Counseling or Talk Therapy aims to provide a safe, confidential opportunity for you to face, understand, and heal from events in your life. If you find that your past experiences or current situation is impacting your mood, your relationships, your behavior, or your abilities to think and concentrate, then you might seek out a counselor whose role is to make you feel safe, supported, and heard. Counseling is intended to get you to the place you want to be in your life.
Would you like to learn more about the after-effects of trauma, including gender differences, coping styles, and trauma’s impact on suicide? Here’s a fact sheet that provides many easy to read charts, and is available in English and French:
A counselor or therapist can help you to process events from your past, to understand current difficulties, and to plan for a hopeful future. Oftentimes, people who have been through traumatic events find themselves experiencing somatic symptoms (physical pain, difficulty sleeping), behavioral effects (jumpiness, inability to complete tasks), cognitive issues (trouble focusing or having intrusive memories/thoughts), or even social and inter-personal problems (trust issues, impatience with loved ones) – and these issues can persist for years following the trauma.
Community trauma, including genocide, is called “historical trauma” and has its own unique effects on community and individual mental health info. This link will take you to a short video on historical trauma and its impacts:
Sexual assault, loss of family members, witnessing a global catastrophe, living with the aftereffects of serious physical injury – these are all situations that can cause long-lasting impacts on a person’s physical and mental well-being, whether a person recognizes the impact or not.
Left unacknowledged and unaddressed, the effects of these types of trauma can be transmitted to younger family members or a new generation, resulting in inter-generational trauma.
A recent article written by a psychologist describes new research on inter-generational trauma, and its impacts on younger members of a community:
Not everyone who would benefit from counseling or therapy will actually seek help, even though such services are widely available and can be very affordable. Sometimes, people don’t realize the extent of the problems they have, or simply don’t acknowledge the trauma that they have undergone. Other people don’t believe that counseling will help them, or they might feel that counseling is not “right for them”. For those who have experienced trauma, seeking help does not mean you are not strong. If you have survived – then yes, you are strong! But most people cannot solve every problem on their own; that’s why we consult financial planners, medical doctors, child-care experts, nutritionists, even dog trainers. A good therapist will provide you with skills so that you can learn how to live a better life, have better relationships, and a healthier future.
Many decades of research show that the benefits of counseling include improvements in mood and coping skills; more satisfying interpersonal relationships; increased work satisfaction; and reduced levels of anxiety and depression.
Counselors
Counselors or therapists have advanced degrees in psychology or counseling, and have undergone many clinically-supervised hours of intensive training before sitting for a licensure exam. Most have been trained in multicultural counseling techniques, and more recent graduates of counseling programs may have been trained more extensively in multicultural competence, incorporating a respect for diverse perspectives and non-Western concepts of healing into their practice.
Many counselors are also now trained to take a trauma-based approach, which means that in addition to focusing on the symptoms that brings a person to counseling, they work to help a person come to terms with the traumatic events. Trauma-focused therapies are especially sensitive to the unique problems of people with post-traumatic stress disorders or mood disorders such as anxiety and depression that arise from past abuse, violence, or grief/loss.
How is trauma, including intergenerational trauma, related to suicide? This US Government resource provides insight about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:
Ever wonder about the mechanism that leads traumatic experiences to produce long-term impacts on individuals? This widely-watched TED talk clearly describes the psychology and neurobiology of PTSD:
Trauma and Healing for Survivors and their Families
Even among close-knit communities of faith, there is often a need for professional help. For trauma survivors, there is much hope for healing through prayer, family, friendship, and community. There is also hope for healing through expert knowledge and professional counseling. Much research has been done on healing and resilience; to learn more about research findings, you may watch this video, which looks at trauma, genocide and healing from a psychological point of view.
Suicide Prevention
As the suicide rate increases in the United States, especially among young people, we need to be aware that there are many ways our community can intervene to help people who might feel sad or desperate enough to consider taking their own lives. If you’d like more information about suicide prevention, please consider watching these slides.
Our Commitment
Global Survivors for Peace is committed to supporting and uplifting survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis, as well as survivors of other genocides. We would be happy to assist you in seeking a licensed counsellor in your locality who will be available to work with you in your journey toward a healthy, more fulfilled, meaningful life.
Experiencing traumatic events does not only lead to depression, disorders or hopelessness. Studies with Holocaust survivors demonstrate long-term resilience and adaptation as well. This link leads to a short TED talk on the resilience and stretnch of genocide survivors: