We focus on how trauma impacts your specific reaction pattern so we can disrupt those cycles.
We focus on how trauma impacts your specific reaction pattern so we can disrupt those cycles.
The condition of trauma is so impactful – the researchers say that the brain is experiencing it right now over and over again, the brain is reacting to the trauma constantly at some level; it’s a condition of right now
The brain is hyperaroused and it thinks it is protecting you by trying to keep us on alert
That’s one reason we’re so reactive – the brain doesn’t differentiate between what happened before and what’s happening now
I don’t feel safe, I don’t feel things are predictable, I don’t trust people… and my life is shaped by these kind of core beliefs that narrow our world
These are all natural processes – the brain is trying to understand what has happened to us, but it wasn’t built to house these events so they end up jumbled in the brain and body
The brain is in fight, flight, or freeze… if you’re put in a position where you can’t change what will happen, you will stay in a hyperaroused state to some degree or fall back into it quickly
The limbic system becomes a factory of fear pumping out chemicals and hormones to keep us locked into trauma
This state of mind isn’t something we’re aware of – it becomes the new normal, it’s how I see the world. This awful thing happened to me before, and it could happen to me again
I keep reacting to this event even though I understand it’s not happening but it’s kind of like a TV playing in the background
These brain reactions get coded into our physical memory, called implicit memory… they get stored in the body, so I no longer have words to tell you what I’m experiencing. Time gets distorted, I’m having major surges of sensation in my body, and I struggle to even tell you fully what happened to me – if I can even put words to it at all.
This isn’t something I cna just shut off, it’s very real and it becomes defining of our lives.
It’s also a condition that gets worse over time, they don’t just resolve on their own… they have to be addressed with real treatment
We focus on how trauma impacts your specific reaction pattern so we can disrupt those cycles
Our staff are certified in Trauma and Complex Trauma
We respect the science behind trauma treatment
Many people misunderstand, because the effects of trauma are so deeply ingrained in the brain and body – you have to be very careful and intentional when you are beginning to remember and work with that material. It’s very easy to completely fry your system by stepping too quickly into the trauma memories with things like EMDR
We are very ambitious for our clients, we’re not solely here to cheerlead
People who experience mental health issues often feel helpless or that they’re trying to make a minor change so life may be 5% better than before
Science with heart
Trauma has to be addressed with multiple routes… and sometimes you have to work with trauma by addressing the body directly. Trauma informed yoga, mindfulness practice, even massages or exercise or walking… the body carries these things and we have to unpack them to move forward
Trauma usually creates a mood disorder, something like anxiety or depression, so the first thing we do is build up your skills so you can tolerate the exposure to what happened – the remembering, the talking about, the releasing of what happened
If the trauma happened long ago or was systematic or too overwhelming, there’s no way we can just jump into treatment.