Trauma Relief

Dealing with Trauma Naturally

Transform the heavy stones of the past into the building blocks of your resilience.

When life feels unbearable, ground yourself with clever daily plans and fill your life with healthy joy in a science-backed way.

Learn my trauma score

Your gentle guide to emotional health

Thought-out daily plans

Daily plans to support your healing process via strengthening your mental&physical health in combination.

Soothing yoga

A special sequence of yoga sessions with mindful breathing for healing your inner self via the body.

Balancing meditations

Short meditations to cope with daily stress and build a balanced inner center to always return to.

Podcasts for self-discovery

Expert insights for a deeper understanding of yourself.

What is

post-traumatic stress disorder?

Commonly known as PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition developed as a result of a terrifying and disturbing event.

Not every tragic event leads to developing PTSD: out of 82.7% of US respondents exposed to severe events, only around 8.3% were diagnosed with the disorder, according to World Mental Health surveys.

The symptoms of PTSD include flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks, depression, hypervigilance, and avoidant behavior (staying away from potentially triggering events).

Trauma or PTSD?

Trauma and PTSD are often used interchangeably as they share similar symptoms. However, in clinical terminology, they differ in duration:

trauma refers to the immediate response following a terrifying event,
PTSD can only be diagnosed if symptoms persist for at least a month.

Learn your Trauma Score

Science-backed solutions for healing trauma symptoms

Yoga and meditation

The research shows that the combination of physical postures, controlled deep breathing, and mindful meditation can greatly alleviate depression, stress, emotional dysregulation, and anxiety—the common symptoms of PTSD. These practices help the brain focus on the present moment rather than getting carried away by destructive thoughts. Moreover, gentle and slow yoga sessions can help to stop dissociation and, step by step, get back to feeling a body and emotions to the full extent.

Social support group

Knowing that other people are struggling with the same problems makes psychological trauma less of a burden. At social support gatherings, trauma survivors discuss their daily issues with each other, offer a friendly ear to those in the crisis, and share coping strategies that help them overcome problems. It enables you to let the aftermath of trauma go away as you feel less isolated in your experiences of shame, guilt, and anger with compassionate people who understand you.

Be your most loving and caring friend

Listen to the insights from a HeyZen mental health expert and learn how to take care of your mind and body as a trauma survivor.

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podcast 12 min

Self-Care Strategies for Trauma Survivors

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Healthy self-care

Trauma recovery goes much smoother when one doesn’t forget about keeping a normal routine, taking care of one’s body, and working on mental well-being. Those with post-traumatic stress disorder may subconsciously punish themselves for what has happened and deprive themselves of food, hygiene, and the basic joys of life. In this case, it’s necessary to work with a mental health professional who will help you understand that only a perpetrator is to be shamed for a traumatic event. At the same time, you need to learn how to become your own caring and loving companion.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

The research on EMDR shows great results in not only alleviating PTSD symptoms (paranoid thoughts, psychosis, fatigue, impaired social functioning, etc.) but also depression and anxiety. This type of psychotherapy is based on the idea that traumatic memories are stored differently in the brain. That’s why an EMDR psychotherapist aims to engage two brain hemispheres to stop these memories from affecting your life. Using this mechanism of bilateral stimulation, EMDR helps to replace the negative beliefs about oneself, caused by a traumatic experience, and substitute them with the positive ones.

FAQ

1. What’s the difference between trauma and PTSD?

The difference lies in duration: trauma is revealed through hypervigilance, hyperarousal, anxiety, insomnia, etc. occurring right after a traumatic event. If those symptoms last for more than a month and affect daily functioning, one can seek professional help from a trauma specialist to diagnose PTSD.

2. What’s the correct way to heal from traumatic events?

Only around 8% of the US population develops PTSD after a terrifying event, as the psyche has built-in mechanisms for trauma recovery. You can facilitate the process via natural scientifically researched methods that alleviate trauma symptoms: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), yoga with controlled breathing and relaxation techniques, meditations, and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). If the disturbing symptoms don’t calm down within a month and keep affecting one’s life, a mental health professional can prescribe antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications. In this case, natural methods can serve as complementary treatments that allow, in some cases, to decrease the dose of medication.

3. Are there natural ways to heal from trauma?

Yes, the studies reveal that yoga and meditation work great for treating PTSD symptoms in adults. Both practices teach individuals to stay open to their present feelings and thoughts without avoiding them or placing too much emphasis on past and future worries. Also, such a type of psychotherapy as EMDR helped to get rid of PTSD diagnosis in 17 among 20 participants 12–15 weeks after the treatment itself, according to the study.

4. What’s the difference between PTSD and CPTSD?

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) differ in both the nature and duration of the trauma experienced. While PTSD typically results from a single traumatic event, CPTSD arises from prolonged and repeated trauma, often occurring in situations where the victim feels trapped and unable to escape.