You asked for examples of what people do in their therapy...I've been working with a trauma therapist for almost a year. It is very different from cognitive therapy (talk therapy). I am still mostly in the stabilization phase (learning how to tolerate and manage emotions and parts of myself), but have done a bit of the second phase of trauma therapy called "processing."
In every session, the focus stays on my physical self and breathing and me trying to describe what I am feeling in my body. The "talking" part takes a lot of different forms depending on my "state." Usually he helps me try to link the physical and emotional together. We talk about what's happening in my life and link it to emotion. I share bits and pieces of my memories and link it to emotion. Over a period of months, I started to learn how certain emotions "feel" in my body, and about parts of myself that are stuck in past trauma. We work on grounding strategies. Sometimes we stand up and move, releasing blocked up trauma energy. It is a collaborative relationship. He does very little directive talking, and hardly ever any interpretation of anything unless I ask him. Mostly he asks questions, educates me a bit on things about trauma I don't know about, and helps me get to know the parts of myself that need help.
In a year, I've talked very little about my trauma, not because it is hard to do, but because just talking about is all cognitive/intellectual. I could talk forever about my life but it wouldn't change anything. In order to heal and become a centered self, you need to heal the wounded parts of yourself. To do that, you need to process the trauma. In order to do that, you have to be able to experience feelings, not just talk about them. This is extremely difficult for most people who have been traumatized...you have to learn and practice strategies to "feel" the feelings without getting overwhelmed or retraumatized.
There are some good books and websites about trauma therapy, particularly about somatically based therapy which is the recommended standard. Check out Peter Levine's books, as well as the website Somatic Experiencing (the type of therapy he developed). Also check out the website about Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) and the books about it. Richard Schwartz is the big name in IFS. IFS is the type of therapy I'm doing. Their website is called The Center for Self-Leadership.
