If you’ve experienced trauma—whether recently or long ago—you may carry wounds that aren’t always visible. These wounds can affect your relationships, your physical health, your ability to trust, and how you feel in your own body. What is trauma-informed therapy? It’s a compassionate approach that recognizes how deeply trauma can impact every part of your life—and offers a path toward healing that feels safe and empowering.
What Does “Trauma-Informed” Mean?
Trauma-informed therapy is not a specific technique or method. Instead, it’s a way of practicing therapy that understands the wide-reaching effects of trauma and prioritizes emotional safety, choice, and trust in the healing process. A trauma-informed therapist recognizes that trauma can affect how you think, feel, react, and relate to others—and works with you in a way that honors your pace and autonomy.
This approach is based on five key principles:
-
Safety
-
Trustworthiness
-
Choice
-
Collaboration
-
Empowerment
Rather than focusing only on symptoms, trauma-informed therapy looks at the whole person. Oprah said it best, years ago—it’s not about “what’s wrong with you”, but “what happened to you?”
How Trauma Can Show Up
Trauma doesn’t only stem from a single event like an accident or assault. It can also come from ongoing stressors such as childhood neglect, emotional abuse, discrimination, or medical trauma. You might not even realize something was traumatic until later in life.
Common signs of unresolved trauma include:
-
Anxiety or panic
-
Mood swings or depression
-
Trouble sleeping or concentrating
-
Feeling numb or disconnected
-
Relationship difficulties
-
Physical symptoms without clear medical cause
You may find yourself stuck in patterns you don’t fully understand—or reacting strongly to things that “shouldn’t” feel so upsetting. Trauma-informed therapy can help you make sense of these reactions and gently begin to heal them.
How Trauma-Informed Therapy Helps
At its core, trauma-informed therapy creates a safe, supportive environment where you don’t have to explain or justify your feelings. The therapist respects your boundaries and helps you move at a pace that feels right for you. You’ll learn grounding techniques, emotional regulation skills, and ways to reconnect with your body and your strengths.
Importantly, you won’t be pushed to relive traumatic memories before you’re ready. Instead, the process is centered around you—your comfort, your voice, your healing.
With time, trauma-informed therapy can help you:
-
Understand and reduce symptoms
-
Rebuild a sense of safety and trust
-
Improve relationships
-
Regain confidence and self-worth
-
Feel more connected and in control
You Deserve to Feel Safe and Whole
If you’ve been carrying the weight of trauma, know that healing is possible—and you don’t have to do it alone. Trauma-informed therapy meets you where you are and walks with you gently toward where you want to be.
Whether you’ve just begun to explore your past or have been in therapy before, this approach offers a supportive, empowering way forward—rooted in the belief that you are more than what happened to you. If you want to explore how trauma-informed therapy can work for you, contact me.
About the Author
Sarah Murphy is a therapist specializing in supporting people facing serious illness and major life transitions. She is also a longtime student of the Ageless Wisdom teachings and is dedicated to sharing the Great Invocation as a tool for personal and collective healing.