A person can be functioning extremely well and still carry the effects of earlier experiences.

Sometimes what remains isn't a clear memory that intrudes every day. It may instead show itself through difficulty trusting people, always needing to stay in control, anger that seems to arrive very quickly, emotional numbness, shame, difficulty with intimacy, feeling constantly on guard, or an inability to relax even when everything is supposedly fine.

Sometimes it is simply a persistent feeling that something isn't right.

The person may wonder:

Why am I still reacting like this?

Why can't I just let it go?

Why does this still affect me when it happened so long ago?

Those are very different questions from, “What is wrong with me?”

For me, trauma counselling begins with understanding what happened to you, what you needed to do to survive it, and what that experience left behind.