How would you know if trauma counselling for children is needed? Often times when we talk about trauma, it is associated with adults because they may in most cases have the language to articulate their trauma as opposed to children who may not have the language to articulate trauma and triggers of trauma. However from the very definition of trauma that it is a response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event that overwhelms an individual and their ability to cope, we can conclude that all individuals including children can experience trauma. Counseling for children can be needed in more circumstances than you think.

Trauma counseling for children

Often times just like in adults ,children can experience trauma in one of two ways or both ways. Directly or indirectly, directly it can be as a result of a child experiencing abuse or bullying of any form, indirectly it can be as a result of witnessing a traumatic event on some one else .

Trauma experienced in childhood can have far reaching implications that  could affect even our adult life. For man we may assume that trauma experienced early on in life may be forgotten over time ,however this is not entirely true. For example with Erikson’s theorisation of the psychosocial developmental stages ,specifically the stage of trust versus mistrust. Where children can learn to either trust the adults and environment around them or learn to mistrust and this can come as a result of events early on in a child’s life, when adults around the child meet the child’s basic needs for survival they can help the child develop a sense of trust where they see the world as a safe place as opposed to when the adults do not meet their needs and that can engender feelings of anxiety, fear and mistrust which are characteristic of trauma.

Trauma in Children

Trauma in childhood can also result in dysfunctional responses, where children can respond to situations either in a very emotionally charged response or they can withhold their emotions by never letting others see their anger, sadness or fear, this learned adaptation may make sense in situations of physical and emotional threats but  they can also affect other aspects of life such as our relationships with others such as friends ,family and later on in life our colleagues and partners.

Trauma counseling for children can be essential

Trauma can also affect the ability to identify, express and managing emotions often resulting in the internalization or externalization of stress reactions which may result in depression, anxiety or anger and may lead to unpredictable emotional responses and behavior.

Trauma counseling for children

Childhood trauma can have a great effect on the development of individuals, it may be easy to overlook a childhood traumatic experience, However they may affect all aspects of life of the child even into adulthood, this therefore makes it important to seek professional help early for your children as opposed to dealing with childhood trauma as an adult.