In person in Wichita & online across Kansas
Therapy for Trauma & PTSD
What Counts as Trauma?
Trauma isn't just what happened to you – it's also what happened inside you. Long after the moment has passed, trauma continues to shape how you think, feel, react and relate to the world. It can affect your posture and it can make your brain feel foggy. It can change how you sleep, eat and socialize. You might feel constantly on edge or mostly numb, or it may feel like you are constantly ricocheting between those feelings.
Trauma treatment helps your brain & body recognize:
1) that the harm is in the past
2) that you are safe in this present moment
I like to describe trauma as a loop in your brain that you accidentally get sucked into and find yourself reacting as if that memory is still happening right now - your brain goes foggy, your heart races and your muscles tense precisely because your brain is on the trauma loop.
But in therapy we’ll help your brain learn to recognize when it is on the loop, then build lots of off-ramps from that loop and back to the present moment so you're no longer stuck going around and around on it. As we practice returning to the present moment where you are safe, your brain slowly learns to coexist with what happened in the past, without getting sucked into the trauma loop of reliving it in real time. Trauma therapy doesn’t eliminate the past or cause you to forget it, but it does change your relationship to what happened so you can thrive again.
Traditionally trauma has been understood as a catastrophic and near-death event: a terrible car accident, a battle ambush, a violent assault. But we're collectively coming to understand that the nervous system can also be impacted by chronic situations like a neglectful caregiver, an abusive partner, a toxic community – situations that felt like they went on and on without a clear escape, without enough safety and support. Different nervous systems may or may not register the same event or experience as traumatic – so we'll be curious about what happened inside you and the ways that you are now stuck.
How Do You Treat Trauma?
A book about trauma that you might have heard of, is Bessel Van der Kolk's book The Body Keeps the Score. One of its insights about successful trauma treatment can be helpful to understand as you look for information on how to heal. He says there are three avenues to trauma recovery:
1) top down, by talking, (re-)connecting with others, and allowing ourselves to know and understand what is going on with us, while processing the memories of the trauma;
2) by taking medicines that shut down inappropriate alarm reactions, or by utilizing other technologies that change the way the brain organizes information, and
3) bottom up: by allowing the body to have experiences that deeply and viscerally contradict the helplessness, rage, or collapse that result from trauma.
Which of these is best for any particular survivor is an empirical question. Most people I have worked with require a combination.
If you are experiencing symptoms in brain and body, you may need treatment that blends both brain and body!
What Are Brain & Body Ways To Heal PTSD?
I have been deeply interested in the way that brain and body intersect in trauma, and how to heal them together for many years - there are fascinating developments in the world of trauma recovery in recent decades! Some of the treatments I like to turn to are becoming more well-known so you may have heard of some of these:
Somatic therapy is a broad category of “bottom up” trauma work that includes EMDR and other modalities. Somatic work influences almost every session I conduct; I'll be asking what you're noticing in your body on a regular basis and providing support as you provide care for your own internal experiences. We won’t just process your cognitive memories: we’ll bring your body’s memories into the room at the same time.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) focuses on both what your brain is thinking and what your body is experiencing. Using eye movements or hand pulsators while processing traumatic material helps the brain integrate distressing experiences. Your brain wants to move itself toward healing and EMDR facilitates that process.
Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to your internal experience without judging it - noticing the breath, noticing the sensations and noticing the thoughts. Trauma pulls you into survival mode; mindfulness provides moments of safety that slowly expand into healing. With practice, calm increases and triggers decrease.
I offer a free consultation to all new clients, so that you can enter therapy with confidence that we’re the right match for what you need. Reach out today to get scheduled.
Let’s mend the trauma in both your body & your brain, together!
Post Traumatic Growth
Psst, can I tell you one last thing? My favorite thing about working with trauma is not just that negative symptoms diminish… but how unexpected good things start popping up, too! People start trauma work because they need relief from the chronic negative symptoms. But as you engage in post-traumatic growth, surprise gifts can also start emerging: new strengths, clearer intuition, deeper compassion and a new appreciation for beauty and goodness.
I'll be watching for those good surprises with you!
Related Blog Posts
