Trauma Treatment

Trauma can emerge after a frightening or critical event. This leaves you incapacitated to move forward despite how long the event has been witnessed or experienced. Some people who experience trauma can have severe anxiety or PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). You may also experience difficulties with other areas in your life such as:

Attachment and relationships
Physical reactivity (hyperventilation, heart pounding)
Difficulty identifying and expressing emotions
Dissociation

Impulsivity
Self-regulation
Cognition

``The shock of any trauma, I think changes your life. It's more acute in the beginning and after a little time, you settle back to what you were. However, it leaves an indelible mark on your psyche.`` - Alex Lifeson

Trauma can be an effect of witnessing or experiencing an event that severely impacts you and your life. You can become witness or involved in events that threaten some aspects of your life including:

Emotionally
Psychologically
Physically

Generally, you may undergo a traumatic experience at some points in your life. Many people, however, can rebound and get back to their usual life with the support and help of friends and family. With others, though, the trauma can leave a lasting effect that leaves them paralyzed and with profound emotional agony, disorientation, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress.

Signs of Unresolved Trauma

You may have unresolved trauma when you try to deny your traumatic experience. Your dissociative tendency is a way of withholding the fact that you have been traumatized. You beguile yourself for not being hurt, when in fact, it is the opposite of what you feel.

“Trauma leaves ‘fingerprints’ on the victim. These don’t fade when the bruises do.” - Dr. Ellen Taliaferro

Commonly, people with unresolved trauma issues have the tendency to manifest the some of the following behaviors:

Addiction – This is a way for some people to drive the traumatic experience away. They engage themselves excessively in alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, and shopping as a way of pushing the trauma elsewhere.
Inability to tolerate conflicts – People with trauma usually tend to run away from or avoid conflicts. These usually stems from not being clear about how they feel and contradicting emotions about the situation.
Unreasonable self-reproach – This is a phase wherein the person excessively blames himself for the cause of the traumatic experience. They accept inappropriate responsibility for what happened and succumbs to the feeling of guilt.
Chronic Depression – With all the feelings involved with the experience, a person generally gravitates towards depression. This happens when he is overcome with conflicting emotions and self-blame.
Suicidal thoughts or attempts – Ultimately, depression and self-reproach lead to thoughts of death or suicide. It is even worse when the person not only thinks of death but toys with ways of committing suicide to end their burdens.

Trauma Types and Center Approach

“When something bad happens to you, you have 3 choices. You can either let it define you, let it destroy you, or you can let it strengthen you.” - Unknown

Sexual Abuse or Assault

Sexual abuse or assault happens when there is a violent attempt to engage a person in any sexual activity and exploitation. When you have this kind of traumatic experience, Her House can engage you in Cognitive Behavior Therapy or (CBT).

Cognitive Behavior Therapy

CBT involves correcting your irrational and negative speculations about the traumatic experience. The therapy involves narrating the experience with the guidance of our professional therapists and allows you to re-experience the anxiety and feelings surrounding the event integrating new education.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

EMDR is an integrative psychotherapy created to treat the symptoms of trauma. It has also been found to be very effective if you suffer from posttraumatic stress. EMDR will help to remove unresolved memories from traumatic experiences. It addresses a number of burdens you may have and is consistent with other types of therapy.

Psychological Traumatic Experiences

Psychological abuse can be in different forms. They can also include verbal and emotional abuse. This form of traumatic experience often leads to self-deprecation and a tendency to manifest negative behaviors like alcohol and substance abuse. Her House effectively treats the symptoms of psychological abuse.