Is medical trauma the same as PTSD?

Medical trauma and PTSD can overlap significantly. When symptoms of medical trauma — including anxiety, avoidance, hypervigilance, and intrusive memories — persist and cause significant disruption in a person's life, a diagnosis of PTSD may be appropriate. However, many people experience medical trauma without meeting the full diagnostic criteria for PTSD. If your experience in a medical setting is affecting your life, your body, or your relationship with healthcare, that deserves support.

Can EMDR help with medical trauma?

Yes — EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is one of the most effective evidence-based treatments for trauma, including medical trauma. It helps the brain process distressing memories that feel stuck, reducing their emotional charge without requiring extensive verbal recounting of the experience. We offer EMDR therapy and IFS-informed approaches for survivors of medical trauma in Washington, DC and via telehealth.

What does medical trauma therapy look like?

Therapy for medical trauma typically begins with building a sense of safety — both in the therapeutic relationship and in your own body. From there, the work often involves naming and understanding your experience, addressing shame, processing traumatic memories, and rebuilding trust in healthcare settings at your own pace. Evidence-based approaches like EMDR are particularly effective. Recovery is not linear, but it is possible.

Medical Trauma: What It Is and How to Heal | Dr. Emma Basch

Hi, I’m Emma. Clinical psychologist, mom, pet lover, survivor of medical trauma. I’m practicing sharing that last part. Despite my professional training and specialization in trauma, this is hard to put into words. I know my experience is not unique; medical trauma is underreported, understudied, and poorly understood. For me, it took nearly 10 years and being retraumatized by a medical provider who refused to believe my experience, to put a name to what I have lived with.

What Is Medical Trauma?

If you look up medical trauma, you will invariably run into lots of articles referring to physical trauma- wounds, severe injuries, TBIs, and very little about the emotional trauma I’m referring to. Medical trauma, in this context, refers to a patient's psychological and physiological response to a negative or traumatic experience in a medical setting. The experience may involve illness, injury, pain, invasive or frightening procedures, and/or distressing or dismissive medical treatment. Medical trauma does not require medical malpractice or a negative outcome- in fact, many survivors of life-threatening medical events can develop trauma symptoms.

Gender and Medical Trauma: Why Women Are Disproportionately Affected

This last piece, the trauma involving being dismissed or not believed by medical providers, is far more likely to happen to women. Whether it is not believing a woman’s pain, attributing psychological origins to physiological complaints, the legacy of the “hysterical” women goes way back to the diagnosis of “hystera” or wandering womb, circa 2000 BCE, and continues in the gaslighting of women we see today. Heck, the diagnosis of Hysteria was in the DSM until 1980.

When the Threat Comes From Inside Your Own Body

While the causes of medical trauma are varied by individual, there are some factors unique to medical trauma that make it so complicated. First, in medical trauma, the “threat” is located inside one’s own body. Whether this is a scary medical event, pain, symptoms that are not believed, or a chronic illness, the body itself can be a source of ongoing anxiety. What’s especially challenging is that ongoing medical care is often a part of recovery, making avoidance especially difficult

Medical Trauma is Relational

The relationship between a medical provider and a patient is complex. We are conditioned to trust our doctors. Many of us, especially women, are conditioned to be good patients. Don’t push back, don’t complain, don’t be difficult. This inherent hierarchy can get really confusing, especially in vulnerable situations where patients can then experience their doctor as both healer and perpetrator. That juxtaposition is so hard to hold.

Medical Trauma Goes Unseen

Medical trauma is often described as disenfranchised trauma- meaning trauma that goes unseen or unacknowledged. This is especially true for medical trauma caused by experiences of being ignored, discriminated against, or not believed by medical providers. Furthermore, the social expectation after surviving a scary or life-threatening medical event is to feel grateful. This can feel really complex and dismissive for patients whose can feel silenced by this expectation.

How do I know if I have medical trauma?

All trauma is subjective. It’s not that a specific medical event will lead to trauma (although some are more likely to), but rather the subjective experience of the patient is what matters. That said, symptoms of medical trauma often include anxiety, avoidance (often of doctors' offices or procedures), body betrayal, shame, hypervigilance, and a lack of trust. For some patients, medical trauma can lead to a diagnosis of PTSD if symptoms persist and cause significant disturbance in a person’s life.

What Does Recovery from Medical Trauma Look Like?

There is an adage, “you’ve got to name it to tame” - meaning the first step to healing is recognizing what’s driving your experience. As I referenced earlier, it took a second experience of medical trauma for me to put the pieces together. To understand why I had been “squirrely” with some providers, why despite working in healthcare, I avoided certain appointments and tried to handle things myself. Why I worked with a dismissive healthcare provider for way longer than I should have. Healing from any trauma involves reclaiming the narrative and building an understanding of your own story of what happened. It’s also about addressing shame. I’ve yet to work with a survivor of medical trauma- all trauma honestly- who does not hold shame about the experience. Shame feeds on secrecy, on silence, on fear that we wil be judged. This is part of why I’m sharing my experience here-because I’m just as human as everyone else- because shame dies in the light. So I will end where I began, I’m Emma, trauma therapaist, mom friend, survivor of medical trauma.

Medical Trauma Therapy in Washington, DC — We Can Help

If you are interested in support for medical trauma or medical PTSD reach out today. We offer trauma thearpy including EMDR and IFS-informed approaches.

Contact us to learn more.

Emma Basch, PsyD is a licensed psychologist, trauma specialist, and founder of Dr. Emma Basch & Associates in Washington, DC. She specializes in trauma, women's mental health, and perinatal care — and brings both clinical expertise and lived experience to her work with survivors of medical trauma. She is trained in EMDR and IFS-informed approaches. Learn more about Dr. Basch →