EMDR + Trauma therapy
Trauma therapy should be viewed as a process, not an event —
one that you work through not by trying to forget about your trauma,
but by working through it.
About You…
You’re just upset and don’t know why. You ask yourself if you’re overreacting? You can’t understand why sometimes you feel triggered for no reason. And when you’re not feeling overwhelmed with emotions, you feel totally numb. Almost unable to feel.
Either way, YOU WANT IT TO STOP because you can see that it’s affecting your life and everyone in it.
Or maybe…
It’s not that intrusive. You feel distracted and have a hard time relaxing. You just don’t feel like yourself. The littlest thing can bring up a bad memory and a self-defeating thought. You try to push past it, but it keeps coming up.
IT FEELS LIKE SOMETHING’S STUCK
You’re either living with a whole lot of anger or a whole lot of shame. You find yourself thinking, “If I could just be normal…”
Living with trauma can make you feel out of control as you may feel scared, anxious and irritable one second, and sad, hopeless and withdrawn the next second.
Trauma is Normal
Most people experience trauma at some point in their lives. The goal with any disturbing experience is to let the trauma move through you so you can recover in a healthy way. For many of us, that’s not possible and trauma gets “stuck” living in our bodies. Left untreated, it can overwhelm your emotions, body, and brain.
It’s normal to experience trauma or PTSD by either shutting down (dissociation, sadness, loneliness, and numbness) or revving up (anger, panic, hypervigilance, mood swings, and mistrust). Both responses can wreak havoc on your life and can lead to depression, abuse, anxiety, addiction, and loss of relationships.
It be can scary to admit you’re struggling and you might be tempted to power through these difficulties. Unfortunately, traditional ways of coping aren’t always effective. EMDR + Trauma therapy can help you deal with these overwhelming emotions and negative physical sensations so that you can finally feel in control again.
Solution
BREAK FREE FROM THE PAST.
How do I start healing from trauma?
If you feel as though your emotions, body, or brain have been overwhelmed by trauma, it’s time to start healing. The good news is that trauma therapy is an effective way of dealing with these disturbances. A trauma therapist doesn’t just listen; they also educate you on how to heal from traumatic experiences that may have happened months or even years ago.
As a result, traumas lose their power over you, allowing for more freedom in your daily life so that you can go on living your life without being held back by overwhelming emotions, body responses, or fear-based thoughts.
Our team at Knot Counseling helps you transform a traumatic experience through a personalized approach. We have a full menu of therapeutic approaches tailored to fit your needs and heal from trauma and PTSD safely and effectively. There are many different types of therapies available; some are geared towards treating certain kinds of trauma and others are geared towards relieving symptoms such as anxiety, depression, anger, and guilt.
We pull our knowledge from the practices of EMDR, Brainspotting, CBT, IFS and Mindfulness.
TALK THERAPY is typically used as a first step, particularly when you need help processing difficult emotions. The goal of talk therapy is to help you identify traumatic experiences and negative emotions that are reactive; it also works on cognitive distortions, otherwise known as thinking errors, that can interfere with personal relationships or how you cope with everyday life. Our techniques help you talk about your memories in a way that gives you power over them.
EMOTIONAL REGULATION + MINDFULNESS – Using our experiential trauma interventions, you’re also given the tools you need to strengthen your resilience and ease your emotional distress. You’ll learn how to relax your mind, improve your focus and let go of painful memories.
INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS (IFS) – This approach is one of our favorites! We all take on different roles at different times. IFS helps you identify the parts you’re playing and why. Are you perfectionist? A people-pleaser? A task-master? A molder? A guilt tripper? By understanding the different functions on our own internal system, we can embrace these parts of ourselves and heal our wounds.
EMDR – Sometimes words aren’t enough and you may need help to process the events that had a negative effect on you. EMDR therapy is a powerful way to heal and has been shown to help people overcome trauma, whether it be emotional or physical.
More on EMDR
EMDR therapy sessions involve tapping into your brain’s natural ability to rewire itself and allowing your brain, body and emotions time to heal on their own accord. With successful treatment through EMDR therapy, many people find themselves less affected by traumatic memories, both emotionally and mentally.
EMDR therapy is based on the principle that negative memories are encoded differently than positive ones, and that trauma survivors often have difficulty assimilating positive experiences into their memory banks because of the intrusive “noise” of traumatic memories.
EMDR Treatment involves helping clients through 8 phases of healing where you’ll safely recall your disturbing memories, while also maintaining present moment awareness. This can be done with your eyes open or closed. The idea is that by allowing your brain to process negative memories at a deeper level, you can change your response to them, thus eliminating their power over you.
With successful treatment through EMDR therapy, many people find themselves less affected by traumatic memories, both emotionally and mentally.
As part of your journey toward healing from trauma, call Knot Counseling to see if you’d be a good candidate for EMDR Therapy.
Questions?
It’s easy to judge ourselves and wonder if what we’re experiencing is “bad enough” to be called trauma. Trauma is ANY disturbance you’ve experienced that still gives you a negative reaction.
Yes. Let’s break it down this way… Big T trauma refers to any kind of single event (think car accidents, violent crimes or natural disasters) that can be categorized as life-threatening. Little T trauma, on the other hand, includes repetitive stressors like ongoing family disputes or consistently negative social interactions. If you experience many incidents of “little t” trauma over time they can also have big effects on your mental health. Regardless of what type of trauma is affecting you, it’s important to remember that everyone heals differently and not everyone needs formal therapy in order to heal. What helps one person might do nothing for another!
Though many of our clients report instant relief, it can take many months to heal from trauma. EMDR is known to work faster than traditional talk therapy and can be isolated to specific triggers. Because EMDR is focused on specific targets, you’ll be able to feel success after each one has been addressed.
It can be difficult to discuss traumatic experiences with someone else, especially if you’ve kept them inside your head for a long time. Therapy is a safe space where you’re able to talk about your thoughts and feelings in a judgment-free environment. Sometimes just saying things out loud can help you process them for the first time. But sometimes it does get worse before it gets better. It’s important to let us know so we can help you regulate your emotions. Our therapists are trained to move at a pace that’s comfortable for you and will never push you into something you aren’t ready for.
Free Consultation
Knot Counseling is so passionate about helping people heal from their trauma so that people can live lighter, more authentic lives. We know that asking for help is never easy. If you’d like to schedule an appointment or discuss any questions you may have regarding trauma treatment or EMDR therapy, call us today for a FREE CONSULTATION.
Release your trauma. Unlock Potential.
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