It depends on the kind of talk.

There is a press to tell trauma just after the fact, or after the initial numbness wears off. Let people tell it. It's how we warn others and elicit care.

There can be a press to speak when a current situation reminds of trauma. Youngest accountant in the firm dates a new guy and starts looking haggard. The old folks start telling their trauma stories. Domestic violence, cocaine...the girls new guy moves in and their bedtime moves up. She begins to glow and the war stories stop. The old folks tell love stories. See how that works?

I've heard many stories told with a special kind of pressure that seem to heal, or at least transform trauma. I heard a friend, in the telling of how soldiers scared her, suddenly see that they were only teenagers, young boys. She was scared by them as a child, and furious. As a mother, she could feel the humanity of your enemies young scared troubled soldiers. She could expand her generous heart to her enemy. I was honored to be there when it happened.

I've also.seen people doggedly reciting their trauma story, thinking it will heal them. It only makes them self absorbed and (shoot me for saying it) boring.

People may need insight if they hold beliefs like "mommy drank because I wasn't a good helper" or "bit it isn't rape if we have a Christian marriage". If its PTSD without cognitive distorrion, there's no real. To make folks tell it.