Are You Or Your Child Struggling To Process A Frightening Or Adverse Experience?
Have you or your child lived through a painful event? Has an instance of violence, abuse, or neglect compromised your ability to form healthy attachments? Or have you noticed changes in your mental or physical health, relationships, or capacity for resilience?
You may be the parent of a child who has survived physical, emotional, sexual, or mental abuse. Maybe a rupture in early attachment took place—perhaps due to medical trauma during their birth or separation from parent/caregiver in infancy—and your child now struggles with separation anxiety, irritability, or the loss of recently implemented skills, such as potty training. Perhaps your child complains of random aches and pains or has developed a phobia that has seemingly arrived out of nowhere.
Alternatively, if you’re an adult struggling with the fallout of unresolved trauma, you may find yourself avoiding the memory of your traumatic experience at all costs. Perhaps you find yourself often feeling angry or irritable, or maybe you’ve become detached from those around you due to an inability to trust others.
If you or your child struggle with trauma or symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—which include persistent and frightening thoughts, numbness, and hyper-vigilance—it’s likely that life feels pretty out of balance.
You may find yourself wishing that there were better coping skills available to you or that you could just reintegrate your traumatic experience in such a way that it’s no longer so disruptive to your life. While things may feel out of your control now, a sense of empowerment, hope, and reintegration is possible through trauma therapy and PTSD treatment.
Trauma And PTSD Are Normal Responses To Abnormal Events
Though effects of trauma and PTSD vary from person to person, it’s estimated that one-half of all US adults will experience at least one traumatic event in their lives. And though a majority of that population will not develop clinical PTSD in the aftermath of their experience, any form of unresolved trauma can greatly impair one’s ability to function at home, work, or school.
Depending on the severity of symptoms, trauma and PTSD can be all-consuming and disorienting. Many of those who suffer may not be fully aware of their triggers and likely experience acute anxiety and distress when reminded of the event. Because fear becomes a prevalent feeling within these populations, it’s common for survivors to withdraw from others, experience obstacles in daily functioning, and engage in destructive behaviors or patterns of self-harm.
Since post-traumatic stress disorder is a gradual and ongoing development, it cannot just disappear or be fixed overnight. This reality can make it hard to find hope and optimism that things will get better, leaving individuals feeling vulnerable and powerless in the face of trauma. It’s only natural to want to avoid these uncomfortable feelings and survivors will often go to great lengths to numb themselves from the pain.
Nevertheless, this degree of avoidance becomes increasingly detrimental to forming healthy relationships, finding connections with others, and maintaining a high quality of life. Yet there is hope in overcoming the adverse effects of trauma and PTSD, and it begins with therapeutic treatment at Serenity Experiential Family Therapy Center, Contact us for a free consultation.
Therapy Offers You A Safe Space To Explore Emotions And Heal Trauma
Each person responds differently to symptoms of trauma or PTSD. Some people have more innate emotional resilience than others, but for those of us who need help with further developing coping skills, somatic (or body-based) techniques are incredibly helpful. At Serenity Experiential Family Therapy Center, our clinicians specialize in mind-body approaches and experiential therapies that help our clients to build their resiliency.
We view the therapeutic relationship as a collaborative one in which we will work with you, the client, to establish the treatment plan that is best suited to meet your needs and help you find relief from trauma and PTSD. Our initial goal in the beginning phases of therapy will be to develop a trusted clinician-client connection so that you or your child can feel safe and free to explore often distressing aspects of trauma.
From there, we will work through an assessment period during which we will collaborate and examine your or your child’s recurrent symptoms and history. Together, we will use this information to identify “stuck points,” or the areas in your life where trauma has caused you to regress into cycles of fear, anxiety, and negative patterns of thinking.
Once we have determined the relationship between your emotions and the physical sensations happening in your body during moments of trigger or discomfort, we will begin to target the traumatic memory using Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and other gentle therapeutic techniques.
EMDR relies on the bilateral sensory perception of the brain to process and neutralize memories and the thoughts and emotions associated with these memories. Because this approach focuses on specific memories and how they are stored in the brain (rather than trying to change surface thoughts and behaviors), EMDR has proven extremely effective in helping our clients to reprocess and reintegrate traumatic experiences, relieving symptoms of PTSD.
For children in particular, we incorporate elements of EMDR into experiential therapies and Synergetic Play which helps them to explore their thoughts, feelings, and emotions in nonverbal and creative ways. This combination of methods allows children to learn healthy ways to approach adversity and solve problems.
Regardless of age, trauma therapy has allowed our clients to navigate their emotions and develop necessary coping strategies for managing the distress associated with trauma and PTSD. We know that unresolved trauma and PTSD can be paralyzing in all areas of life, but with effective therapy and demonstrated treatment methods, it is possible to live free from chronic fear.
Perhaps you’re ready to try therapy for trauma, but you have some questions…
My child refuses to talk about the trauma—how will therapy work?
At Serenity EFTC, we incorporate Synergetic Play Therapy when working with children, allowing them to explore and process their emotions in creative and nonverbal ways. Because traumatic experiences are stored in the brain and body in ways that result in emotional dysregulation, Synergetic Play can help your child to heal sensory networks and give them the resources for effectively identifying and expressing their needs.
It is our hope that your child, in developing a trusted connection with their therapist, will feel safe and empowered to develop the tools needed for processing and narrating their experiences.
I don’t want to relive my trauma in therapy.
If you’re struggling with severe trauma or PTSD, you’re already reliving painful experiences every day. And as your past continues to negatively impact your present and future, it’s important to seek the resources that can help.
Our therapists understand that trauma hurts, and our goal is to help you through it as gently and painlessly as possible. For this reason, we use EMDR because it allows you to process trauma without the intensity of reliving the experience; the treatment is instead focused on how the memory is stored in your brain. Not only is EMDR especially gentle, but it works quickly and is highly effective for targeting traumatic memories.
How can I support someone struggling with PTSD?
If you have a loved one affected by PTSD, taking the time to educate yourself and read about symptoms and treatment is a great first step. If you know what to expect from someone struggling with PTSD, you’ll have an easier time understanding and relating to their experience. And besides encouraging help through therapy, you can act as an external regulator for your loved one, inviting them to join in peaceful activities, calming practices, and reconnecting to the world through positive experiences. It’s important to listen to and validate the feelings of your loved one—and above all, be patient!
Find Relief From A Painful Past So That You Can Experience A Hopeful Future
If you or your child are struggling with symptoms of PTSD or trauma-related distress, therapeutic treatment at Serenity Experiential Family Therapy Center can offer tools for coping and relief. For more information about how we can help, or to schedule a free, 15-minute consultation with one of our clinicians, contact us on our website or call at (303) 606-6818 to schedule a consultation.