What is considered childhood trauma?
Childhood trauma is any event that happens during childhood that is real, or perceived as real, that is scary or upsetting to the child. It can be a one-time event, or events that happen over days, months or years. Most of us understand that abuse is traumatizing, but we must also realize that things like a child believing the parent’s divorce is his or her fault, for example, is also traumatizing.
You may have experienced a very traumatic event in childhood, like sexual abuse, loss of a parent, or a severe injury. But many of us experienced what some experts are calling Complex-PTSD. This is trauma that happened over a longer period of time. Here are some examples.
- Divorce
- Moving a lot
- Extreme poverty
- Neglect
- A narcissistic parent
- Alcohol or drug abuse in the family
- Sibling Abuse
- Living in a country where you don’t speak the language
- Bullying
- Not fitting in with a peer group
- Differing beliefs from your family members
How does childhood trauma affect health?
Most of our parents did the best they could with what they had, which may have been their own childhood trauma. But, every child experiences some degree of trauma. The problem comes when you don’t have healthy outlets for your emotions. If you have a parent that allows you to speak your mind, or if you have someone that listens to you without judgement or criticism, you may be a lot healthier emotionally.
Those of us that didn’t feel in control of our environment and felt emotions were not safe to feel, suppressed our emotions, thinking we could ignore them or hide them.
But, emotions are energy and thoughts are energy. If you don’t express them in a healthy, conscious way, the body will express them in an unhealthy, unconscious way. Your subconscious mind wants to keep you safe from harmful feelings, so your body creates health symptoms to distract you from your scary emotions. It reasons, “Oh, thinking about being teased as a child is really humiliating. Let’s go with some hip pain that will keep you from being active and keep you searching for solutions to the pain. Then you won’t have time to think about that childhood embarrassment.” Or, “Wow, mother was really critical, and thoughts of being not good enough feel shameful. Instead, we’ll go with chronic migraines that will keep you from getting together with friends that may judge you. That will keep you safe.”
Your subconscious has the best intentions, but there are better ways to finally express those emotions and feel safe.
What are safer ways to uncover and heal childhood trauma?
If you’ve had severe traumatic events, or revisiting emotions feels too overwhelming, meeting with a qualified therapist that deals with severe trauma is best.
On the other hand, if you have had lower t trauma, like some of the examples listed above, you can meet with a coach, like me, or adopt some healthy practices to begin healing yourself.
Healthy practices to heal lower-t trauma
1. Guided meditation
2. Free writing
3. Education about the mind/body connection
4. Self-love practices
5. Affirmations and thought re-framing
6. Support from other survivors in a group or online community
7. Using your intuition and setting boundaries
All of these practices are in my upcoming group program, Empath Reboot. To find out more information, go to my website here. By learning about your trauma, and learning healing practices, you can reduce or eliminate chronic health symptoms that doctors haven’t been able to help you with.
I offer many free and paid resources. You don’t have to feel alone.
Join my Facebook group, Rebooting Health For Empaths to get a free e-book on 10 Ways To Get More Energy. If you are wanting to start a morning routine that can help you improve energy and other healthy habits, I have a mini course called, Transformational Morning Routine For Empaths. You can check that out and my other coaching programs here.
