Trauma therapy

Helping you reclaim your life

What is trauma?

Trauma is an emotional response to a deeply distressing or disturbing experiences. After the event people tend to have shock and denial. Longer term reactions include intense emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea. Trauma tends to impact people differently. I find it important to be sure that I have spent enough time ,with each person ,to determine how trauma has impacted then personally. I know how important it is to be sure that I help people understand how trauma impacts their brain.

What happens in the brain?

There are three main areas of the brain that are impacted by trauma: the amygdala (fight/flight), hippocampus (learning/memory), and the prefrontal cortex (regulation of emotions). What happens is that our sense of fight or flight becomes embedded in our memory processes, which can deeply impact our ability to regulate emotions. For example, when people encounter a situation that is similar, in some way, to the traumatic situation, this could ignite a fight, flight response even if that is not warranted for the present situation. For people who have not experienced significant trauma, their prefrontal cortex has a better ability to calm down the “fight or flight” response. However, in people who have experienced trauma, the prefrontal cortex will have a hard time regulating fear and other emotions. This can lead to frequent feelings of panic and anxiety as well as dysfunctional reactions to situations that are not harmful.