Trauma
"Trauma is an internal straight jacket created when a devastating moment is frozen in time. It stifles the unfolding of being, and strangles our attempts to move forward with our lives. It disconnects us from ourselves, others, nature and spirit. When overwhelmed by threat, we are frozen in fear, as though our instinctive survival energies were 'all dressed up with no place to go.'"
- Peter Levine, Ph.D
You may be having symptoms of trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which can include emotional numbness, impotent rage, chronically intrusive memories of trauma that seem to be happening in the present moment, inability to distinguish flashbacks from real occurrences, and being incapable of acting, immobilized with fear or anxiety.
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When something painful happens to you, and you feel intense emotions, the experience is a full body response. Symptoms of stress and trauma become "stuck" in your body. Somatic is defined as relating to the body. Somatic symptoms are physical. Headaches, heart palpitations, stomach issues, fatigue, dizziness, insomnia, and sexual pain can all be somatic symptoms related to trauma.
OUR APPROACH
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Trauma therapy can offer you: relief from traumatic stress symptoms, increased resiliency and resourcefulness, a heightened sense of empowerment and an increased capacity to be in the here-and-now and connect with others.
EMDR
This extensively researched therapy technique uses eye movement to physically activate the part of your brain that processes trauma, in order to release the emotional grip is has on you. In just a few sessions, what feels deeply distressing now will seem like a faded memory, and you’ll finally be able to rise above what happened.
Internal Family Systems
Trauma can cause us to disown parts of ourselves in order to cope, but we cannot truly move forwards if those parts of us are left behind. IFS is a form of psychotherapy that helps us reclaim and befriend the parts of us that are scared, ashamed, and angry, so that we can live as our beautifully whole selves.
Trauma-Focused CBT
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps us get unstuck from the destructive thought patterns and behaviors relating to trauma. It gives us the awareness and tools we need to disrupt these vicious emotional cycles, so that we can regain sovereignty of our inner worlds, and make more empowered choices.