Talking About Childhood Trauma: Tips and Ideas

it’s mainly hard for me to talk about the verbal abuse from my dad because nobody really understands, and just tells me they’re sorry, and it makes them feel awkward so i just don’t talk about it at all, but honestly talking about it makes me feel better, and you have to realize holding those memories and feelings in can really hurt you inside, and try your best to open up, even if you start with just a couple sentences. you’ll get there! you got this!

i would say you can try thought diffusion and grounding exercises, and ask your therapist about them and other techniques to help you feel safer when you start talking about this stuff. my therapist and i are moving in that direction too, and she's given me those techniques to start with because they can help ease anxiety that may arise when thinking about traumatic and triggering events, and can also help prevent a full-on flashback. its also alright to be very emotional and confused. that makes complete sense - abuse and all the feelings we can have about it can be complicated... i think its important to work up to the full expression of what happened and how you felt and feel about it, and how it affects you presently - it's not something that will or even needs to be easy at first. talking about it that comprehensively will likely be very intense, but the goal of your treatment isn't to flood you with all of that in a compressed span of time, it's definitely something that will take patience and self-compassion, and i think your therapist understands that too, so tru to release whatever pressures you may have on yourself, and try to cultivate tools to keep you feeling safe enough to share all that needs to be shared. 💚.