Helping Trauma Heal
Trauma is a psychological and physical response to an overwhelming or dangerous event. This can lead to feelings of helplessness, confusion, and even shock. While many individuals experience different kinds of traumas, their effects on people’s mental health are often similar – intrusive thoughts or memories, flashbacks, fear-based responses such as hyperarousal (a heightened state of alertness that can make it hard for someone to sleep), depression and anxiety. To help those suffering from the symptoms of trauma there are various therapies available including internal family systems therapy (IFS); eye movement desensitization & reprocessing (EMDR); and somatic therapies.
Internal Family Systems Therapy helps people recognize all the parts within themselves that may be contributing to their current situation—whether they recognize this consciously or not—and then aids them in understanding how these parts work together toward common goals while also recognizing they are living with each other simultaneously as part our internal self-systems called “parts." Through IFS you gain insight into your inner essence which gives you access to self-knowledge through exploration and integration processes helping reduce feeling overwhelmed by powerful emotions related to traumatic experiences and enabling us to better manage stressors in life more effectively.
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing(EMDR) is another type of treatment used primarily for PTSD but helpful when dealing with trauma caused by single incidents too. It works based on certain principles: firstly accessing very distressing memory followed by processing seen through activating alternate brain networks linked to emotion regulation leading to resolution, which provides relief from distressful periods associated with posttraumatic events allowing a person to become free again. This allows people to take control of their lives and feel a new sense of balance that has been disrupted due to traumatic ordeal involving intense emotional arousal felt large scale e.g. loss loved one or close friend etc…During sessions therapist uses some sort of bilateral stimulation which causes stimulation to the left and right side brain alternately, this allows for the facilitation of adaptation strategies replacing maladaptive ones. Thus, the patient benefits from physiological changes by reducing the intensity of abnormal neurophysiological reactions which were previously causing trouble in achieving a desired level of stability, peace, and calmness.
Somatic therapies are an umbrella term for therapeutic interventions that address the body's connection to our psychological state. These techniques can help people who have experienced trauma by allowing them to practice mindful and deliberate physical movement, which helps bring awareness back into their bodies. Mindful physical movements such as yoga or tai chi can help regulate the breathing and heart rate of a person suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms such as hyperarousal and intrusive thoughts. This in turn gives the individual more control over these physiological responses associated with trauma. Somatic therapies can be as simple as mindfulness meditations, trauma-informed yoga, or some sort of dance or movement. There is also Somatic experiencing which helps people release trauma from parts of their body.
At Embodied Therapy Group we do not offer all forms of IFS, EMDR, or Somatic therapy. But, you will find that all of our clinicians integrate these therapeutic interventions into their work with clients. All of our clinicians are EMDR trained, use parts language from IFS and help clients reconnect to their bodies.
