Effective trauma processing involves feeling in control of accessing and defining experiences on one's own terms.

“You want to find a way to feel in control of the access and to define what happened on your own terms. It's not a matter of are you exposed to something that's upsetting, but how do you handle it? What do you make of it? It's a matter of thinking um uh about a problem in a way that leaves you feeling you understand it better. You're in more control. You can turn it off when you when you want. You can turn it on when you want.”