Trauma is a powerful psychological shock that has damaging effects. You may have been the target of a crime at one point or several times in your life, including physical abuse, sexual assault, or sexual abuse and you find it hard to feel safe and to trust people. Maybe you witnessed abuse within the home you grew up in and feel guilty for not being able to stop it. You may have been in a serious accident which makes you wary of stepping into a car again, or maybe you’ve experienced a hostile work environment and you are afraid of this happening in a future job. You are not alone. A high number of people are trauma survivors, and many feel like they are reliving their trauma over and over again.
Do you find yourself thinking about a traumatic experience when you do not want to? Do you feel like the event is happening to you all over again when you are reminded of it? Do you notice yourself avoiding things such as places or symbols, that remind you of the experience? These are symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Therapy is an effective tool at reducing symptoms of trauma, including flashbacks, re-experiencing, and disassociating. I utilize a gradual exposure model and Trauma Focused Treatment to help you heal. Together, we will work on uncovering your triggers, learning about your physiological reactions, and utilize safe coping techniques so that your symptoms become infrequent. Your trauma does NOT own you. Your trauma does NOT define you. You deserve to be free from this pain, and you can have the healthy relationships and the happy life that you long to have.
Will I have to talk about my trauma in detail?
It is normal and even healthy to feel hesitant about discussing the details of what you experienced. For your safety, we will utilize a model called gradual exposure, where we will slowly and gradually talk about the details of the trauma. Your first session will consist of an assessment, where I will ask you questions about what type of trauma you experienced and when. However, you will not need to go into detail during this session, or even the next. The first phase of treatment will entail learning more about you as a person, including what symptoms you are feeling, where and when you are feeling them, and what techniques to use to stop your symptoms from escalating. This way, you will gain the tools to control your symptoms before you discuss the details of your experience.
What if my symptoms get worse?
Therapy involves discussing difficult topics that you may have been avoiding for a long time. As you start to uncover experiences and feelings that have been buried, it is possible to see an increase in symptoms at certain points in therapy. However, the overall goal is for you to be able to gain the knowledge and power to tackle these symptoms. You will learn to recognize early warning signs and be able to calm and ground yourself, so that you can return to what you were in the middle of doing in that moment (writing an e-mail, sending in a report, attending to your family).
I’ve experienced more than one kind of trauma in my life. Should I discuss all of my experiences, or just one traumatic experience?
This depends on you. If you have experienced different types of trauma, but only one particular experience is interfering in your life, then we can focus on the one that is causing you the most difficulty. You may initially be seeking therapy for one experience in particular, only to discover that the other traumatic experiences are also affecting you. This is normal, and it’s ok. Therapy is meant to work for you and I will be flexible in changing the course of treatment based on what your needs are and what serves you most.
