Survivors of Abuse
Collaborative Therapeutic Services When it comes to surviving an abusive relationship, however, ensuring your physical safety and emotional freedom is only the first step in your long term recovery. Once you are safe, and ready to begin your recovery, a trained and licensed therapist can help you on the long road to emotional stability.
Whether the abuse was recent or occurred long ago in your past, abuse can—and nearly always does—leave long-term and lasting psychological wounds, wounds that can be just as debilitating as a physical injury and just as difficult to heal. Anxiety, depression, flashbacks, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anger, self-harming behavior, and substance abuse are just a few of the potential long-term consequences of living with and coping with abusive behavior. Building trust, developing meaningful relationships, and finding happiness all become exceedingly difficult after surviving an abusive relationship.
The good news is that help is available. When you are ready, finding a qualified counselor with experience working with survivors of abuse will play a critical step in your recovery.
Defining Abuse
Loosely defined, abuse is a misuse of power within a relationship, with the intent of harming or controlling another person. Abuse can be physical, emotional, and/or verbal and can cause both physical and psychological distress. The most common types of abuse include:
Physical abuse: deliberately causing physical harm to establish and maintain control
Sexual abuse: any form of sexual contact that does not involve consent
Emotional and/or psychological abuse: a chronic pattern of verbal and emotional manipulation, including verbal attacks, isolation, threats, and gaslighting
Financial abuse: using money to gain control over another individual, including taking or selling property without permission
The context of abuse is also important. The most common types of contexts in which abuse is likely to happen include:
Domestic abuse (intimate partner violence / spousal abuse): this includes any abuse occurring within an intimate relationship, and is the most common type of abuse in the United States
Elder abuse: the neglect, exploitation, or intentional harm of an elderly individual; in these cases, the abuser is usually in the position of acting as a caregiver for the elder
Child abuse: the neglect, exploitation, or harm of a child under the age of 18
It is important to note that these lists and definitions are illustrative only, and not meant to be comprehensive. Abuse can happen to anyone, in any context, and in a variety of ways; multiple forms of abuse can and often are occurring simultaneously. Indeed, the varied and wide-ranging nature of this problem can make it especially difficult to recognize, escape, and survive.
Therapeutic Techniques for Survivors of Abuse
At its heart, therapy is a safe, non-judgmental space specifically designed to enable you to express and process all of the difficult emotions that abuse survivors carry with them. For some abuse survivors, simply finding this safe space to talk about your emotions may be enough to help you manage your feelings and begin the healing process. For others, more specialized techniques may be required to facilitate the processing of painful and difficult memories.
Specialized techniques that have proven especially helpful for many abuse survivors include:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: your counselor or therapist will help you verbalize your feelings and emotions in order to guide you through the healing process. The goal of this technique is to break down overwhelming problems into smaller, manageable parts. Tackling these smaller issues one-by-one makes it easier to overcome the cycle of negative thinking and reestablish feelings of control and self-esteem.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). EMDR utilizes eye movements to identify painful memories so you can begin to process those memories differently. EMDR literally unblocks our own natural self-healing capabilities, allowing you to be empowered by—not overwhelmed by—memories of abuse at the base of emotional distress.
Neurolease™. This new techniques also promotes self-healing by reestablishing a healthy connection between the body’s “fight, flight, or freeze” response and the “relax, repair, and restore” response. Neurolease™ does not require verbalization but combines the expertise of a trained therapist and massage therapist to promote feelings of safety, control, and relaxation.
NEED HELP?
Collaborative Therapeutic Services (CTS) wants to help. We offer a variety of counselling and therapy services, hours, and service providers with diverse specializations. We offer evening & weekend appointments. Have questions? Contact Us Here or Call 813-951-7346. Located in Tampa, Florida.
Ask us about our new NEUROLEASE™ TREATMENT THERAPY - A cutting edge treatment for releasing toxic emotions.