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
Trauma is an extreme form of fear accompanied by a state of perceived helplessness and often hopelessness. Symptoms of trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) 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.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape.
The good news though, is that all humans are born pre-wired with a process for recovering from traumatic symptoms. Through increased body awareness, sensation tolerance, and guided imagery, clients are carefully guided to safely release the stuck energy of traumatizing experiences. 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.