Trauma Informed Biographical Timeline
When an individual experiences a traumatic event, and the trauma remains unprocessed, the information related to the trauma tends to be stored in the brain in a way that causes us to feel as though the trauma is still happening or has not gone away. In order to attempt to keep us safe, the brain compartmentalizes the trauma-related information so that it is difficult to access, therefore challenging to process. The brain does not always understand that the information no longer applies, and is now just impacting us in a negative way.
The creation of a Trauma Informed Biographical Timeline (TIBT), is a method of trauma processing, guided by a trained therapist, that can help sort out this “stuck” information. In this method of processing, the therapist, who works closely with the client, explores the events, experiences and difficulties in a person's life. The goal of this work is to look very closely at what are “facts,” versus what are “feelings” or “assumptions.” It is very common that when people are in high stress situations, they may view feelings and thoughts as facts, which result in having a skewed sense of reality and intensified trauma responses.
While gently challenging feelings, by making sure we are not interpreting them as facts can be difficult, by thoughtfully laying out the facts in the Biographical TImeline, it makes the information more manageable to process. In addition, the thorough nature of this experience allows clients to challenge things that they may have considered “insignificant,” or “unrelated,” which leads to a new conceptualization of their traumatic experience. After partaking in the creation and processing of TIBT, clients have been shown to experience and display reduced trauma symptoms.
Jessica, one of the dedicated therapists within Everlasting Wellness LLC, is trained and practicing Biographical Timeline creation with clients. She takes pride in cultivating a safe, supportive environment for clients to do the work needed to recover from painful life events. If you are interested in scheduling with her, please contact our helpful admin team.