What is Trauma?
Trauma is a term that refers to life threatening or highly stressful life situations or events. Examples of traumatic events include car accidents, certain deployment experiences for military personal and their families, physical, emotional or sexual abuse, chronic stressors (like growing up with addiction, severe financial stress, or chronic medical conditions), sudden or violent death of a loved one, violent crimes, and many other events. Traumatic events may have happened directly to you, or you may have witnessed the events happen to someone else. In some cases, trauma can involve hearing about traumatic events (e.g., as with first responders). These events can have a huge impact on our daily lives. Even when trauma/stressors happen in childhood, they can continue to impact us later in life.
How does trauma affect us?
Trauma can affect us in many ways. Traumatic events can lead to symptoms such as increased anxiety or depression, fear and a tendency to be easily startled, difficulty trusting others, problems in relationships, feeling disconnected from our emotions, increased anger or irritability, panic, a tendency to avoid certain people or situations that remind us of the event, and many other symptoms. Sometimes, trauma and stress can impact the way we see ourselves, others, and the world in general. For example, we may start to believe that we are no good, that others cannot be trusted, or that the world is an unsafe place. In many ways these symptoms are normal reactions to an abnormally stressful event or situation; however, they can make life very difficult and should be treated if they are causing you distress.
The American Psychological Association has a website on Clinical Practice Guidelines for Treatment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder that is helpful in understanding trauma and effective trauma treatments. A number of our providers are trained in effective trauma-treatment techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapies and EMDR.
The American Psychological Association has a website on Clinical Practice Guidelines for Treatment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder that is helpful in understanding trauma and effective trauma treatments. A number of our providers are trained in effective trauma-treatment techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapies and EMDR.
What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a type of therapy that has been researched and found to be effective in treating trauma/stress. This therapy can help to reduce the symptoms discussed above. Many people like this type of treatment for trauma because it does not require that you talk to the therapist about every detail of the traumatic events (which some other empirically supported treatments do require). The length of treatment tends to depend on the severity and chronicity of the trauma/stress. Some individuals may experience improvements after only a few sessions, whereas others may need more time to fully process the trauma/stress they have experienced in their lives. Trauma treatment is never easy, but when successful, it can make a huge difference in your quality of life.
For more detailed description of EMDR, please visit the EMDR International Association's website, where they offer a good description of this type of therapy. We would also be happy to discuss EMDR with you if you are interested in more information.
Dr.s Jerome and Van Brunt are trained EMDR therapists (for a description of what is required to be a trained EMDR therapist, please click here).
For more detailed description of EMDR, please visit the EMDR International Association's website, where they offer a good description of this type of therapy. We would also be happy to discuss EMDR with you if you are interested in more information.
Dr.s Jerome and Van Brunt are trained EMDR therapists (for a description of what is required to be a trained EMDR therapist, please click here).