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, sexual assault, rape, molestation, incest, intimate partner & domestic violence, bullying, violent personal assaults, abuse, neglect, terminal or chronic illness, survivor of suicide, or any other emotional trauma.
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.
What are the Symptoms of PTSD?
People with PTSD often experience intense thoughts and feelings related to their traumatic experiences. These can last for a long time after the initial event. Many people with PTSD also relive the event through flashbacks and nightmares.
People with PTSD often feel intense emotions such as fear, anger, sadness, and a detachment from friends, family, and community members. They often avoid people and situations that remind them of the traumatic event. Ordinary sounds or incidents such as a door banging or accidental touch in a crowd may cause a strong and uncontrollable reaction.
How Can Treatment Help?
There are a variety of treatments that can be used to treat PTSD. However, there are three specific techniques that are research and evidence-based and known for their transformative effectiveness in successfully treating PTSD.
- Brainspotting: Brainspotting is a neuro-experiential, brain-based rapidly effective Trauma Therapy for a wide variety of emotional and somatic conditions. Brainspotting is particularly effective with trauma-based situations, helping to identify and heal underlying trauma that contributes to anxiety, depression, and other behavioral conditions. It can also be used with performance and creativity enhancement. Brainspotting gives the therapist access to both brain and body processes. Its goal is to bypass the conscious, neocortical thinking to access the deeper, subcortical emotional and body-based parts of the brain.
- EMDR: EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. This technique uses bilateral sensory input, such as side-to-side eye movements or tapping to stimulate the brain to process difficult thoughts, memories, and emotions. EMDR does not require the client to retell all the details of their trauma, which only re-traumatizes them. It is considered a Gold Standard in Trauma Therapy.
- Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness Therapy: There are different types of Mindfulness therapies, including: Mindfuness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP). The focus of Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness Therapy is to help the client pay attention to their thoughts, emotions, and body sensations without judgment; instead, using compassionate curiosity, the client learns how to sit with their whole being experience in the larger context of their trauma experience.
If you or a loved one suffer with PTSD and would like to explore Trauma Therapy options, please reach out to me. I have personally seen amazing transformation through Trauma Therapy and want to offer the help you need to enjoy life again. I offer you a Complimentary 15 minute Consultation.