry, or stressed, it’s always challenging as a parent, especially when things aren’t getting better no matter what you try.

When you combine that with underlying trauma or traumatic stress, the blame can start to set in. Should you be doing anything differently? Are you making the problem worse? Could you have even prevented this trauma from happening?

Parents often blame themselves when kids are acting out, or when kids have experienced trauma. And they worry about making the best choices to help.

Our therapists at Compassionate Counseling St. Louis want to help answer any questions you have about starting trauma therapy. We know how overwhelmed with questions our parents, and even kiddos, can be starting something new which is why we’re here to help put you at ease by sharing some expectations when starting trauma therapy.

Samantha Ferrarra, Certified TF-CBT therapist

At Compassionate Counseling St. Louis we have a great team of therapists dedicated to helping kids, teens, and college students learn more about managing their anxiety and anger, including our certified Trauma Focused (TF)-CBT therapists.

Trauma can present itself in many shapes and sizes.

It might even show up in the way your child responds—maybe, they used to respond rationally and thoughtfully, and now their responses are quick, ill-tempered. Or, you notice changes like acting out at school or having a hard time at bedtime.

Experiencing trauma can have a big impact on your child’s behaviors and reactions. When your child or someone in your family has experienced trauma or grief, the entire family can be effected and left to face the challenges and struggles that come. It can be a really hard time for you and your child or teen.

Trauma doesn’t have to have a hold on reactions and feelings forever. Trauma therapy in St. Louis can help.

In trauma therapy, we can never really take away the trauma that occurred, but we can give your child or teen the space to process and learn about the trauma and build skills to move forward and manage their trauma.

Our therapists use TF-CBT, which stands for Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. TF-CBT is an evidence-based therapy that incorporates a behavioral, emotional, and holistic approach that teaches your child or teen the important skills they need to heal from the traumatic experience.

(Read More: What Is TF-CBT?)

TF-CBT is great because its goals is to help your child or teen cope through the trauma through the development of healthy coping skills which helps to process big emotions and thoughts related to the trauma.

Image Credit: Nathan Dumlao @nate_dumlao on UnSplash

When our therapists use trauma therapy, we incorporate PRAC components, which include starting with psychoeducation, relaxation skills learning and practice, affective expression, and cognitive coping.

During a first session you can expect your therapist to build rapport and just get to know and understand your child, so that a trusting environment can be created. We want to give your child the space to communicate about the traumatic experience so that we can learn about it and they can identify their experience. Often, goals are also identified early on in trauma therapy.

“[We] focus a lot on what motivates clients, and…help them determine their most important goal(s).”

— Molly Shaffer, MA, TF-CBT therapist

Then your therapist can move on to helping your child or teen develop those necessary coping strategies like relaxation or emotional regulation skills. It’s important in trauma therapy that your child learns to cope effectively so that they have a toolkit including different skills to help them with their big emotions.

Once we have this strong foundation of built skills, and we’ve built rapport, trust and comfort, then your therapist can really dig into your child or teen’s trauma story and work on healing - instead of just jumping in to it.

Trauma can often co occur with depression and anxiety, causing your child or teen’s thoughts, feelings, and actions to be guided by the trauma. CBT helps to reframe these unwanted thoughts and feelings to more positive ones, that aligns with the goals identified early on. With trauma, shame and guilt can be present. We want to reframe the current thoughts and feelings, like shame or guilt, so that the trauma becomes something that happened, NOT part of their identity. What’s cool about CBT is that reframing thoughts or feelings can also change behaviors!

In summary, trauma therapy in St. Louis focuses on:

• learning about the trauma and its effects

• helping your child or teen feel validated in their responses

• learning how to implement calming skills when feeling stressed

• be able to better express thoughts and feelings

• recognizing unhelpful thoughts and feelings and work to replace them with more accurate ones

Molly Shaffer, MA, TF-CBT therapist

Do you feel like your child or teen could benefit from trauma therapy services?

We’re happy to help! Schedule a free 15 minute phone consultation here with our intake coordinator to decide the best fit for your child or teen.

Compassionate Counseling St. Louis specializes in anxiety therapy for teens, kids, and college students, along with partnering with parents through parent coaching - basically therapy for parents here in St. Louis. We’re located in Clayton and work with clients throughout the St. Louis region. To schedule a free phone consultation, please use our contact page.