Trauma Counseling for Adults
Trauma can be any overwhelming event that’s out of your control. Sometimes it’s a single thing like a loss, a natural disaster, or a sexual assault. Other times, the trauma happens over and over, like with physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, domestic violence, or medical problems.
Traumatic experiences can change your brain's fear center, making your nervous system extra sensitive to what it perceives as threatening situations. Your brain isn’t very accurate, it’s meant to help you survive. Trauma lowers your threshold for feeling overwhelmed, so you’re in a constant state of fight or flight. This can leave you feeling on edge and emotionally drained all at once.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) occurs when six months after trauma you continue having symptoms like: trying to avoid memories and reminders because it causes physical or emotional distress, recurring nightmares, upsetting memories, flashbacks, feeling disconnected or detached from others, having a hard time experiencing positive emotions, inappropriate guilt (I should have, shouldn’t have, if only etc.), exaggerated negative beliefs (I failed, the world sucks, I’m broken etc.), irritability, recklessness, feeling on edge or like you have to be alert, being easily startled, having trouble falling asleep, and difficulty concentrating.
Trauma can lead to emotional pain that remains long after the event, impacting your emotions, relationships, and beliefs about yourself, others, and the world. Trauma therapy involves learning coping skills to soothe your nervous system. Once you are confident in the tools you have for emotion regulation, you will tell your story. As I listen, I seek to understand your perception and am listening to hear how trauma has shaped your self-narrative. I will explore with you how your thoughts may be distorted and teach you how to challenge unhelpful beliefs so that you can gain control of your emotions.
If you continue to be impacted by the past more than you would like to be, therapy can help. Our minds have neuroplasticity, and when we reexperience some of our painful emotions of the past in a safe, supportive environment, we create new pathways and connections that increase our threshold for feeling alarmed. Your brain and body can become less reactive, giving you more control over your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.