ABSTRACT

A trauma-informed treatment therefore focuses on recognizing and working in present time with the spontaneous evoking of implicit memory and animal defense survival responses rather than on creating a verbal narrative of past experiences. But since implicit memories encoded in nonverbal areas of the brain are subjectively experienced as emotional and physical reactions not distinguishable as "memory", the first task of therapy is often to help clients recognize and "befriend" their triggered reactions, rather than react to them with alarm, avoidance, or negative interpretations. Many traumatized clients come to therapy with unusually difficult, painful histories: severe childhood physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse, neglect, abandonment at an early age, abuse/neglect coupled with other types of trauma, multiple perpetrators, or sadistic and malevolent abuse accompanied by mind control practices, child pornography, or forced witnessing of violence. In today's trauma treatment world, therapist and client have many more choices when it comes to treating traumatic memory.