As a psychologist I work a lot with PTSD and trauma clients, including the trauma of violence and childhood trauma. I am interested in this topic and I meet sometimes in the discussions on the question: how to understand that the trauma is worked out?

And today, I was thinking about this, about by what criteria it can be concluded that the injury worked out, concluded that the client was healed.

it is easiest to see this when leaving the physical symptom, for example, the client was disturbed sleep and the process of psychotherapy, she began to sleep more and better, easier to fall asleep.

But there are other client history when the trauma manifests itself through limitations in life, for example, some area of life is unnecessary, blocked, forgotten, and, like, the same person lives on, and the longing and emptiness inside me remind you that something in the world that man is not enough.

In this case, success in overcoming injury with the help therapy is manifested as the disappearance of the limitations.

for Example, a customer stopped being afraid to leave home or had enough courage and curiosity to start a new relationship, or got to understand what you want, find a business, to hear the call of your dreams and move to it (to find where to learn a new profession, go to College, move to another country or city, etc.).

When an injury releases, there is flexibility in the choice where there was none before, where once there were limitations, stiffness and despair, one begins to see the possibilities, curiosity overcomes fear, and interest becomes more than doubt. Then the client has new desires and, most important, the forces for their implementation.

In working with trauma it is important to consider this aspect of psychotherapy as time or duration.

Often clients come to therapy for the first time, I want to get the result as quickly as possible and that's fine, at the same time, it is useful to clarify some points.

 the fact that it is impossible to tell in advance how long it will take therapy when working with trauma as it depends on previous life experience of the client, and from previous experience of therapy (if any), and from external events occurring in the client's life during therapy out of the psychologist's office (appointments, separations, diet, addictions, diseases). In my practice, I was faced with the fact that some injuries had resolved after one session (experienced customers), and some have been “get” only three, four or more years of regular therapy.

It depends on the individual characteristics of the customers, speed of their changes, and the characteristics of the contact between the client and the therapist (whether the therapist to form a therapeutic Alliance with the client or not, and how quickly it will happen), and the personality of the therapist (his life-experience and personal therapy, supervision).

In conclusion I want to say also about how important support is for the customer who boldly plunges into the therapy of their injuries, and not only the support of a psychologist. Very important and support the environment: friends, family. Sometimes the environment of the customer is more destructive than supportive and then the client must create a safe environment from scratch. For this you can meet new people, for example, this can be done in a safe environment of the therapeutic group, where you can also try new ways to communicate and manifest.