It took many years of therapy, talking about the traumas in small bits at a time here and there. I never did actual "trauma" therapy; don't even really know what that is supposed to be. Rather, my therapists approached me history as it seemed to come up and impact my present, thus the small pieces a bit at a time. Approaching it that way took forever, but was manageable and relevant to my present which I think made more sense for me. It is very hard work and at time seemed overwhelming, but I'm still here and am in a really good place finally. I can look at that history now and see it as history rather than it invading my present uninvited all the time like it once did. I rarely have symptoms of PTSD now, not to the extent that it is at all problematic, but again, it took me many, many years to get to this point.