Trauma

A traumatic event is any experience that is associated with strong negative emotions that last beyond the event itself. Besides the obvious examples involving life-threatening events, many situations that are not life-threatening can cause trauma because the brain responds in exactly the same way to any perceived “threat”. Bullying, public ridicule, performing badly in front of one’s peers, critical put downs others, and any form of emotional abuse or neglect are such examples. Adverse childhood events such as moving a lot, parental divorce, or uncertain safety or survival needs can also contribute to traumatic effects in the psychological system. Many of the ways we attempt to cope with these formative events eventually contribute to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, poor boundaries, emotional avoidance, perfectionism, people pleasing, and many other unhelpful coping strategies.

PTSD & CPTSD

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is characterized by:

  • Reexperiencing symptoms: flashbacks, intrusive thoughts or images, nightmares, mentally replaying events, emotionally or somatically feeling the event

  • Avoidance symptoms: avoiding triggers or reminders of the event(s), emotions associated with the event(s), or dissociation

  • Hypervigilance symptoms: feeling keyed up and alert to potential danger

  • Mood changes as a result of the distressing event, behavioral changes as a result of the distressing event

While PTSD is typically related to a single traumatic event, Complex PTSD (CPTSD) is related to a series of repetitive traumatic events or one event that occurred for a prolonged period of time. Often the same symptoms present, though CPTSD symptoms can be more intense, particularly symptoms involving dissociation.

Dissocation

Dissociation is most commonly described as feeling “foggy”, “fuzzy”, “checked out”, “shut down”, or “disconnected”. Dissociation (which ranges from mild to severe) often occurs as a result of traumatic events due to the overwhelming nature of the experience in either of the following ways. Dissociation can express as:

  • Depersonalization: Feeling distant, out of touch with one’s body or internal experiences

  • Derealization: Feeling out of touch with the world or events around you

Our brain has natural protective functions to ensure we are able to move on with life. Sometimes to do that, we have to compartmentalize a distressing experience. Gently exploring this and building calming and coping strategies in therapy is a necessary step for trauma reprocessing readiness.

Treatment

I utilize Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) to help reprocess traumatic experiences. This treatment is powerful but tolerable for most, allowing a deeper somatic connection to the nervous system and body to clear “shock” experiences that keep emotions stuck and replaying long after an overwhelming event. DBR is especially useful to address attachment trauma, especially when combined with other therapy modalities to help clients achieve therapeutic stabilization.