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Healing the Effects of Trauma – A Case Study

We all experience trauma at some point in our lives. By this I do not mean a life-threatening event or direct threat to our physical integrity, but repeated or prolonged exposure to traumatic events that are so overwhelming and unbearable that the individual is unable to integrate them into their nervous system. In order to survive, they create a self-protective system that distances them from emotional experience, both their own and that of the world around them. This results in a fragmented experience of the self, which may indeed help the individual to survive, but also prevents them from leading a fulfilling life. This is what happened to Silvia, who was raped by a stranger at the age of 7 and then, at the age of 12, revictimised by her mother’s partner. With her consent I presented her case and her three-year course of psychotherapeutic treatment at the Dynamics of Trauma and Pathways to Trauma Integration conference in Ljubljana in February 2020. The paper can be accessed in the Proceedings of the 10th Academy of the IPAL Institute (Slovenian only): https://hermes.ipal.si/izdelek/zbornik-10-akademije/. The sexual abuse continued for 12 years.