Women can recover from traumatic experiences The recovery of women from trauma involves working on several goals. In therapy, women first learn that trauma was not their fault and that they are entitled to a safe and secure life.

Therapy also helps women tos
learn new, healthy coping skills to deal with symptoms of trauma
learn how to make better life choices
develop more positive relationships
learn how to care for themselves when their emotions threaten to overwhelm them
Eventually, women can explore and make meaning of traumatic experience. Through this, they can come to view trauma as a part (just one part) of their past history, rather than having experience continually shape and overwhelm their present.

Recovery process
Recovery takes place within a set of steps that occur during the treatment. Mental health professionals describe three main stages of recovery process: early, middle and late.

Each stage includes different goals. This staged approach allows women opportunity to develop a foundation of safety before moving on to dealing directly with trauma. Every woman in recovery progresses and grows through these stages at her own pace and in her own way.

Early stage
First women begin to build fundamentals of a healthy sense of self. A key task at this stage is to create safety in relationships, as well as emotional and physical safety. Women survivors often learn and test these skills in their relationships with their mental health professionals.

Other tasks in the early stage can include
improving self-care
learning rudimentary skills to self-soothe
receiving psychiatric treatment to control symptoms
acknowledging fact and nature of the trauma
Middle stage

Next women build upon foundation of safety to work on a new set of goals
improving their emotional and relational functioning
expressing emotions in healthy ways
using more sophisticated self-soothing behaviours
improving their choices

Later stage
Now women continue to build upon their achievements and grow in their personal development. Through recovery, they have an opportunity to mourn their losses (of a safe childhood, of opportunities, of relationships, of health). Mourning is followed by creating the new hope for their futures and defining a new sense of self.