Glossary

Women, Abuse and Trauma Therapy: An Information Guide

Attachment describes an emotional connection to another person.

Body-psychotherapy is a form of therapy that deals with the body’s reactions to trauma.

Boundaries are how you define your personal space and limits, and let others know how to relate to you.

Cognitive-behavioural therapy is a type of therapy that uses many different methods, including cognitive techniques (which address your reactions to trauma).

Collaborative alliance: A way of working in which the therapist and the client work together in a partnership, to direct the healing work.

Complex post-traumatic stress describes the adaptation in psychological functioning that result from prolonged or repeated abuse or neglect. These changes in psychological functioning are diverse and can involve changes in personality, physiology, relationships and identity.

Depression is a mood disorder. It is usually diagnoses when a person has a sad, despairing mood that lasts more than two weeks and affects the person’s work, school and social relationships.

Dissociation: A change in one’s perception or experience of oneself and/or the external world. A feeling of “spacing out” or daydreaming.

Dual relationship: If a therapist is a client’s friend, socializes with a client or provides any other service to the client (e.g., as a medical doctor), this is called a dual relationship. It is to be avoided.

Eating disorders, such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating, are problems in which a person has extreme emotions, attitudes and behaviours toward weight and food issues.

Exposure therapy is a type of therapy in which a person is gradually exposed to a feared situation until she or he no longer has any fear of the experience.

Eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR) is a type of therapy that helps people who have traumatic memories that the brain was not able to process during the traumatic event. EMDR helps the brain go back and process these memories in a safe way using eye movements, hand taps or audio tones.

Flashback: a sudden, disruptive and vivid re-experiencing of a traumatic event.

Guided imagery: While the client is in a relaxed state, he or she is asked to use imagination and mental visualization in various ways, often to increase relaxation and reduce anxiety.

Hypnotherapy: Hypnotherapy is a therapy technique using hypnosis or guided imagery. Clients learn to use mental imagery to help them change ways of thinking, feeling or behaving or to gain insight into problems.

Post-traumatic stress: a condition of experiencing the effects of a traumatic event, long after the event is over.

Psychoeducation teaches about different psychological processes and how they affect people. Psychoeducation in trauma therapy may include information about the effects of trauma in both the short-term and long-term; information about how trauma can affect the body, emotions and development; and information about abuse and neglect.

Sensimotor psychotherapy is a type of body-psychotherapy that helps trauma survivors disconnect physical feelings from trauma-based emotions.

Simple post-traumatic stress is post-traumatic stress that results from a one-time incident, such as a rape or serious car accident.

Trauma therapy model: an approach to therapy for post-traumatic stress. A trauma therapy model considers the context of society, family, abuse and other life experiences as they affect a person’s problems. Clients are viewed as partners in healing who share responsibility with the therapist for their own care.

Trigger: something (e.g., a sound, smell, emotion) that sets off or “triggers” a memory of the traumatic event.

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