Trauma Counselling

 

Counselling for Trauma

Trauma is the body’s response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event. These events can often overwhelm an individual’s ability to cope, cause feelings of powerlessness, diminish a person’s sense of self, and affect one’s ability to feel the full range of emotions and experiences. It’s important to note that experiencing trauma is not necessarily limited to events such as surviving a natural disaster or fleeing from war, experiences that are often referred to as big “T” traumas. Little “t” traumas can be just as impactful and can include emotional abuse, the death of a pet, bullying, and the ending of a significant relationship.

Individuals can also face post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which results from an overwhelming traumatic event that an individual could not fully process. Symptoms of PTSD include (but are not limited) to the following:

  • recurring flashbacks of the trauma that can cause ongoing fear

  • avoiding situations or places that are reminders of the event

  • feeling numb or cut-off

  • feelings of hopelessness, shame, or despair

  • problems with sleep, including nightmares

Often times individuals who have had traumatic experiences feel stuck in their patterns of behaving, or they may feel trapped by their own physical and emotional states (such as in the cases of anxiety and depression). Somatic approaches are effective in many different ways. For example, some approaches allow an individual to reprocess traumatic events and offer the opportunity to develop new neural pathways and alternative patterns of behaving/responding. EMDR, for example, is a mind-body approach to processing psychological issues that uses a concept called bilateral stimulation (BLS) to dampen the power of a person’s emotionally charged memories.

I am trained in EMDR and frequently integrate other research-based somatic approaches into my practice. If you have any questions about somatic approaches or the appropriateness of EMDR for your situation, please feel free to reach out with any questions you may have.