PTSD
Have you experienced a traumatic event? Are you suffering from lingering fear and anxiety? Do you feel like you no longer have any control over how you think, feel, and behave?
Posttraumatic stress disorder - also known as PTSD - is a mental health challenge that may occur in individuals who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a terrorist act, an act of war, a serious accident, rape, or any other violent personal assault.
It is believed that PTSD affects nearly four percent of the U.S. adult population. While it is usually linked with veterans who’ve experienced combat, PTSD occurs in all people regardless of age, race, nationality, or culture. In fact, women are twice as likely to experience PTSD than men.
Symptoms of PTSD include:
- Avoidance of people, places, or activities
- Avoiding thoughts, feelings, or conversations
- Hypervigilance
- Nightmares
- Flashbacks
- Poor Sleep
How Can Treatment Help?
The gold standard in trauma treatment for PTSD are somatic therapies, which use bilateral stimulation in order to connect the two hemispheres of the brain, allowing for a seamless digestion of the experience, in order for the memory to be consolidated. As memories are consolidated, clients notice they are naturally desensitized to previous triggers like visual images, sounds, or smells. The memory generally becomes less memorable and clients experience freedom, and a sense of having their life back. The therapy helps them to feel empowered and they begin to see the situation differently, which allows them to move on with life as symptoms of depression and anxiety are reduced, so too, are the markers for PTSD.
- EMDR – EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing. This technique uses bilateral sensory input such as side-to-side eye movements, tapping, or auditory tones to stimulate the brain to process difficult thoughts, memories, and emotions. This technique is more of a slow burn, or for people who prefer to pull back the band-aid slowly. One target is selected for reprocessing and we work on it week by week for as long as it takes for the brain to work through it. To read more about EMDR, please click here
- Accelerated Resolution Therapy- This is the fastest way to resolve trauma, oftentimes, clients can work through a single trauma in one 90 minute session. ART uses bilateral stimulation in the form of eye movements in order to assist the brain in digesting past experiences. This process is for people who prefer to "rip the band-aid" and want to see results quickly. ART is a memory consolidation therapy which results in desensitizing clients to disturbing images, thoughts, feelings, and sensations in the body related to a previous traumatic event. For more information, please click here
If you or a loved one suffer from PTSD and would like to explore treatment options, please reach out to me. Both EMDR and ART can be life changing. I have personally seen clients traumatized by auto accidents and couldn't drive after, be able to drive without fear. Clients who had phobias rooted in childhood experience overcome phobias and learn to love and appreciate the spider which previously caused terror. Clients who experienced medical trauma overcome fears of doctors/seeking treatment and countless other scenarios. These therapies give clients their freedom and ability to enjoy life again back.