How Healing Your Own Trauma Improves Your Child's Mental Health
Trauma affects us at any age, from childhood to our senior years, and every age group feels, expresses, and copes with trauma differently. Regardless of age, it is always essential that those coping with trauma understand how to work through their symptoms in order to reach a place of emotional healing and overall wellness. This is especially true for parents who have more than just themselves to care for emotionally.
A child’s mental health depends greatly on their environment and the influence of their parental figures. For parents suffering from trauma of any kind, learning to heal from your experiences is crucial to the overall mental health of your child and can even benefit their emotional and social development by demonstrating healthy emotional habits for them to follow.
Demonstrate Emotional Healing to Your Child
Children often learn by observing others, whether it be their peers, siblings, or even teachers. However, the most influential figures of observation in a child’s life are their parents. For this reason, it is extremely important to lead by example from small things like manners and work ethic, to emotional regulation and self-care.
To demonstrate emotional strength and a commitment to mental health to your child, illustrate the ways that you overcome trauma on a daily basis, whether it be by readily expressing your emotions, showing trust with your partner and children, or practicing self-reflection. Seeing the process of emotional healing acted out before them helps children develop healthy, positive coping mechanisms, thus making them better prepared to deal with stress they may face in the future or have already faced in the past.
Encourage Your Child’s Emotional and Mental Development
Being open about your emotional healing process in therapy will not only prepare your child to perform emotional healing of their own, but also help them learn healthy mental habits in general. After all, being open about emotions and sharing often with others are important aspects of mental, emotional, and social health for everyone, not just folks who have experienced trauma.
It is easy for unprocessed trauma to unintentionally be projected onto one’s child. This may look like assuming that your child had the same intentions a hurtful person in your life did or responding to your child in the way you wish you could have responded to the person who hurt you. Trauma can be cyclical, meaning it is easily passed through generations, so the best way to break the cycle is to work heavily on your own mental health and emotional wellbeing to be a positive example to your child.
If you are struggling to cope with past or current trauma, reach out to Whole Self Therapy. Our team of experienced professionals is always ready to listen and provide the guidance you need on your unique path to emotional healing.