Trauma
Trauma can be described as an experience or series of events that caused emotional distress, confusion, and an overwhelming inability to cope. In some cases, people may have felt that their life or the life of someone else was threatened and as a result experienced a deep sense of horror and fear. Trauma can be experienced as an isolated incident (i.e. a bad car accident or a medical procedure gone wrong). Chronic trauma on the other hand, can be more complex and is often referred to as complex trauma. Complex trauma entails exposure to multiple traumatic incidents that were both wide-ranging and pervasive. Complex trauma is usually used to describe traumas that started early in life and caused the person to be exposed to stressful situations and emotions for a prolonged period of time. Examples of complex trauma can be child abuse, neglect, having an emotionally absent caregiver, intimate partner violence, growing up in an urban neighborhood with ongoing gang activity, or exposure to chronic discrimination, to name a few. Sadly, complex trauma can also be interpersonal in nature and therefore our loved ones or the people who cared for us can often be associated with our emotional pain. A healthy sense of predictability and trust is often lost when it comes to complex trauma.
The aftermath of trauma can be emotionally painful and a lot of people can feel unsafe in the world and in their relationships. A sense of helplessness and powerlessness along with the painful memories can result in depression, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and feelings of hopelessness and despair. And unfortunately the list goes on! Trauma hijacks the brain, mind, body, soul, and spirit. When trauma is unresolved and untreated, we are more vulnerable to becoming re-traumatized because trauma can repeat itself due to its cyclical nature and the lack of awareness that comes with it. If you are finding yourself in an ongoing cycle or spiral of emotional chaos, it may be time to seek trauma treatment.
“Being traumatized means continuing to organize your life as if the trauma were still going on-unchanged and immutable-as every new encounter or event is contaminated by the past.”
-Bessel A. Van Der Kolk
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) is an effective, evidence-based practice that sounds a lot more complicated than what it actually is. EMDR uses what is referred to as bilateral stimulation (visual, auditory, or tactile external stimulation occurring in a rhythmic right-left pattern) to help desensitize, reprocess, and integrate incomplete or fragmented, painful traumatic memories. Traumatic events cause our higher brain to shut down and we go into fight/flight/freeze mode, which causes the memory to get “stuck.” The images, cognitions (thoughts), emotions, and sensations associated with the traumatic memory are fragmented and stored maladaptively. As a result, we experience disturbance and traumatic symptoms such as, negative beliefs, intrusive thoughts and memories, flashbacks, nightmares, and sleeping problems. Some people also “lose” their bodies or report feeling “out of body” or disembodied.
With the use of bilateral stimulation, EMDR allows us to stimulate the parts of the brain holding the fragments of the traumatic memory and help reprocess the information and store it adaptively. The parts that are holding the trauma and have split off for your survival become more integrated. By integrating the traumatic material, people can experience a reduction in disturbance or emotional pain. The memory no longer has the autonomy to wreak havoc over your life and becomes integrated with the rest of your life story. As a result, the memory is not as emotionally charged or as powerful over you as it once was. Please note we are not “erasing” the memory but instead, making it more neutral or less painful and writing a more accurate narrative with the information we have now. Your beliefs about yourself and about what happened are updated in a way that allows you relief and an overall improved sense of well-being. You regain control of your life and internal faculties and as a result become more present.
Please note that everyone has a different experience in regard to how they take to EMDR. I cannot predict how much time it will take for you to heal but based on the research, I can say that it typically takes less time in comparison to more traditional methods of psychotherapy. Therapies, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or traditional talk therapy tend to not work as effectively as EMDR due to the fact that they cannot reach the subcortical parts of the brain like EMDR does. Unfortunately, we cannot talk ourselves out of trauma BUT fortunately, methods that use the body’s natural way of healing like EMDR have proven to work.
EMDR is effective at treating:
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PTSD/Acute Stress/Trauma
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Sexual Trauma
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Complex Trauma
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Generalized Anxiety Disorder
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Panic Disorder
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Performance Anxiety
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Depression
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Traumatic Grief
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Somatic and Pain Disorders
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Eating Disorders
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Relationship issues
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Self-esteem issues
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Chronic Stress
A Few Last Words…
I approach my clients as unique souls with a story, purpose, and as possessing a variety of inner-strengths and resiliencies. I steer away from limiting people to a list of symptoms and diagnostic labels because you are not your trauma. Labels don’t paint a whole picture and can even keep us stuck and I believe trauma healing is freedom. My approach is compassionate and tailored to fit each and every one of my clients because there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach. I strongly believe in treating the mind, body, soul and spirit and often talk about the importance of a more holistic approach, which basically allows us to take the whole person into account. I am happy to collaborate with clients to identify what that looks like for them and provide suggestions, such as looking at the benefits of starting a yoga practice or the use of daily meditation and breath work to name a few. We will work together to take care of your mind but also your body and spirit.