Treating Trauma
Hannah Green
Treating Trauma
Since the pandemic, more people ask me about my methods of working with trauma.
Trauma occurs when the nervous system gets overwhelmed. This overwhelm takes us into unconscious territory because we are being asked to understand or integrate something that our conscious mind can't yet make sense of.
My long time therapist and mentor Jo Sopko likes to say “the metaphor is always safe.”
I work with trauma using this metaphorical approach and my clients often find this very gentle and effective. A “metaphorical approach” means working with art therapies and Jungian sand tray to address trauma. These methods work so well because they gently create a dialogue between the conscious and unconscious mind, allowing healing to happen naturally and sometimes spontaneously.
This approach also recognizes that although trauma is very difficult it is potentially transformational because it can facilitate and indeed necessitate a dialogue between the conscious and unconscious mind. In short it takes us deeper and can catalyze new growth. Working through it gently takes time.
This old school, Jungian approach to working with trauma is client centered and emphasizes wholeness.
Here are some images of my sand tray (no client trays are included) and a few of the many images I work with.
