Trauma Therapy
Is Unresolved Trauma Influencing Your Quality Of Life?
Do the effects of early childhood trauma continue to impact you?
Does a sense of shame and distrust permeate your worldview, making it harder to connect with yourself and others?
Are the physical manifestations of trauma—such as issues with sleep, panic attacks, hypervigilance, intrusive thoughts or dissociative tendencies—impairing your day-to-day life?
Perhaps you haven’t fully realized how past experiences in childhood influence your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as an adult. Regardless of whether or not you acknowledge it to yourself, your body and mind haven’t forgotten what’s happened. Until you come to terms with the underlying issues, trauma may continue to affect you, both physically and mentally.
The Effects Of Trauma Can Be Far-Reaching
Whether the type of trauma you experienced was a one-time event—like a car accident—or ongoing throughout childhood, the ways it affects you now may be similar. You may experience symptoms associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), such as nightmares, hypervigilance, and flashbacks triggered by anything that reminds you of the event. Sometimes, you might disassociate and feel emotionally numb and out of body. Or maybe you’ve encountered health problems like high blood pressure or chronic pain.
A history of trauma could be impacting your ability to form and maintain healthy relationships. You might have trouble controlling your emotions, opening up to others, and establishing trust. If you can’t shake the sense that what happened was your fault, you might suffer from low self-esteem and self-doubt.
Perhaps you feel ready to take steps to build confidence, develop self-acceptance, and improve how you think and feel each day. Fortunately, trauma therapy provides a safe space to examine and process trauma so you can find your purpose and reconnect with life.
Adverse Childhood Experiences Are A Common Cause Of Trauma
Sadly, trauma is more common than many of us think. According to the National Center for PTSD, “about 6 of every 10 men and 5 of every 10 women experience at least one trauma in their lives." [1] What’s more, "ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) are common. About 64 percent of U.S. adults reported they had experienced at least one type of ACE before age 18, and nearly 1 in 6 (17.3 percent) reported they had experienced four or more types of ACEs." [2]
Many of us grew up in families with transgenerational trauma because our parents (and their parents before them) may have been emotionally wounded but never received the help they needed to heal properly. This cycle of trauma often takes the form of substance abuse and undiagnosed mental health disorders.
We Often Don’t Recognize Subtler Forms Of Trauma
Many associate trauma and PTSD with “Big T” events—experiences in which we threatened or endangered—like active combat, car accidents, and sexual assault. However, “little t” trauma can also trigger similar symptoms. “Little t” trauma—such as living in an insecure home environment with emotional neglect—is often all we know at the time. Therefore, it’s possible we won’t recognize it as traumatic until we’re adults. What’s more, because we each have a unique nervous system and different sensitivities, experiencing trauma is subjective.
We often put off seeking help because we aren’t sure who we can confide in and the shame we feel has caused us to bury our pain inside. Or maybe we’re afraid to revisit traumatic memories and think therapy will make it worse. But if the coping strategies we’ve tried on our own have failed, we realize that we need outside help to move forward.
Trauma counseling can provide a safe and supportive environment to address the painful memories still impacting you. Utilizing a combination of neurofeedback and talk therapy can help you achieve results more quickly.
Trauma Treatment That Incorporates Neurofeedback And Psychotherapy Can Help You Heal
Trauma can be insidious in how it robs you of connection to yourself and others. Even being raised to suppress your emotions or having your feelings invalidated by your caregivers can lead to negative emotional patterns you carry into adulthood. That’s why it’s important to identify, process, and release trauma in therapy so it no longer keeps you stuck in the past.
What To Expect In Sessions
Trauma counseling offers a safe container to develop a secure therapeutic relationship, which lies at the heart of the healing process. Therapy may be the first place where you can trust someone and gradually begin to trust yourself. When you feel ready to embark on self-exploration, we will examine traumatic experiences to better understand how they affect you presently. In time, you will learn from your experiences and develop compassion for what you have gone through while also envisioning a hopeful future. With new insights comes acceptance, mindfulness, and a fresh perspective about what you’re capable of.
Therapy will be tailored to your preferences and may include incorporating spiritual beliefs, goal-setting, or reading and podcast suggestions you may find helpful. The overall goal will be to help instill hope that you can experience joy, happiness, and connection again. Rediscovering purpose and improving how you function each day will build confidence in yourself.
The BAUD (Bio-Acoustical Utilization Device) For Trauma And PTSD Treatment
The BAUD (Bio-Acoustical Utilization Device) can be particularly effective in processing traumatic memories. The BAUD delivers aural frequencies through headphones to create an alpha-theta brain state, optimal for releasing and healing trauma. With this option, you can elect not to discuss your trauma in detail with me and still get results.
We may also incorporate other modalities that activate and regulate the nervous system to reduce the symptoms of anxiety associated with trauma and PTSD, such as neurofeedback therapy, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), bilateral tapping, breath work, and meditation. By stimulating points along the meridian where energy gets blocked from flowing through the body, EFT and bilateral tapping can help you hone in on a memory or belief and release it.
As a trauma and PTSD counselor, I understand how real your pain is and how deeply it continues to affect your life. But you are not alone. I will meet you where you are and will never push you forward until you feel ready. Although the growth process isn’t linear, the trajectory for healing will climb steadily upward. With supportive psychodynamic counseling that integrates the benefits of the BAUD and neurofeedback therapy, my hope is you can heal from trauma and develop the resilience to handle whatever life brings you.
But Maybe You’re Not Sure If Trauma Therapy Is Right For You…
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Understandably, the idea of talking about painful memories can be scary. Although eventually feeling safe enough to talk about your trauma is an important and necessary part of the process, we can start with other things to help regulate your nervous system and prepare you for the deeper work. Techniques such as the BAUD, neurofeedback therapy, and EFT tapping for trauma and PTSD can all be beneficial adjuncts for psychotherapy. I have witnessed these modalities help many clients and make them more receptive to talk therapy.
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As a therapist who specializes in neurofeedback for trauma, I want to encourage you to give therapy another chance. My practice provides a non-judgmental and compassionate space for you to process your trauma at a pace that feels comfortable to you. The BAUD offers a noninvasive way to process traumatic memories that differs from Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). Many of my clients end sessions reporting they feel calmer and have gained new insight after using the BAUD.
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Although therapy is an investment of time and money, the positive changes to your quality of life will make it worthwhile. You deserve to feel peace and joy in your life. On average, most people attend neurofeedback therapy for trauma and/or PTSD for approximately a year, sometimes more, sometimes less. There is a lot you can do in this amount of time to improve your personal well-being. Additionally, I take insurance and accept Cigna, Oxford, United Healthcare, Oscar Health, and Aetna for the talk therapy part of the work we do together.
When You Feel Ready To Do The Work, Therapy Is Here
Trauma doesn’t have to negatively impact your life anymore. To find out more about trauma therapy with Nurture Neuro, call 928-607-3762 or visit my contact page to schedule a free 15-minute call.
