Therapy Trauma and PTSD
Trauma is an emotional response to either a single traumatic event or continuous exposure to physically or emotionally threatening circumstances. Our counsellors are trained to treat childhood trauma, acute trauma, chronic trauma, and complex trauma.
How Can Therapy Help?
Oftentimes, trauma is very difficult for one person to process, let alone heal from. Counselling provides a guided and compassionate approach to help traumatized individuals process what happened, take the time to heal, and learn to move forward.
Different Types of Trauma
Trauma can have long-term effects on the person’s well-being. If symptoms persist and do not decrease in severity, it can indicate that the trauma has developed into a mental health disorder called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Acute Trauma
This results from a single stressful or dangerous event, such as an assault, a natural disaster, a terrorist attack or a shooting.
Chronic Trauma
Results from repeated and prolonged exposure to highly stressful events. Examples include cases of child abuse, bullying, or domestic violence.
Complex Trauma
This results from exposure to multiple traumatic events such as childhood abuse, war trauma, genocide, or domestic abuse.
Signs & Symptoms of Trauma (PTSD)
In the aftermath of trauma, a person may feel confused, helpless, overwhelmed, shocked, dissociated or have difficulty processing what happened to them. If the trauma is reoccurring, a person may also experience feelings of denial, anger, worthlessness, guilt, irritability, shame, anxiety, depression and stress.
Trauma can also cause physical symptoms such as nausea, sweating, indigestion, headaches, increased heart rate and even fatigue.
Covid-19 Related Trauma
Covid-19 has been difficult for all of us, but no one has been more affected than our front-line workers. If you are medical health professional who has experienced the worst of Covid-19, our compassionate counsellors can help you process what happened, learn how to cope and, eventually, help you heal.
EMDR Therapy for Trauma
EMDR has been shown to be one of the most effective methods for treating trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). During a session, one of our EMDR trained therapists would use their finger, a buzzer, or a clicking noise to guide eye movements while administering therapy. The guided eye movements have a calming, desensitizing effect on traumatic memories, making it easier to confront, process and recover from them. Once the response to the trauma is dulled, the therapist will then help replace the unhelpful thoughts and beliefs with constructive responses to help cope and move on from the trauma.
CBT Therapy for Trauma
Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy is an effective treatment approach to help children, adolescents, and adults overcome the difficulties of trauma. CBT helps traumatized individuals challenge distorted or unhelpful beliefs, thoughts, and feelings that are the result of the trauma, and replace them with reality-based thoughts and feelings that lead to a healthier thinking pattern.