Trauma Counseling

What is trauma treatment?

There are several proven approaches to treating PTSD or trauma. The most highly regarded treatments to date work with clients to integrate past traumatic experience. 

 

I use a current state-of-the-art trauma treatment method that engages with the wisdom of the body. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a simple yet powerful way to teach the body and nervous system that we are no longer in danger.  We can re-connect to a felt sense of safety, inner confidence, and inner strength. We can also learn to connect more deeply in our relationships with others.

​

Integration means that past trauma is no longer active in our body creating difficult symptoms, including hypervigilance, intrusive memory or flashbacks, flashes of anger or mood swings,  social isolation, dysregulated emotions and/or behaviors, sleep problems, among other symptoms.  When we experience active trauma symptoms in situations where there is no imminent danger to life or health, we may experience confusion about how and why we are reacting. Left untreated, our nervous system acts as if the danger is ongoing and possibly ever present, even when the facts of our environment prove otherwise.  When we have untreated trauma, we must work with a specialist to help the body and nervous system learn that the threat is no longer present. We must help the body-mind to sew it back where it belongs--in the past, in our memory. 

​

Without proper integration, the fight/flight limbic system keeps misreading elements from our environment as if they were the past trauma were still occurring, no matter how long ago it occurred. This limbic response can override the logical/analytical part of us, and send us into protective fight/flight/freeze states and behaviors. Our partner suddenly resembles a childhood bully. A tire squeal shakes us to the core. Working with a skilled clinician will help you heal the trauma. 

I

​