Childhood Trauma
The Childhood Trauma Field
Trauma experienced during childhood can be particularly potent because, as a child, you are much less prepared to deal with crisis. Strong emotions can feel overwhelming and the crisis you are going through can literally be experienced as life-threatening. The trauma energy field that is created encodes the feelings the way the child felt them – many times as a life-and-death situation. Most of the time, childhood trauma is left unprocessed, and so, an adult, you may be carrying around a life-and-death anxiety or fear that is not fully conscious, but that affects many aspects of your life.
The Emergence of Childhood Trauma
The thing to be aware of with childhood trauma is that it can be carefully and skillfully tucked away by your child self, as a survival mechanism, since you are not equipped to deal with the strong emotions that are generated. It is possible to walk around with trauma symptoms as an adult, from trauma that occurred as a child, and not realize that a problem you are experiencing is stemming from the past. You may think that a specific challenge you have, such as feelings of detachment, or an inability to control angry outbursts, are just "flaws" in you, when in reality, they are symptoms of trauma disorder from something that occurred when you were little.
Triggers for Childhood Trauma
Another thing that can happen with unprocessed childhood trauma is that it can reappear in full force when something happens to you as an adult that triggers the older trauma. So, for example, a certain tone of voice may have a resonance with your childhood trauma. When you experience that tone of voice, even if it is from someone who you know loves you, you can be triggered back into a "time warp" where you begin, at some level, to expect to relive the childhood trauma.
Healing from Childhood Trauma
The premier method for healing childhood trauma is Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT. EFT has the ability to neutralize the trauma energy field so that the past events no longer have the ability to disempower or imbalance you in any way.
Even if you can't remember exactly what happened, EFT can be used to clear the unprocessed emotions. Also, with EFT, there is no need to jump "feet first" right into the trauma; everything is done according to your comfort zone. When administered properly, EFT does not re-traumatize.
Gathering the Gifts
Healing from childhood trauma can have profoundly unexpected results. Having survived something so difficult, especially when you were young and vulnerable, allows you to take the next step – thriving. The gift of healing makes you stronger than you were before you experienced the trauma, and gives you the opportunity to give out to the world not only what you have learned from your healing journey, but also to share the qualities (which you may not have known you had) that allowed you to survive.