TRAUMA, STRESS & PTSD

"Traumatic stress is an illness of not being able to be fully alive in the present." 

-Pierre Janet, 1889

"The challenge in PTSD is to open the mind to new possibilities, so that the present is no longer interpreted as a continuous reliving of the past."

-Bessel Van Der Kolk, 2014

Trauma can occur in a single event, or can be experienced repeatedly over a period of time. A car accident, a physical or sexual assault, unexpected loss or natural disasters are examples of traumatic events. A child living in an abusive family exposed to parents shouting and fighting can also suffer from traumatic stress. Someone with traumatic stress may be reacting to recent events, or to events from childhood.

We cannot change what happened. What we can do is to first help you cope with the overwhelming feelings, intrusive symptoms, avoidance or numbness, and any other reactions to what has happened. 

Once we restore a deepening sense of safety and stability, we can begin to address the trauma(s), untethering you from your past experiences, so you may live more freely and fully in the present. 

I offer effective, cutting-edge trauma therapies to help people deal with, and recover from the debilitating effects of physical, psychological or developmental trauma. Each therapy is described below:

EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION AND REPROCESSING (EMDR)

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a method of psychotherapy that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These studies have consistently found that EMDR effectively decreases/ eliminates the symptoms of PTSD for the majority of clients, as well as alleviating other associated symptoms such as anxiety. 

Through EMDR, negative emotions, feelings and behaviors caused by unresolved earlier experiences can be reprocessed and disturbing material can be seen in a new and less distressing way. EMDR is founded on the premise that each person has both an innate tendency to move toward health and wholeness and the inner capacity to achieve it. 

FLASH TECHNIQUE

The Flash Technique (FT) is a recently developed therapeutic intervention for reducing the disturbance associated with traumatic or other distressing memories. FT is a minimally intrusive option that does not require clients to consciously engage with the traumatic memory. This allows for processing traumatic memories without feeling distress.  

FT may be used as an adjunctive intervention to make a variety of trauma-informed psychotherapies quicker and better tolerated.  

SENSORIMOTOR PSYCHOTHERAPY

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a body-centered psychotherapy that is particularly helpful in working with the effects of trauma and abuse, emotional pain, and limiting belief systems. Unconscious attitudes are brought to consciousness where they can be examined, understood, and changed. This gentle therapy helps clients to process thoughts, emotions and body-based experiences related to trauma in a safe and mindful manner. By learning to pay close attention to internal experience, people can decrease symptoms and reclaim authority over their lives. 

SOMATIC EXPERIENCING (SE)

The Somatic Experiencing® method is a body-oriented approach to the healing of trauma and other psychological and physical trauma-related health problems. The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma.