Do you wonder how survivors of school violence work through their trauma? Are you someone who has experienced one or more incidents of school violence and wonder if you will ever fully recover? If you answered yes to either one of these questions then encourage you to read on!
School Violence Is a Huge Problem In Our Time
We are living in a time when there are literally more mass shootings than there are days in the year here in our country, so how victims of school violence recover from their trauma is such a tremendously important issue to address. School violence isn’t only limited to school shootings, as bullying has been around a long time also. I will discuss some examples of how various victims of the school shootings in Parkland Florida have coped with theirs in the public eye.
Becoming Active as a Way to Cope
You may have seen several of the victims of the Lakeland, Florida school shooting organize the famous March For Our Lives about 8 to 10 years ago. This was the brainchild of David Hogg and several others who as students felt moved to engage in mass demonstration and protest as a way to cope with their trauma. This is a great way to connect with other individuals, especially as a young person who is very much into socialization as a way to address one’s own trauma. The value of social connections in recovery from trauma can never be understated, and is used in many treatment programs, including those that the Veterans Administration has conducted over the years.
Finding Meaning in Your Experience
One of the victims of the mass shooting in Lakeland, Florida, dedicated his career in major league baseball to the victims of the school shooting, particularly those that did not survive. Coby Mayo, who currently plays for the Baltimore Orioles has stated that his career is a testament and a memorial to those who suffered and died in that school shooting. It’s very important to find meaning and purpose in recovery from this kind of experience. The famous author, Victor Frankl, who wrote the book Man’s Search for Meaning, has created an entire form of therapy orchestrated around using meaning and purpose to guide one's life and recover from all kinds of devastating emotional experiences.
Getting Therapy Help to Recover
Without knowing whether either of these young men included any individual therapy for the trauma of school violence, it is important to seek out this kind of help sooner or later in order to fully address the aftermath of this kind of thing. Having a way to neutralize the effect of devastating trauma of this kind on your nervous system is extremely important in fully recovering from the kind of “Big T“ trauma that school violence, like school shootings, is about. There are several types of trauma therapy that can be effective in this situation, including EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Others include Image Transformation Therapy, or ImTT. The main thing is to find help that seems to help you make progress in recovering from whatever trauma you’re experiencing.
What If You Need Therapy Help?
I’ve been helping my clients recover from the effects of all kinds of trauma for my entire social work career, and can definitely emphasize the importance of seeking help for experiences of school violence. I use both EMDR and ImTT, and would be happy to chat with you briefly to give you a better idea of whether I can help you with your trauma experience if you live in MD or VA. Just click the schedule consultation button above, call the phone number at the top of the page, or fill out the inquiry form below, and I will get back to you ASAP to schedule this important matter. Whatever you do, understand that many others have suffered from the same kind of trauma before, and you are part of a tremendously important journey of recovery from your own experience.
Visit our page on trauma therapy to find out how Scott can help you recover from school violence.
About the author: Scott Kampschaefer, LCSW is a private practice therapist in Frederick, Maryland. He has an extensive background in working with depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder at a clinic for older adults with these disorders in Austin, Texas. He now works with adults and adolescents 14 and up in private practice. His most recent book is titled The 5 Pillars of Addiction Recovery and is available for purchase on Amazon and in paperback on this website.