Treatment and therapy
Trauma treatment can relieve your symptoms and help you process the trauma. First, we create a safe space for you to recall and process the emotions connected to the trauma. Next, we focus on reducing your negative reactions to reminders of the memory. This should help ease your current emotional pain and discomfort. I will teach you coping skills so that you can explore your thoughts and feelings and learn to cope with intrusive memories. We will also address the problems the symptoms have caused in your life. Finally, equipped with these coping skills and tools, together we will process and resolve the traumatic event.
Research has proven psychotherapy to be the most effective form of treatment for trauma. Most commonly, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) are used in treating trauma.
The types of treatment available for trauma include:
Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT). TF-CBT involves gradually “exposing” yourself to feelings and situations that remind you of the trauma. It includes replacing distorted and irrational thoughts about the experience with a more balanced picture.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). EMDR incorporates elements of cognitive-behavioral therapy with eye movements or other forms of rhythmic, left-right stimulation, such as hand taps or sounds. These techniques work by “unfreezing” the brain’s information processing system, which is interrupted in times of extreme stress.
Family therapy. Family therapy can help your loved ones understand what you’re going through and help you work through relationship problems together as a family.
Medication is sometimes prescribed to people with PTSD to relieve secondary symptoms of depression or anxiety. Relieving or decreasing these symptoms helps you to better cope while working through the trauma experience. However, medication alone will not resolve the trauma.
If you or someone you know is suffering from a traumatic event, please contact me today.