Specialized Trauma Therapy
What To Expect
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Coming in and opening up about your past isn't easy, but living with your trauma hasn't been easy either.
Getting up each day is an enormous task, you push yourself, but every movement feels heavy and deliberate. At work and home it’s hard to concentrate. Your mind keeps drifts to the trauma, replaying scenes and feelings.
You're frustrated with yourself for not being able to function like you used to. The effort to appear normal is exhausting.
Home provides a brief respite, but socializing is draining. You try to relax, but your mind is restless. You attempt to watch TV but it’s hard to focus. Lying in bed, you struggle to calm your mind.
You feel alone in your experience, even though you know others care about you.
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CBT Talk Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapeutic treatment that helps individuals identify and change negative thought patterns and behaviors that contribute to their psychological distress. The core principles of CBT involve:
1. **Cognitive Restructuring**: Identifying and challenging distorted or irrational thoughts, and replacing them with more balanced and realistic ones.
2. **Behavioral Activation**: Encouraging activities that are likely to improve mood and reduce avoidance behaviors.
3. **Skill Building**: Teaching coping strategies and problem-solving skills to handle difficult situations more effectively.
4. **Homework Assignments**: Engaging in exercises outside of therapy sessions to practice new skills and reinforce learning.
CBT is evidence-based and has been shown to be effective for a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, and PTSD. It is typically structured, time-limited, and goal-oriented.
EMDR
Eye movement reprocessing and desensitzation
Prolonged Exposure
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a psychotherapy approach designed to help individuals process and overcome traumatic experiences and distressing memories. Developed by Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s, EMDR integrates elements from various therapeutic approaches but is unique in its use of bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements, tapping, or auditory tones.
Here’s a brief overview of how EMDR works:
1. **Assessment:** The therapist works with the client to identify specific traumatic memories and current issues that need to be addressed.
2. **Preparation:** The therapist helps the client develop coping mechanisms and relaxation techniques to manage emotional distress during and between sessions.
3. **Desensitization:** The client focuses on the traumatic memory while simultaneously undergoing bilateral stimulation (e.g., following the therapist’s finger movements with their eyes). This process aims to reduce the emotional intensity associated with the memory.
4. **Installation:** Positive beliefs and feelings are encouraged to replace the negative ones associated with the traumatic memory.
5. **Body Scan:** The therapist checks if any residual physical tension or discomfort related to the memory remains and addresses it if necessary.
6. **Closure:** Each session ends with the therapist ensuring the client feels stable and can manage any residual distress.
7. **Reevaluation:** At the beginning of subsequent sessions, the therapist assesses the client’s progress and determines if further work on the memory is needed.
EMDR is particularly effective for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but has also been used for various other psychological conditions, including anxiety, depression, and phobias.
Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy specifically designed to help individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It involves helping patients confront and process their trauma-related memories, feelings, and situations in a controlled and systematic way. The main components of PE therapy include:
1. **Education**: The therapist educates the patient about PTSD and PE therapy, explaining how confronting trauma-related thoughts and situations can reduce symptoms.
2. **Breathing Retraining**: Patients are taught breathing techniques to help manage anxiety and stress.
3. **In Vivo Exposure**: Patients gradually confront real-life situations they have been avoiding due to their trauma. This helps reduce fear and avoidance behaviors.
4. **Imaginal Exposure**: Patients repeatedly recount their traumatic experiences in detail during therapy sessions. This helps them process the trauma and reduce the distress associated with the memories.
5. **Processing**: After imaginal exposure, the therapist and patient discuss the experience to help the patient gain new perspectives and insights.
Through these components, PE therapy aims to reduce PTSD symptoms by helping patients face and process their traumatic memories and associated emotions.
