Trauma Therapy?

What is the difference between trauma therapy and "regular" therapy? I've had around five years of the latter with only moderate success. My main gripe with regular therapy is its neglect of core emotional wounds in favor of an emphasis on "coping skills" and trite behavioral changes.

I have a number of problems resulting from complex developmental trauma. I've been in trauma therapy for about eight months and I'm still not totally clear on how this type of therapy engenders change in core issues. I plan to discuss this with my T, but I'd like to hear more opinions. For those of you who feel you've experienced healing in trauma therapy, how was this was achieved?

That's how i see it too but am viewing 'regular' therapy to be CBT or basic interpersonal or humanistic supportive types of therapy vs explorative types of therapy.

I think it depends on the therapist's modality, training, and beliefs for the most part. Regular vs trauma therapy can mean different things to different clients and therapists.

Personally, I haven't been ready to deal with my trauma stuff yet. But what I do know of therapy is that the coping skill stuff is to build that foundation so when you really get into the tough, trauma work, you have that to help you through it. As for how that healing happens, I haven't gotten to a place where I want to work on it yet.

My personal opinion is that psychoanalytic therapy or even full psychoanalysis is the best what is available for deep wounds from emotional neglect. I think this is also considered regular talk therapy, although it is very different from CBT or any other skill-based therapy. So, my suggestion would be to look for a psychoanalyst.

ETA: not every psychoanalyst would be suitable though - I guess true Freudians (probably some still lurk around) and I think also Lacanians would not be of much help. You would want someone who is influenced by the British object-relations school of thought.

My trauma therapy has been using techniques specific to trauma such as EMDR, Brain Spotting, Somatic Experiencing. With these there is less talk and more attention to the body feelings. The goal is to reduce the emotional/physical impact of things that trigger me. I have found it easier than talk therapy-no need to get into the details of what happened. And faster and more effective than talk therapy. And less inclined for me to get attached to the t. I am a fan.

Thanks. I've read some of your posts on brainspotting with great interest. I've done six or seven sessions of brainspotting with my T. For me, it hasn't been the shaking and crying revelation it seems to be for some. I have an extreme aversion to being vulnerable around others due to being physically punished and ridiculed for showing emotions as a child. I also fear being in touch with my body for this and other reasons. These are both huge hurdles to doing brainspotting successfully. Have you struggled with anything like this, or were you able to seamlessly slip into the brainspotting process right away?

In trauma therapy the therapist has specialist training in the physiological, developmental and psychological effects of trauma. This means they have a much greater understanding about how trauma affects an individual in every area of life. A trauma therapist is much more knowledgeable about techniques to help trauma clients stay grounded and manage physiological and psychological responses to being triggered.
I experienced normal talk therapy for many years, and have now begun therapy with a specialist trauma therapist (also taking into account that much more is known about trauma effects now). The difference is enormous. The trauma therapist is acutely aware of my physiological and psychological state and actively redirects to help me get grounded and stay 'within the window of tolerance'. It feels much safer and far more tolerable than previous therapy.
As kecanoe said, you also don't need to go into the details of the trauma - therapy and change can occur by dealing with the responses without needing to speak about the traumas themselves.s You can if you want to, of course, but it isn't necessary for healing and positive change.

I did an exposure therapy for PTSD. We had to modify it somewhat; it is supposed to be weekly for 12 weeks and I needed to go much more slowly so it was twice a week for about 4 months. It was extremely hard work (I wrote stories about my childhood and then recorded them and listened to them a few times daily and then we talked about that "story" until I could handle it and then on to the next one.) I am very glad I did it; it calmed my PTSD by 85% or so.

Somatic therapy is a good one. There's also schema therapy, transference focus therapy, and internal family systems.

Haven't tried those, but I have so many body memories I basically do somatic therapy within my psychoanalytic therapy. Which I think is a positive thing. Would like to try somatic therapy or brain spotting. Not interested in much else aside from what I do now.

People really do have different views. Like Feileacan, I think psychoanalytic therapy is best for trauma.

I have found schema therapy very helpful. It has a focus on CBT type things with practical exercises about coping with present day life, but it also has a lot of work around recognising early trauma or loss (depending on each person I guess) with a some imagery work and also I think a lot more emphasis on the T relationship that with traditional
CBT, and it is more long term. I have found it very very helpful. Life-changing, in fact.

I'm making progress between 2 T's - one doing EMDR. I feel treating trauma needs lots of things on multi levels and have done other things myself. I'm not a fan of standard CBT " faulty thinking " approach or that nothing is coming from the past , although I know some find it useful. We really are all different.