Trauma

Everyone experiences difficulties in one form or another such as getting in a car accident, a difficult breakup, being fired from a job, assault, or even a rude remark from someone you care about. Sometimes, these difficulties occur when someone you love such as a parent or spouse isn’t there for you when you need them or even hurts you in some way.

At times we experience something disturbing, and our brain doesn’t quite know how to make sense of it or work through it. We end up feeling stuck. The experience gets stored in the brain in a disorganized manner. This is what we call trauma. Whether it was something obviously traumatic or something that we don’t really think of as traumatic it can still impact the way you feel!

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What can we do about trauma?

The good news is there are ways to work through your difficult experiences and heal. One of my favorite tools in processing trauma is EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing). EMDR is a tool we use in therapy that helps your brain make sense of the things that are keeping you stuck in discomfort. EMDR helps to reorganize the way your brain stores unwanted memories. Research has demonstrated that EMDR is an effective tool for decreasing the many unwanted symptoms of trauma. Many of my clients find that after EMDR, that the things that were distressing to them before, are no longer as distressing. As a therapist, I sought out extra training in EMDR because it has been the most transformational part of my own healing journey.

In therapy we can work through your difficult experiences and give you tools to experience life differently. Often, people say that the difficulties they are working on no longer feel so disturbing. They begin to see themselves differently and experience the joy that life has to offer.