Trauma Treatment
What is Trauma?
After a traumatic event, you may experience emotional wounds so severe, that you may experience symptoms such as nightmares, flashbacks, inability to sleep, and a flurry of emotions such as anxiety, depression, anger, and emotional outbursts that you may find difficult to control. If you have experienced trauma you know all too well how much it can affect your life. Not only have you experienced a horrific event, but you may also often re-experience it over and over in your mind. When a traumatic experience occurs, it causes physical changes in the brain which frequently results in the occurrence of symptoms that can drastically impact your life for a few weeks, months, or even your entire lifetime.
Trauma can be defined as a response to an intensely upsetting or frightening event that decreases a person’s ability to cope. Complex Trauma occurs when a person experiences repeated occurrences of trauma over a period of time, is usually more severe if the trauma is experienced at a young age, and was inflicted by a caretaker, loved one or trusted individual.
Struggling with Complex trauma can feel like being trapped in a waking nightmare that you’re unable to escape. Complex Trauma can occur due to someone growing up with a violent substance addicted parent, or by being in an emotionally abusive marriage, or can result from being sexually abused by family a friend. Regardless of the cause of the trauma, the painful symptoms and turmoil to your life is typically the same.
Trauma doesn’t only effect you, it affects those that love and care about you. Ignoring the symptoms of your past trauma will not make them disappear; in fact they will only get worse. The good news is that Complex Trauma is a treatable condition and with treatment, your symptoms can be significantly reduced and even eliminated.
How I Can Help
Symptoms of Complex Trauma include the following:
- constant anxiety
- feeling constantly tense and on-edge
- inability to sleep or relax,
- irritability
- uncontrollable mood swings/ emotional outbursts
- flashbacks
- nightmares
- an inability to stop thinking about the traumatic events
- emotional numbness
- isolating yourself from places or people
- overuse of substances to cope with your emotions
- feeling guilt and shame or self blame about the trauma you experienced
- relationship instability
- anger outbursts
- inability to control your emotions
- constant scanning for safety
- jumpiness, lost periods of time or “zoning out”
- risk taking behaviors
- difficulty trusting and experiencing intimacy with others
- isolation
- suicidal thoughts.
If you are struggling with several of these symptoms, I can help. Being able to discuss and work through the past traumas and emotional pain that you’ve experienced in a safe and confidential space can help you regain a sense of safety, and improve your ability to gain control of your emotions. Opening up to loved ones about past traumatic experiences may feel embarrassing, uncomfortable or be an unrealistic option for you. However, getting help from a therapist will allow you to have a safe non-judgmental space where you are free to openly discuss painful experiences that have continued to haunt your life.
Once you’re in treatment:
- You will begin to feel accepted and understood when you share past trauma with someone who won’t judge you or make you feel guilty or ashamed of your experiences
- You will begin reconnecting with others, and learn to trust
- You will learn to create safety and stability in your physical and emotional environments
- You will identify past traumas, release, and heal any painful emotions attached to traumatic memories
- You will increase self-empowerment and self-care
- You will increase feelings of self-esteem and improve self-worth
- You will release feelings of guilt and shame
- You will learn to set and maintain healthy boundaries
- You will learn to express and communicate your emotions in a healthy manner
- You will learn to use deep breathing, visualization, relaxation, and meditation techniques to increase your ability to manage difficult emotions while increasing your ability to feel calm and in control of your emotions.
- You will learn to identify and change patterns of negative thinking by challenging negative and self-defeating thoughts, and will learn to, get your wants and needs met by communicating your feelings in a healthy way.
- You will learn to identify and eliminate negative core beliefs that are contributing to emotional instability.
- You will address relationship issues and pattern of dysfunction to help you connect with yourself and communicate your wants and needs with others.
Although I cannot guarantee a specific treatment outcome, most clients report a decrease in symptoms within a few sessions.