Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD)

Trauma is having an unending effect.

Something terrible has happened! Life, as you once knew it, has been altered now by an event that leaves you feeling emotionally paralyzed or riddled with feelings you cannot manage.

An event occurs that triggers that traumatic experience, causing you to relive that event repeatedly. As a result, you avoid people, places, and situations that you fear might trigger it again.

Sleeping is difficult; anger comes from nowhere, and your mind is filled with negativity. Your behavior has begun to impact relationships with friends and family. A part of you wants all situations that might arouse negative thoughts and behavior.

You are unable to see life the same way as before, and the fear of that can be crippling. This makes you wonder, “What should I do? Who can I talk to that would understand the way I feel?”

The above are signs of PTSD.

PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, series of events, or set of circumstances.

Experiencing an emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening event can affect your mental, physical, social, and/or spiritual well-being.

Examples of such events include natural disasters, serious accidents, terrorist acts, war/combat, rape/sexual assault, historical trauma, intimate partner violence and bullying.

Without help, coping with PTSD is challenging.

Therapy can make a difference.

You may have experienced the trauma long ago or recently. Together, we can get you through the pain of what your memory holds on to.

When your brain is unable to untangle the feelings from the memory of what may have happened, PTSD can develop. The overall strategy is to help you reprocess that event, put it in the past, and replace it with something positive.

I use a variety of therapeutic approaches to help clients overcome the impact of PTSD. These approaches are Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Prolonged Exposure (EP). All are designed to help reduce the severity of symptoms of PTSD long term.

The timeline for our work together might look like this: 1) Exposure to traumatic events, 2) seek professional help. 3) have an assessment, 4) begin treatment to reduce symptoms, 5) experience relief and recovery.

Contact me today, and let’s get started on your recovery.