You don’t have to keep feeling this way.
Counseling for trauma can help you get your life back.
Trauma Therapy
Trauma is a one-time experience or collection of experiences that cause physical, emotional and mental distress. Trauma can be little (for instance, a tiny fender bender but everyone was OK). And trauma can be big (such as a sexual assault, an emotionally neglectful childhood, or racial injustice). Either way, it impacts your life.
Whether you’ve experienced big or little trauma, it changes the way you live your life to deal with the bad feelings about it.
You might be having more feelings of anxiety or get startled easily. A scary movie can set you on edge. The nightmares or flashbacks about the event keep you up at night or from focusing on work. You notice you live at a fast pace and have a hard time getting close to people.
On the other hand, you might find that your brain feels foggy and it’s hard to concentrate on things that used to be easy. There are times you wish you had the energy to get up and do things you used to enjoy, but it’s hard to do anything when you feel so tired and checked out. You feel guilty for not being present with your friends or family and life is kind of lonely.
There are various types of trauma, including:
Acute trauma: This type of trauma refers to a single traumatic event, such as a car accident or physical assault.
Chronic trauma: Chronic trauma involves repeated exposure to traumatic events over an extended period, such as ongoing physical, emotional, or verbal abuse, or living in a war zone.
Complex trauma: Complex trauma typically occurs during childhood and involves prolonged exposure to multiple traumatic events, often within a caregiving relationship, such as childhood abuse or neglect.
Secondary trauma: Secondary trauma, also known as vicarious trauma, occurs when individuals are exposed to the traumatic experiences of others, such as first responders, healthcare professionals, or therapists.
Symptoms of trauma can vary widely and may include flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, avoidance of reminders of the trauma, difficulty concentrating, irritability, anxiety, depression, and changes in mood or behavior.
These symptoms can be caused by a lifetime of small stressful events or a big traumatic event. There is help for people who have experienced trauma and they do get better. Whether it’s a minor event that keeps bothering you or a larger, ongoing trauma (what we call complex trauma), I can help you.
How do you treat trauma?
I use three different evidence-based methods of treating trauma: Somatic Experiencing (SE), the Safe and Sound Protocol (SE), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Our nervous system hijacks our thinking brain when it is stressed, which makes things like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy harder to implement for trauma therapy. (If you’ve ever experienced panic, you know you can’t think your way out of the depth of a panic attack).
Nervous system based strategies are an alternate entry point to helping heal trauma. There’s a place and time for each of these interventions. When we work together, I’ll help you figure out which approach would be the most effective for you and your nervous system.
A little about the nervous system and trauma:
Our nervous system is the alert system made up of our brain and the nerves that run from the top to bottom of our bodies. The nervous system has two main parts: our “fight or flight” system and our “rest and digest” system. When we experience trauma, our nervous system alerts the body to threat and responds accordingly. Either our bodies will kick into gear and help us fight or escape OR if there’s no chance of escape, then it will go into collapse mode. Collapse mode might look like dissociating, zoning out, people pleasing, or avoidance.
People who have experienced developmental or complex trauma (i.e. prolonged trauma through the lifespan) are often stuck in a fight/flight or freeze/collapse response. The body adapts to living in this chronic state of stress or shutdown, which makes it incredibly hard to function with more ease and calm in daily life.
Somatic Experiencing
Somatic experiencing (SE) is a type of therapy for anxiety, depression, and trauma. Here’s a bit more about it. This type of therapy can help you experience deep, lasting shifts in how your body responds to stress. Basically, when we’re stressed (from eating disorder thoughts, life, traumatic events, etc.), we can get stuck in a fight, flight or freeze stress response. When that happens, our muscles stay tense, our emotions get more erratic, and pain patterns emerge in the form of chronic pain, auto-immune issues, rigidity (in life and in our bodies), anxiety and depression.
SE helps us slow down and move through stress responses so that our systems let go of those old patterns. We don’t always have to talk about the traumatic events themselves, which is another reason people may like SE as an alternative to talk therapy. During our SE sessions, we notice body cues, sensations, emotions, imagery, and beliefs to tell us what’s happening on the inside as it lets go of trauma responses. Over time, the body learns to let go of old trauma patterns and find safety in the present moment. People find they begin feeling more safe, connected, and calm.
By helping your body let go of stress and trauma memories, you’ll find you can tolerate situations and people without getting as irritable/judgmental. You can be more flexible. You can feel less like a “control freak,” and self-soothe when you notice big feelings. Imagine the relief this would bring to your life!
Safe and Sound Protocol
The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is another way to treat trauma without having to talk about specific events. It can also be used to help reduce sensory sensitivity to light, sound (misophonia), textures, smells, etc. The SSP uses specially filtered music to vibrate the inner ear which, in turn, vibrates the vagus nerve and helps the nervous system feel a sense of safety.
The vagus nerve is largely responsible for our fight/flight or freeze/collapse response. When these responses get stuck, life is harder. You might feel more vigilant about the safety of your space. It can feel difficult to give and receive touch or kindnesses from others. You might feel checked out of your body or have a hard time staying in the present moment.
How does the SSP work?
Picture this: you put on a pair of headphones, and instead of just hearing music or noise, you're immersed in a specially designed auditory program. This program delivers a series of carefully selected tones and rhythms that are specifically tailored to help regulate your nervous system.
As you listen, these soothing sounds stimulate the nerves in your ears, which in turn send signals to your brain. It's like giving your nervous system a gentle massage, helping to reduce stress and tension. Plus, the SSP is designed to gradually build resilience and improve your ability to handle life's challenges.
What's truly remarkable about the SSP is its ability to tap into the body's natural ability to heal. By promoting relaxation and restoring a sense of safety, it helps to rewire your brain's response to stress and trauma over time.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR works by engaging both sides of the brain through bilateral stimulation, which can take various forms such as eye movements, taps, or sounds. These gentle, rhythmic movements or sensations help to unlock the mind's natural healing processes. The bilateral movements are similar to how our eyes move back and forth during REM sleep, which is when our brains process the day’s events.
As you focus on these bilateral stimuli, I’ll help you revisit distressing memories, thoughts, and emotions associated with your trauma. The nice thing about EMDR is that you’re having to hold dual attention - one part of your brain on the bilateral movements and another part on the trauma material - so that you can’t get totally carried away by the negative images or beliefs that bother you.
Throughout the EMDR process, you may notice shifts in your perceptions of the traumatic events. The memories might become less overwhelming, the associated emotions more manageable, and negative beliefs about yourself may begin to shift towards more positive and empowering ones.
We can use EMDR for old complex trauma experiences, one-time events, and even negative thoughts that bother you. What makes EMDR so powerful is its ability to access and reprocess traumatic memories at a deep level, fostering healing and resilience from within. It's like unlocking a door to your inner strength so that you can feel more empowered and less bothered by old trauma experiences.