Together We Can Breakout Session: Understanding Medical Trauma and the Importance of (Often Neglected) Emotional Healing

Understanding Medical Trauma and the Importance of (Often Neglected) Emotional Healing

Gayle Murray, Private Practice Psychotherapist; Compass Clinical Associates

When children (and adults) have surgeries and other intrusive medical procedures, there can sometimes be emotional trauma related to those experiences.  This is often difficult to identify and manage, especially if the individual was sedated and has limited or no clear “memories” of the causal event.   Understanding how trauma is stored in our bodies gives us power to “listen” to the wisdom the symptoms are communicating and in turn to promote healing.  When we are aware, we can then choose to move differently, increasing our resiliency and functioning

Gayle Murray has been providing child and family therapy for 28 years in the Des Moines area community.  She has extensive clinical expertise in the area of childhood trauma that results from childhood sexual abuse, maltreatment, disruption and attachment struggles in families.   Treating Medical Trauma is an area where she has grown and developed by learning from her clients as they work through their healing process together.  Understanding the impact of Medical Trauma has been a natural outgrowth of working with other kinds of trauma in children.  Her goal is always to create a sacred healing space for the children and families she encounters, feeling honored to be trusted along their journeys.