Do You Want Your Life Back?
Have you personally experienced or witnessed a traumatic event that has left you feeling flat, frozen or lethargic or, alternatively, panicky, restless, irritable, angry or enraged? Perhaps you vacillate between dazed and heightened emotions without understandable cause. Or, maybe your feelings are all over the map, making it difficult to concentrate and be present. Have you experienced flashbacks or panic attacks since the trauma? Have your sleeping and eating patterns changed? Are you trying to cope with stress, anxiety and emotional heaviness by self-medicating with drugs and alcohol or engaging in other numbing behaviors? Do you often feel overwhelmed by simple things or disassociated from what’s going on around you? Do you wish you could find a way to cope with your trauma experience and feel like yourself again?
The repercussions of a traumatic event can be frightening and leave you feeling limited and helpless. Following a trauma, it’s common to feel hyper-vigilant, become easily triggered and struggle to get through each day. Emotions can shift from depression to agitation quickly. You may feel unable to trust others or even yourself. You may also feel highly fearful of what may come next or totally dissociated from the world and people around you.
Trauma can drastically change our lives and how we feel. It can be caused by a single incident, such as a serious car accident. Trauma can also be developmental, which can include child abuse or other types of abuse that have occurred more than once over time. Multiple surgeries and frightening prenatal and perinatal experiences can also lead to trauma. Depending on the nature of your traumatic experience, you may be experiencing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can have long-term residual effects. It’s important to note that trauma is not produced by the actual event, but rather by the nervous system and psyche’s inability to discharge shock from the body. When the normal fight/flight response freezes, panic and fear become “stuck” in the body, throwing the nervous system out of whack – which is why trauma symptoms are expressed physically as well as emotionally.
You Are Not Alone In Your Trauma
We live in a culture that perpetuates trauma. We lead stressful lives, which puts strain on our nervous systems and decreases our natural resiliency. While we are all susceptible to trauma, it is a highly individualized experience. The same event that was shaken off by one person may have a significant and damaging impact on another. If you have undergone a traumatic experience, which has affected your ability to feel and function normally, seeking the help of an experienced, skilled and compassionate trauma therapist may be critical to your mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.
Trauma Therapy Can Help Heal Your Mind And Body
With the help of an experienced trauma therapist in a gentle and supportive environment, you can heal from trauma. Effective trauma and ptsd treatment is a deliberate, mindful process. It is important that you develop a trusting therapeutic relationship, rebuild resiliency in your nervous system and feel like you’re on solid ground in your life again before approaching the traumatic event.
In sessions together, I can help you identify, explore and address dysregulated emotions and uncomfortable physical symptoms. We can address the feelings of grief and loss that come after a life-changing event and devise healthy and effective ways for you to take care of yourself during this challenging time. In trauma counseling sessions, you can also develop an increased self-awareness, a better understanding of your emotional triggers, and learn techniques to support yourself in the moments when anxiety or other distressing feelings and sensations surface. You can develop a mindfulness practice and learn healthy ways to cope with stress and triggers.
Healing from trauma is kind of like slowly letting the air out of a balloon. Using modalities and mind-body approaches, such as EMDR therapy, somatic therapy, Brainspotting and mindfulness techniques, which are designed and proven to treat trauma, I can help you re-regulate your nervous system and heal. It’s been an amazing experience to watch people get their lives back through trauma treatment. With help and a slow, thoughtful approach, you, too, can release painful emotions, increase your resiliency, restore balance and harmony and regain your life. It is possible for you to let go of the fear, anxiety and pain you’ve been carrying and feel whole again.
But, you may still have questions or concerns about treating PTSD and trauma…
I think that I need help, but I’ve heard that trauma therapy can be costly.
I invite you to think about how much your trauma and ptsd symptoms are hindering you from living the life you want to. Are you constantly in pain, anxious, highly fearful, easily triggered or in an agitated state? Because trauma resonates in the nervous system, trauma symptoms are unlikely to go away on their own and will continue to negatively impact your mental, emotional and physical health. Trauma therapy is a significant investment in your overall wellbeing, and the costs of not working though trauma can be high.
I’m worried that trauma treatment will trigger more pain and that I’ll feel worse.
We will not talk about your trauma right away. We will begin by building a trusting, safe and supportive relationship as you start to work through the feelings that have been created by your trauma, such as grief, anger, sadness or fear. We will also not touch the trauma itself until we both agree that your nervous system has re-regulated and you feel strong and grounded again. You will set the pace in the healing process.
I can’t understand why I’m not over these feelings yet. Why can’t I do this on my own?
Support is critical for people suffering from trauma. And, if you have limited support from friends or family, getting support from a therapist becomes even more critical. Trauma can be life changing and symptoms will continue to be triggered until your trauma is released. In our trauma therapy sessions, you can slowly release trauma from your body, work through painful emotions and begin to heal. With the proper support and approach, relief is possible.
If you are in Louisville, CO or the surrounding area, I invite you to call me at 720-427-8222 for a 15-minute phone consultation to discuss your specific needs and answer any questions you may have about trauma therapy, PTSD treatment and my practice.