— Trauma Therapy
Clinical Trauma Therapy in El Paso, TX
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–What Is Trauma?
Trauma is the experience of severe psychological distress following any terrible or life-threatening event. Sufferers may develop emotional disturbances such as extreme anxiety, anger, sadness, survivor’s guilt or PTSD. They may experience ongoing problems with sleep or physical pain, encounter turbulence in their personal and professional relationships, and feel a diminished sense of self-worth due to the overwhelming amount of stress or depression.
Although the instigating event may overpower coping resources available at the time, it is nevertheless possible to develop healthy ways of coping with the experience and diminishing its effects. Research on trauma identifies several healthy ways of coping, such as avoiding alcohol and drugs, seeing loved ones regularly, exercising, sleeping and paying attention to self-care.
–Trauma in Children
Trauma involves experiences that are overwhelmingly fearful or distressing to a child.
Trauma is subjective, meaning that it very much depends on the person experiencing the event. For children, a trauma may be interpersonal, including the sudden loss or separation from a parent. Trauma can also be something unexpected and life-threatening, such as a car accident or dog bite.
Long-term trauma of an interpersonal nature (such as domestic violence or sexual abuse) may result in something called complex trauma, which can impact a child’s development and the way in which he/she relates to others. We specialize in working with families impacted by trauma as well as complex trauma. When working with children who have experienced trauma, play is almost always a part of our work together. We often begin with psychoeducation, which helps children to understand that their response is normal. Often, children who have experienced trauma exhibit physical/ somatic symptoms, such as racing heart, jumpiness, difficulty concentrating, and even freezing or difficulty breathing.
We eventually learn how to control and overcome these responses, and also identify possible triggers/ trauma reminders. Over time, the goal of trauma therapy is to create a healthier narrative (i.e. understanding it is not their fault) about the traumatic experience(s), which allows children to move forward and live safe, healthy lives. This is a very general description of our approach to trauma therapy; please note that it differs from client to client, and we will work together to determine the right approach for your child.
Evidence Based Treatment for all ages.
Who is EMDR therapy for?
EMDR helps a wide variety of people of all ages and with a number of challenges beyond trauma!
EMDR International Association (2018) details the therapy as:
“EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is a form of therapy that helps people heal from trauma or other distressing life experiences. EMDR therapy is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and used to resolve many issues and challenges. It is an empirically supported treatment for acute and chronic posttraumatic stress disorder. EMDR therapy has helped countless people of all ages to resolve psychological distress.”
–The Proven Results
EMDR has proven to help the following
concerns and more:
- Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias
- Bullying
- Border Violence
- Chronic Illness and medical issues
- Depression and bipolar disorders
- Dissociative disorders
- Divorce
- Eating disorders
- Grief and loss
- Home Invasion/Break-In/Robbery pic of
- Job Loss
- Medical Procedures/Illness (cancer, terminal diagnosis)
- Performance anxiety
- Personality disorders
- Physical Pain
- PTSD and other trauma and stress related issues
- Sexual assault
- Sleep disturbance
- Substance abuse and addiction
- Violence and abuse
- War – military
–What is it like to experience EMDR therapy?
The experience of EMDR therapy is described by Amen Clinic (2019) as follows:
“As part of EMDR therapy sessions, a therapist may direct you to hold specific memories in mind while tracking the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across your field of vision. Diverting your attention in this way while you recall a traumatic event has been found to minimize the emotional response connected to the memory. Researchers believe the therapy activates mechanisms in the brain that help you process the memory and distressing emotions.”
Additional Information on EMDR
For more information on EMDR therapy
Client stories with EMDR