What can trauma stem from?

Trauma can stem from various events and experiences, including abuse, severe illness, natural disasters, divorce, or the death of a loved one.

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. It is a psychological treatment approach used to help process trauma.

In EMDR, individuals work with a dedicated psychotherapist and engage in guided therapy sessions where they focus on past traumatic experiences while simultaneously following the therapist's finger or other forms of bilateral stimulation, such as finger tapping or listening to specific tones and sounds.

What is the Polyvagal Theory?

The Polyvagal Theory is a theory developed by Dr. Stephen Porges that explores the role of the vagus nerve in regulating our physiological and emotional responses, particularly in relation to trauma and stress.

What is the goal of incorporating the Polyvagal Theory into trauma treatment?

The goal of incorporating the Polyvagal Theory into trauma treatment is to help individuals develop a greater understanding of their own physiological responses to trauma, cultivate self-compassion, and enhance their ability to regulate their emotions and nervous system, ultimately facilitating the healing process.

What is the Stress Response Theory?

It proposes that there are five main stages that occur in the process of adapting and processing trauma: outcry, denial, repetition, working through the trauma, and completion.

What are the five stages in the Stress Response Theory?

The five stages in the Stress Response Theory are: - Outcry: This stage involves an initial emotional and physical response to the traumatic event. - Denial: In this stage, individuals may try to ignore or minimize the impact of the trauma, denying its significance. - Repetition: The repetition stage involves re-experiencing aspects of the trauma through memories, flashbacks, or recurring emotions. - Working through the trauma: In this stage, individuals actively engage in processing and understanding the trauma, often with the support of therapy or other interventions. - Completion: The completion stage represents the resolution of the trauma, where individuals are able to integrate the experience into their lives and move forward.

What is Brainspotting?

Brainspotting is a therapeutic approach used to help individuals process and resolve trauma, as well as identify underlying traumatic events. It involves analyzing and working with the individual's eye movements to access and process trauma-related memories and emotions.

How does Brainspotting work?

During a Brainspotting session, the therapist guides the individual's attention to specific eye positions, known as "brainspots," which are associated with the activation and processing of traumatic memories and emotions. By focusing on these brainspots, the individual can access and process the underlying trauma more effectively.

What is Somatic Experiencing?

Somatic Experiencing is a body-centered therapeutic approach aimed at healing and overcoming trauma. It focuses on both emotional and bodily responses to traumatic events. During therapy sessions, young people work with a psychotherapist who guides them through their traumatic experiences, prompting reflection on various sensory and environmental aspects related to the traumatic incident.

What is the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM)?

The NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) is a therapeutic model used to address complex trauma experienced by young people who have been subjected to multiple and severe traumatic events. It focuses on healing disconnections between their child self and adult self, and helps them develop a better relationship with themselves while addressing any distortions or limiting beliefs about their identity.

What are the three 'e's' of trauma?

The three 'e's' of trauma are Events, Experiences, and Effects.

How are the three 'e's' used to determine if someone has experienced trauma?

Professionals use the three 'e's' as a guide to identify and understand trauma in individuals. By examining the event(s) or experiences, and considering the effects, they can assess whether an individual has encountered trauma and its potential impact on their well-being. Understanding the context and factors surrounding the trauma helps professionals provide appropriate support and interventions.

Trauma - thewaveclinic.com

Effective and Compassionate Trauma Treatment in Beautiful Malaysia

Trauma

Think of the word ‘trauma.’ What image does it conjure up? Abuse? Severe illness? Natural disasters? While trauma can stem from all those things, it can also crop up from less intense events like divorce or death of a loved one. Young people with trauma aren’t trying to get attention or act out – they’re simply responding to situations and events that have left them greatly distressed.

More than just a throw-about word, trauma can have a lasting psychological impact. It can cause everything from nightmares and flashbacks to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Young people especially struggle with trauma, making it difficult for them to regulate their emotions and control their feelings.

At The Wave, we know just how difficult it can be to watch a loved one struggle with trauma. You want to help them, but you don’t know how to break through their walls. That’s what we’re here for – to give them the support and treatment they need to recover.

We are here to help

The Wave Trauma Admissions Team can be contacted on:

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The Wave Clinic: Specialists in Trauma
+60 327 271 799 (General Enquiries)
+60 125 227 734 (Admissions)

Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The Wave International Group LLC
+971 438 354 01

The Story of Tea, Hope, and Sparkles

Flowering Tea: How Chrysanthemum Tea Became the Symbol of The Wave’s Trauma Processing Groups for Teens.

It was in the middle of a tropical rainstorm in 2021 when our signature flowering tea was first served in our trauma processing groups.

With eight brilliant young people and a willingness to work together to process some of life’s significant challenges, they gathered over a pot of beautiful yellow chrysanthemum tea.

Together, they examined the dehydrated flower and learned to hold it gently so as not to cause any damage to the fragile petals. They placed it in the delicate glass teapot, inside a special chamber made of glass-within-glass, and laughed as they recounted tales of Cinderella’s sophisticated glass shoe.

They poured on the water, boiled, and then cooled to precision before replacing the lid on their container (creating smart containers is one of the things they are good at).

They took their seats, watched, and waited with patience. There was no point in continuously asking precisely when the flower would bloom. It would happen exactly when it was meant to. There was no point in succumbing to anxiety or impatience; they all knew that, in time, the flower would reveal its beauty.

The gentle warmth, the holding container, and the skill of the tea maker in knowing where and when to place each component meant that they were all rewarded when the yellow petals began to unfurl, one after the other, filling their stormy room with a semblance of sunshine.

The chrysanthemum showed them the way, and they were ready to follow its lead. They believed they could achieve anything their hearts desired with the right recipe.

Treatment for Childhood Trauma

Early childhood trauma refers to traumatic experiences that happen to babies, toddlers, and children up to the age of six. People often think children simply forget about these memories, but trauma is much more complex. The brain can suppress negative experiences, but these memories can easily resurface years later, especially if the trauma is unresolved.

Children react to trauma in different ways, including:

Becoming clingy
Development regression, such as bedwetting or waking up during the night
Complaints of tummy aches and headaches
Fear
Behavioural issues
Shame

Luckily, recovery is possible. Even if you’re only discovering it now, your child can heal from traumatic past experiences. At The Wave, we use a combination of therapy, Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), and a range of alternative therapies to help get your loved one back on track.

Trauma Treatment Options

Recovering from Trauma

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)

The only way for someone with trauma to heal is by addressing and acknowledging the traumatic event or experience that triggered their PTSD in the first place. One of the most popular treatment options for this includes EMDR – a psychological treatment that uses eye movements to help process trauma.

Young people will work with a dedicated psychotherapist and be guided through their past traumatic experiences, all the while following the therapist’s finger and making eye movements. This may also be switched up to include the therapist tapping their fingers or playing certain tones and sounds.

Polyvagal Theory for the Treatment of Trauma

At The Wave, we believe learning about trauma and developing self-compassion is a key component to healing. A form of psychoeducation, young people will be guided through the Polyvagal Theory and learn about the physiology behind their trauma and why they can’t just think their way out of traumatic experiences or reactions.

The main focus of the Polyvagal Theory is on the vagus – a nerve directly responsible for the fight-or-flight response. While working through this theory, young people will come to learn how the vagus helps the body calm down in traumatic or stressful situations and use this information to better regulate their own responses and emotions, as well as remove trauma from the nervous system.

Stress Response Theory

During their stay with us, young people will also work with a therapist and be guided through the stress response theory to better understand their trauma and their responses to negative memories and experiences. This theory hypothesizes that there are five main stages that happen as a result of adjusting a processing trauma, including outcry, denial, repetition, working through the trauma, and completion.

Every young person struggling with trauma will have the chance to work through each of these response stages, better understanding their own reactions and how they can regulate their emotions and move past their trauma healthily.

Brainspotting

Often, young people come through our doors with a lot of unresolved trauma. Sometimes this trauma has been repressed, and other times it’s simply been difficult for the individual to acknowledge and process the traumatic event. In these cases, brainspotting can help them process their trauma and identify any underlying traumatic events.

We know how difficult it is to look back at trauma and relive memories, so all our young people will be guided through the experience with a dedicated therapist. As part of the therapy, young people’s eye movements will be analysed to help therapists understand, locate, and process the underlying trauma.

Somatic Experiencing

A body-centric approach to healing and overcoming trauma, somatic experiencing focuses on both emotional responses to traumatic events and bodily (somatic) responses. During these therapy sessions, young people will work with a psychotherapist who will guide them through their traumatic experiences, asking questions and prompting reflection on surroundings, colours, mood, and even the weather on the day that the traumatic incident occurred.

This is a gentler approach to processing and revisiting trauma, and will help young people release traumatic energy from their bodies, build up extra resilience, and better manage stress levels and emotions.

NARM – NeuroAffective Relational Model

Some of the young people who come to us may be suffering from complex trauma; a type of trauma that happens in children who have experienced multiple and severe traumatic events. It can be very difficult for these young people to look back at these events and process their trauma – some of it may even be buried and repressed. By working with a therapist and going through the NARM model, they’ll be able to break barriers and get rid of any disconnections they feel between their child self and adult self.

NARM can also help young people develop a better relationship with themselves, as well as help them to get rid of any distortions or limiting beliefs they hold about their identity.

Trauma and Addiction

Trauma is often at the root of addiction. Feeling pain, distress, or anger from a past traumatic event can drive young people to abuse substances. In the short term, taking drugs acts as a release and way to numb the pain. Over time, however, it can turn into a full-blown addiction, carrying a wealth of risks and side effects with it.

Drugs and alcohol can actually exacerbate trauma and intensify emotions, leading to a vicious cycle of substance abuse. If a young person is suffering from trauma and addiction, it’s key they get treatment from a clinic.

At The Wave, we specialise in treating co-occurring disorders and always believe there’s a link between mental health and addiction. Before setting up a personalized treatment plan, we’ll take your child through medical detox. This will help set them up for their trauma treatment.

Trauma and Eating Disorders

Eating disorders aren’t just caused by a desire to look a certain way or fit society’s standards – it can also be driven by trauma. Restricting or bingeing can help a young person feel in control of a situation. Unlike a traumatic event, they have power over what’s happening to them and their body – no one else does.

In cases of abuse or rape, an eating disorder can even be a way of releasing pain and ‘cleansing’ oneself. Although we all know that these scenarios are nothing to feel guilty or ashamed about, victims can often feel ‘dirty’ or ‘damaged.’ In this way, restricting food intake can help them feel like they’re getting rid of the trauma that happened to them.

Seeing a loved one battle with trauma and an eating disorder can be crippling. You may feel hopeless or have no idea what to do. At The Wave, we understand your pain and we’re here to assure you that recovery is possible. We’ll approach every young person who walks through our doors with care, respect, and support – guiding them through their treatment journey every step of the way.

The Three E’s

Trauma can be difficult to spot in a young person. Typically, professionals determine if someone has trauma using the three ‘e’s’. This guide was first referenced by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The three ‘e’s’ of trauma are:

Event(s)

A single event or repeated incident that causes physical or psychological harm (or poses the threat of causing harm). Examples include:

Natural disasters
Terrorist attacks
Physical assault
Sexual assault
Injury
Death of a loved one
Bullying
Emotional abuse
Childhood neglect

Experiences

People respond to situations differently, so what is traumatic for one person might not be for another.

Factors including cultural beliefs, access to support, and developmental stages of a young person might also affect the way they experience trauma.

Effects

A person may experience short or long-term effects from trauma that can occur immediately after the event or develop later in life. Side effects usually vary depending on the type of trauma.

For example, a person who experienced childhood neglect may have anxiety, trust issues, and struggle to control their emotions. They may also have problems with anger management. However, these might be seen as behavioural issues and not side effects of trauma.

“I came to The Wave about 2 ½ years ago, and I can’t speak highly enough about their service, support, and love I received (and still do) from the team. They have helped me build stable foundations for a life that now feels worth living. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without their amazing help, and I am lucky enough to call them my family.”

Frequently asked questions

Trauma FAQ's

What Is Trauma?

By dictionary definitions, trauma literally means ‘shock or injury.’ In psychology, it’s a little more complicated – trauma is any kind of event that has caused significant distress or harm to an individual. This could be anything from abuse and rape to life-changing accidents.

What Is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder?

Short for PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder is an officially diagnosed mental health condition caused by traumatic events. At first, it was thought that only soldiers in battle could experience PTSD. However, now we know that anyone who’s experienced trauma can develop the disorder.

How Can I Help Someone Struggling With Trauma?

Trauma is a complex disorder and needs to be approached with love and care. If someone you know is struggling with PTSD or trauma, take the time to listen to them, understand their triggers, and respect their boundaries and privacy.

The Wave has provided me with the ability to feel calm with the secure feeling that they are a team of professionals who know exact what my daughter needs. It has not been easy and continues to be a challenging journey. The consistent communication through WhatsApp, phone calls, in-person and virtual family therapy sessions and weekly report have made being halfway across the world feel as if I am as part of my daughter’s treatment as I possibly can.

I had a great experience when I was on The Wave. It was one of the best experiences in my life. I enjoy all the sessions conducted by the team. I never had a chance to speak in group, specially with friends from other countries before.

It opens my eyes and gives me a new knowledge and experience to be a better person.