Therapeutic Specialties

Trauma

Life is hard but Trauma is worse. It can make daily stress more difficult and can lead to a dysregulated nervous system. 

Trauma is a person's experience of emotional distress resulting from an event that overwhelms the capacity to emotionally digest the experience. As such, many things can be viewed as traumatic because the events create an overwhelm that requires additional exploration. This is often why childhood events are traumatic because the individual does not have the capacity to process the events due to developmental limitations. Instead, these emotions are stored and then triggered later.

There is Big T trauma like a car crash or sexual assault but there is also little T trauma which are a series of events that have occurred that lead to a state of overwhelm. Both can impact daily function and lead to mental health struggles. Sometimes childhood events lead to a more complex experience of trauma that can impact interpersonal relationships. 

When we think of trauma, we often consider the physiological response the mind and body experience referred to as the Fight, Flight, or Freeze response. There are also additional responses that can develop including a Fawn or a Flop response. The reaction felt due to the event can lead to implicit memories. Many therapies help to process these memories and rewire the brain to be less reactive.