Discover how to heal from the trauma of the recent Los Angeles fires by understanding and completing the trauma cycle. This trauma-informed guide offers practical tools like grounding techniques, somatic practices, and mindfulness strategies to help you process emotions, release stored energy, and rebuild a sense of safety. Learn how to navigate trauma with resilience and start the new year with renewed hope. Visit daliahalabi.com for expert mental health coaching and support.
Understanding and Completing the Trauma Cycle After the Los Angeles Fires
Dalia Halabi
New Year, New Challenges
As the new year begins, many of us in Los Angeles find ourselves navigating the aftermath of unexpected challenges. The recent fires have not only disrupted lives but also triggered profound emotional and psychological responses. The trauma of evacuations, uncertainty, and witnessing destruction can leave us feeling stuck in survival mode. To truly heal, it’s essential to understand the trauma cycle and take intentional steps to complete it. This blog offers trauma-informed guidance to help you process these experiences and move into the new year with hope and resilience.
What Is the Trauma Cycle?
Trauma activates your body’s natural fight, flight, or freeze response. While this survival mechanism is protective during danger, unresolved trauma can leave the cycle incomplete, trapping energy and emotions in your body. Signs of an incomplete trauma cycle may include hypervigilance, emotional numbness, or feeling stuck in the past.
Completing the trauma cycle involves recognizing these reactions, releasing stored energy, and creating a sense of safety. Here’s how to begin the healing process:
Healing the Trauma
1. Recognize and Validate Your Experience
The first step is acknowledging the impact of the fires on your mental and emotional well-being. Whether you feel overwhelmed, numb, or hyper-alert, know that these are natural responses to trauma. Journaling or speaking to a trauma-informed therapist can help you explore these emotions without judgment.
2. Release Stored Energy
Trauma can leave physical tension in your body. Somatic practices are key to completing the trauma cycle:
Movement: Gentle exercises like yoga, stretching, or even shaking can help release pent-up energy.
Breathwork: Deep breathing techniques, such as box breathing (inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 6), can calm your nervous system.
Vocal Expression: Sounds like humming, sighing, or even singing can stimulate the vagus nerve, promoting relaxation.
These practices can be tailored in trauma-informed therapy or coaching to meet your specific needs.
3. Create Safety Through Grounding
Grounding techniques help bring your body out of a hyperaroused state and into the present moment:
5-4-3-2-1 Technique: Identify five things you see, four you feel, three you hear, two you smell, and one you taste.
Earthing: Spend time outdoors, connecting with the earth by walking barefoot on grass or soil.
Soothing Touch: Wrap yourself in a soft blanket or hold something comforting like a warm cup of tea.
4. Understand the Role of Community
Trauma can feel isolating, but connection is a powerful antidote. Reach out to friends, family, or support groups to share your experience. If volunteering feels manageable, offering help to others can foster a sense of purpose and connection.
5. Mindfulness as a Healing Tool
Mindfulness helps you process emotions and interrupts the loop of traumatic thoughts. The RAIN method (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) is especially effective:
Recognize what you’re feeling.
Allow the emotion to be present without judgment.
Investigate its origin with curiosity.
Nurture yourself with compassion.
6. Seek Professional Support
If the trauma feels overwhelming, professional guidance can be transformative. Trauma-informed therapy or coaching provides a safe space to process emotions, develop coping strategies, and rebuild your sense of safety and control. At daliahalabi.com, I offer support through mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and psychoeducation to empower your healing journey.
New Year, New Healed version of you
The fires may have left a lasting impact, but they don’t define your path forward. Completing the trauma cycle is a journey, one that requires patience, compassion, and intentional action. With each step, you can release the weight of the past and step into the new year with resilience and hope.
Remember, healing is a process, not a destination. Prioritize your well-being and know that support is available. Explore resources or book a free consultation at daliahalabi.com to begin your journey toward healing.
Ready to Take the First Step?
If you’re looking for more guidance on how to reflect, release, and renew, download my free End-of-Year Workbook. It’s a therapist-designed resource filled with journal prompts, exercises, and practical tools to help you close the year with clarity and step into the next chapter with confidence.
Your mental health matters—and with a little intention and self-compassion, you can create a brighter, more fulfilling year ahead.