Issues We Treat | Trauma and PTSD
Trauma/PTSD
Trauma is an emotional response to an event which often involves some kind of attack or neglect of one’s emotional or physical safety, whether in war, physical or sexual abuse, gang activity, or natural disaster. There can be long-lasting effects for both single-event trauma and chronic trauma. For children, trauma can be anything from a loss of a pet or transition to a new school, to any form of abuse. Trauma is really anything that makes a person feel stuck and unable to move forward.
To help you get unstuck, we will teach you about how childhood issues resulting from traumatic events can affect a person much later, and we will work on helping you see this in your own life. We will also help you to release emotions associated with these issues or events from your early life so that you can move on from feelings of low self-esteem, anger, resentment, and blame to a place of forgiveness and serenity. At Ethos, we see cases of trauma which are very explicit and obvious, and we also see examples where trauma is hidden underneath other surface issues, such as social anxiety or depression. We often work collaboratively with services of psychological testing and evaluation to figure out whether trauma is present and to what degree it is currently affecting you.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is common in children, adolescents, and adults. Symptoms include recalling the traumatic event and being overwhelmed with negative emotions like fear. Flashbacks, intrusive memories, and nightmares are all parts of PTSD. This can affect your day to day life and relationships, especially because trauma can cause shame and guilt. Carefully customized treatment plans involving evidence-based tools such as psychological testing and evaluation, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) will help with trauma symptoms. We will help you take back control of your life so you can move forward in mind, body and spirit.
