Interactional trauma takes place when there is constant bickering, yelling, and conflict between parent and child over many months or years. In this toxic environment, an unhealed traumatic event cannot heal. A good analogy is a wound’s inability to heal when it is constantly being reopened. Within this context, the trauma therapist must possess the skills to stabilize the interactional trauma or parent-child conflict before moving into direct trauma. Or use what we term a hybrid approach to address both stabilization and active trauma work simultaneously. This process is analogous to a surgeon who must stop the bleeding first before they can get to the shrapnel. If not, the risk for relapse skyrockets and any initial progress made through trauma playbooks quickly evaporates.
Read more at familytrauma.com.
Scott P. Sells, Ph.D., MSW, LCSW, LMFT, is the author of three books, Treating the Tough Adolescent: A Family-Based, Step-by-Step Guide (1998), Parenting Your Out-of-Control Teenager: 7 Steps to Reestablish Authority and Reclaim Love (2001), and Treating the Traumatized Child: A Step-by-Step Family Systems Approach (2017). He can be contacted at spsells@familytrauma.com or through LinkedIn.
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