Trauma

What’s going on?

Your head is pounding, and your stomach is churning with nausea.

Without warning, the flashbacks tear across your mind.

Inexplicably, you careen from happiness to anger, sadness, fear, or irritability.

Or perhaps suddenly you’re laughing or crying, and you don’t know why.

After time, you may experience any or all the above symptoms – if you’re suffering from trauma.

What, exactly, is trauma?

The American Psychological Association defines trauma as an emotional response to a horrible event like a natural disaster, rape, or car accident, through which a person usually experiences shock and denial.

Relationship toxicity like manipulation, guilt trips, gaslighting, and physical abuse may all cause a person to develop complex trauma.

The victim of this type of trauma often suffers recurring incidents over the course of many years. People who fit this criterion experience symptoms like suffering from depression, anxiety, flashbacks, irritability, relationship isolation and difficulty with their livelihoods.

Have you ever heard the word “Trigger”?

A trigger is an intense emotional response to a situation that does not warrant that type of emotional response.

Triggers can also be something that happens that brings to mind a painful memory or “video” of a situation. It is important to pay attention to how your body is feeling throughout the day and whether you feel tense, anxious or uncomfortable around certain people.

Do you ever feel like you are re-experiencing a memory all over again?

When a person experiences a traumatic event or experiences abuse over a long period of time, the mind often is unable to process those events fully in the moment.

When this happens, the emotions, thoughts, beliefs, physical sensations that occurred at the time get trapped in the unprocessed memory. So, if you’re triggered, you’ll often feel like you’re reliving the memory.

EMDR

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): This is one of the leading interventions in the psychology field for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD).

Utilizing bilateral stimulation, EMDR stimulates each side of the brain (by tapping, vibration, hand) while the client talks through the memory. This process has been found to help the client to fully process the memory (taking the raw emotion out of it) and store it in the brain properly.

If you think of the unprocessed memory like an open, oozing wound, EMDR helps to go from oozing to a scab then a scar.

You can heal and move beyond the debilitating effects of trauma.

Call or text (970) 590-1477, or email to schedule your initial appointment.