If the goal of all therapy is to reduce suffering, what makes trauma therapy different?

Trauma therapy is interested in discovering the ways in which trauma changes you. The way it changes how you show up in the world, relate to others, how you relate to your physical body, etc. While acknowledging painful events is important to the process, the focus is not only on what happened to you but also about how you adapted to protect yourself. Humans are remarkably resilient and our adaptive/protective strategies are generally quite efficient. In fact, the greater the threat the stronger the protection tends to be. 

Unfortunately these protective strategies can overstay their welcome. The same strategies that protected us from adverse, painful experiences can eventually become detrimental to daily functioning. Protection that has overstayed its welcome can become a barrier to getting close to others or be harmful to ourselves and those closest to us. It can look like PTSD, C-PTSD, dissociative disorders, depression, and anxiety. 

After noticing adaptation strategies we can start to relearn safety. Knowing when you are safe vs. unsafe. Being able to discern when you are responding to the ghosts of danger long gone. Or, conversely, noticing when you are not protecting yourself in a dangerous environment. Relearning safety allows us to strategically use and be in control of our protective strategies- rather than them having control of us.