Have you experienced a life trauma?

When I say the word trauma you may imagine something drastic or extreme such as an accident, violence, or a natural disaster… In fact, trauma simply means a “wound, injury or shock”. A traumatic event could be something large or small. Along with predictable traumas such as an accident, violence, or natural disaster, traumatic events could also include the death of a loved one, childbirth, abuse or neglect, robbery, and even witnessing or supporting someone else in their trauma.

Yes, I would like to schedule my initial consultation.

When you experience trauma, your brain tries to protect you

Recent research has helped us understand far more about how the brain holds information when there is a traumatic experience. That memory is stored in a separate neural network isolated from our regular memories. When triggered, you may experience flashbacks that can make the event feel real again, losing connection with your present reality and safety.

What if I avoid triggers that bring back the trauma?

Avoidance is the most common response to trauma, taking care to not trigger feelings and memories about the event. This is stressful, however, as it requires you to be hypervigilant to best protect yourself. Others may turn to drugs or alcohol or other self-destructive behaviors to numb the fear and memories.

Do you have post-traumatic stress disorder?

The symptoms of PTSD are diverse, and perhaps not initially seen as connected to the trauma. When you look at the pattern as a whole, however, it becomes clear that your body is feeling acute stress leading to issues such as:

unable to stop thinking about the event
nightmares or difficult falling asleep
desire to avoid thinking about the event,and avoiding people or places that remind you about the event
overwhelming emotions when something reminds you of what happened, including flashbacks or panic attacks
feeling numb, hopeless, or a lack of interest in things you used to enjoy
memory and concentration problems
social isolation and difficulty trusting others
feelings of guilt, shame, anger, or feeling unsafe
suicidal thoughts
substance use (alcohol or drugs) to calm down the intensity of the emotions that are felt when the event is brought to mind.
physical symptoms such as headaches, stomach pain, muscle cramps, hypertension, ulcers, and even nausea.

When trauma causes dissociation

Have you ever felt as though you were watching yourself from outside of your body and not able to control a situation?

Often these two experiences go hand in hand. Dissociation essentially means that your brain has isolated an experience in a particular segment of your brain that is not accessible within your normal memory stores. It is most often found when there has been extended abuse, neglect or fear in childhood and the brain has needed to find some way to protect you from the daily stress. It functions as a kind of amnesia, so that the memory of the abuse is not in your conscious awareness unless triggered in some way.

Yes, I would like to schedule my initial consultation.

How do we experience dissociation?

As adults, when we have dissociated we may feel disconnected from daily life or loved ones. Only “parts” of yourself may be present for particular feelings or situations, and when feeling unsafe (with or without good reason) you may automatically detach emotionally in order to cope. This can make it difficult to keep yourself safe should you be presented with real danger.

“Houses are designed with walls between rooms, especially where there needs to be privacy, such as bathrooms and bedrooms. Self-systems are similar, with barriers impeding access to corners of self where secrets or pain is kept. In the internal “houses” of people who survived childhood trauma, there are often many thoughts, feelings, body sensations and emotions that are experienced as private, or even shameful. Those things are kept secret from the self and from others, as if they are kept behind locked doors and thick walls. Dissociation produces amnesia barriers that reduce the ability to slide effortlessly between parts of self. The walls and doors in their internal house are locked up tight, and aren’t accessible to the conscious mind in the way areas of an open-floor-plan house would be accessible. Over the course of therapy, many people arrive at a more open floor plan to their internal house, because they feel less ashamed and accept themselves better.”

-Sandra Paulsen

How I Can Help

To treat complex PTSD and dissociation in adults I use a combination of internal family systems (IFS), brainspotting, EMDR, somatic practices, and Depth Psychology. IFS focuses on understanding and resolving dissociative symptoms through greater awareness of the different parts of self and offers a helpful approach for resolving inner conflict by promoting a safe and supportive internal environment. Brainspotting is a technique for processing trauma that uses bi-lateral stimulation through sound – providing entry into the neural networks that store the traumatic material in a more gentle approach.

Anxiety can take many forms.

We all experience some degree of anxiety in life, perhaps feeling fearful, on-edge, or jittery in response to a stressful situation. It is normal and even healthy for life challenges such as a new job, school, health issues or pregnancy, economic hardship and difficult social situations to trigger some degree of anxiety. When experienced in a positive way, these feelings of anxiety can help motivate us to take risks, move beyond our comfort zone, and discover new abilities. Sometimes, however, our feeling of anxiety keep us from having a healthy response to these challenges. This is when counseling can help; working together to help you gain control of your fears, develop positive coping skills, and move forward to a place of well-being.

Contact me now to learn more about your options for counselling to help you move beyond fear and stress.

How can you know if you need help with anxiety?

So if anxiety is a normal response to a stressful event, how can you know if you need help? Clues might include:

Are you overwhelmed with anxiety and fear about your life and unable to control your thoughts?
Do you often feel tense, stressed or restless?
Is your anxiety response to a challenging situation beyond what might be expected or considered healthy? Is it keeping you from coping in a positive way?
Do people say you’re irritable or short-tempered, and do you find yourself regretting outbursts that felt beyond your control? Is you irritability causing tension with loved ones?
Is your anxiety affecting your sleep or appetite?
Has anxiety taken over your life? Perhaps the constant worry and fear makes you feel as if perhaps you’re losing your mind?

First, you’re not alone in these feelings – they are far more common than you might imagine. At the core, when anxiety feels beyond your capacity to cope, you will know that you need outside support. It can be difficult to reach out, because we perceive that we “should” be able to cope. But if you are struggling with some form of an anxiety disorder, “coping” is simply not an option – you need, and deserve, help.

What is an anxiety disorder?

When feelings of anxiety take over, fear or panic become chronic and overwhelming and represent some form of an anxiety disorder. While the experience for people living with anxiety disorders can feel overwhelming, the good news is that they are very responsive to treatment. Most can fully recover with the help of counseling.

We know that anxiety has become a serious problem in our lives when it gets in the way of everyday living or enjoying important relationships. There are five broad categories of anxiety disorders. The main categories of anxiety disorders are:

Generalized anxiety

You may experience anxiety and worry that seems continuous and interferes with daily life and relationships, and perhaps may also experience depression. Feelings can include being tense and restless, irritable, tired, and having difficulty getting a good nights sleep.

Social anxiety

Do you ever struggle with being in groups of public and find yourself worrying that everyone is watching or judging you? While you may rationally know this isn’t the case, is it still difficult to relax due to fear of being judged or embarrassed?

Panic

Have you experienced repeated, unexpected attacks of intense fear mimicking the symptoms of a heart attack. Often there is accompanying anxiety and worry about when another attack will occur. The worry and anticipation about when another panic attack will happen can become so upsetting that you may become afraid to leave the house.

Post traumatic stress

Have you seen or experienced a traumatizing event that involved the threat of injury or death to yourself or others, you may become overwhelmed with intrusive frightening memories and thoughts about the ordeal so vivid that you feel like you are re-experiencing the event, accompanied by attempts to avoid these memories leaving you feeling detached or numb.

Phobias

If you experience an persistent or irrational fear of a specific object or situation that is out of proportion to the actual danger or threat, such as fear of elevators or flying, you may be struggling with a phobia. Often there is intense worry and stress about the fear itself accompanied by interruptions in daily life and a tendency to avoid the feared situation or object.

You don’t have to live with anxiety

Even with all of life’s usual ongoing challenges, you don’t have to live with worry, fear or depression. Counseling will help address the root of your anxiety and help you develop the skills to move forward with greater calm and confidence!