Trauma Treatment

It's not about "What's Wrong With You?" It's about "What Happened to You?"

For the past 11 years, I've worked with individuals confronting their trauma from the ages of 3 to 90. Getting past trauma takes persistence and determination. Depending on the scope of your trauma, treatment may be brief or take several months to process.

I am certified in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. Often times, talk therapy can be successful in the treatment of trauma, however having the tools from TF-CBT and EMDR gives clients the opportunity to choose their interventions.

Trauma is defined as "deeply distressing or disturbing experience." Trauma effects brain development on multiple levels leading to symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD):

Hypervigilance (feeling on edge)
Nightmares
Flashbacks
Anxiety
Depression
Self-destruction behavior such as drinking alcohol and/or using drugs
Trouble sleeping
Trouble concentrating
Irritability
Aggressive behavior
Feelings of guilt and/or shame

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (complex PTSD, sometimes abbreviated to c-PTSD or CPTSD) is a condition where you experience some symptoms of PTSD along with some additional symptoms, such as:

difficulty controlling your emotions
feeling very angry or distrustful towards the world
constant feelings of emptiness or hopelessness
feeling as if you are permanently damaged or worthless
feeling as if you are completely different to other people
feeling like nobody can understand what happened to you
avoiding friendships and relationships, or finding them very difficult
often experiencing dissociative symptoms such as depersonalisation or derealisation
physical symptoms, such as headaches, dizziness, chest pains and stomach aches
regular suicidal feelings.

Both EMDR and TF-CBT can be provided via telehealth. In many instances, I've had clients prefer the telehealth methods over the in-person methods as they can feel more in control of themselves and the information they share. Remaining in their own environment for telehealth sessions brings a feeling of distance between the client and the trauma.