Restoration from Trauma
No matter its form, the wounds from trauma cut deep.
Stunned and speechless, Michael* sat on the couch with his head down, staring at his hands neatly folded in his lap.
He could barely choke out the words to describe his war experience. He looked up, took a deep breath, and with a cracked voice whispered, “I can’t speak about it right now. I’m sorry.” He put his head back down in defeat, wondering if this burden he carried would ever be alleviated.
Cynthia* bounced into the room with an extra hop in her step. The smile plastered on her face radiated joy, and her excitement was overwhelming. I was half expecting her to start twirling in circles before she settled on the couch.
She sat with a huge sigh of satisfaction and exclaimed, “I went to a park! I never thought I would be able to step foot in a park again after being raped in one, but I went to a park and actually enjoyed myself.”
One week prior to this session, Cynthia engaged in a trauma session. Preceding her trauma session, Cynthia’s anxiety was like a heavy and dense fog overwhelming every moment of her life. Existing every day in an immense amount of fear and paranoia, it was all she could do to get out of bed in the morning and try to be a functional human being.
She has had a difficult time sleeping, and she found herself fighting daily to get the images of the event out of her head. Since being sexually assaulted, Cynthia’s sense of security and safety had been ruined. She agreed to a trauma session; for her, this session was life changing.
“I can’t get my baby out! I can’t get my baby out!” Arianna* exclaimed, in a voice that was on the verge of being frantic, as she retold the story of her car crash.
Her car was hit by another car, a truck, and a moving van, and her baby was trapped in the rear facing car seat, with broken glass from the shattered window all around. You could visibly see her tense up and clinch her fists in tight balls as if she was gripping an imaginary steering wheel.
Quiet tears rolled down her cheeks, and she gently used the back of her hand to brush them away, as she simultaneously leaned over to grab a tissue. After wiping her nose, she looked defeated as she said, “I just want to drive again like a normal human being without freezing in panic.”
“Hey, mom, is that you?” Brandon* shouted as he pulled a red shirt over his head and started walking out of his room.
He was pushing his head and arms through the holes of his shirt and strode over the threshold of his bedroom door when he looked up and saw a strange man in his house. Confused, Brandon’s mind sped up trying to process the current events, until his eye caught the glint of a knife strapped to this man’s hip and a bag full of his family’s belongings in his hands.
Immediately, Brandon’s heart started racing, and he inadvertently made eye-contact with this man. Despite everything in him wanting to protect his family home, his legs betrayed his heart. He started taking slow steps backwards, inching his way back to his bedroom. In a controlled panic, Brandon slowly closed the door and locked it. Sitting in his closet, his thumbs were fumbling over the keys as he was trying to text his mom. In session, Brandon stated, “I felt absolutely helpless. Never again do I ever want to feel that helpless.”
Constantly reliving the pain through post-traumatic stress…
Trauma causes post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which triggers your body and mind to constantly relive the traumatic feelings of the event, usually at the most unsuspecting and undesirable times.
When suffering from PTSD, one can never feel like they can just relax. Often, there is a low-grade anxiety humming in the background, ready to flare up into a full-blown panic attack. Random outbursts of anger or tears seem to be a common occurrence, and depression is a well-known feeling. Experiencing a mental fog and the inability to think straight during triggering situations is also a common manifestation.
You long for a good night’s sleep, but dread closing your eyes because you don’t know if tonight will be the night that the extremely realistic nightmare of reliving the event all over again will occur. Exhausted and mentally drained, you find yourself unusually jumpy and have a chronic mistrust of people’s intentions.
You fully recognize that your trauma is impacting your significant relationships, because of the anger outbursts and the mistrust. However, you feel like nothing will ever make these feelings go away and you resign yourself to a deeper depression from feelings of helplessness.
You CAN restore your heart, mind, and soul back to a healthier state.
Traumas can be stored up in your mind or in your body. Your body creates a “muscle memory” around the trauma that occurred and constantly reacts out of this memory.
Some days this memory feels difficult to carry and it can feel hopeless that anything will ever change.
There is relief, and there is hope.
Trauma therapy was designed to offer a release from the constant pain of the memory. It works best when people are mentally prepared to “give up” their pain. If the pain is serving a greater purpose (which can be explored in a traditional talk session), then trauma work isn’t typically as effective.
However, for those who are ready and willing to overcome their deepest hurts, this therapy was designed specifically for you!
The brain is a fascinating machine and it desires to be set free from past traumas!! You have your best life ahead, a life that can be liberated from the past.
Therapy will guide you beyond the trauma, step by step…
Trauma therapy does not just give victims temporary relief. It’s designed to restore and resolve the way your brain views the trauma. Regular talk therapy is great and beneficial, but to really treat and resolve the trauma effectively, a trauma-trained therapist is needed.
At Abba’s Heart Counseling Center, we have therapists who are trained in these specific forms of therapy that “hit the bullseye” of trauma. Our therapists will guide you through a step-by-step protocol that will allow your brain to process out the traumatic emotions that the distressing event caused.
EMDR (Eye-Movement Desensitization Reprocessing)
With your insight and assistance, you and your clinician will determine which distressing memory to work on first. You will then follow an 8-step protocol. This process involves eye-movements or bilateral stimulation (alternating tapping on your hands, knees, etc). The eye-movements or tapping mimic rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep) in your brain.
No worries! You are not going to be asleep or hypnotized! You are fully awake and aware of what is going on during the entire session.
The painful emotions are attached to the troubling memory. The eye-movements detach the painful emotions from the memory, and then using the eye-movements, the troubling emotions are processed out of your body. You will not forget the event that occurred, but it will no longer come with the gut punch.
ART (Accelerated Resolution Therapy)
ART is very similar to EMDR. The creator of ART was an EMDR-trained therapist. She found that when you doubled the eye-movements (or tapping) and switched up the protocol, in her opinion, ART works better and has longer lasting results. ART does offer more creative alternatives to detaching the troubling emotions from the memory.
ART also offers three different protocols to be utilized. One protocol is for specific events that occurred, like a car accident or rape. Another works well for modifying emotions and feelings in everyday life. The last protocol can attack a specific emotion and find resolution.
Regardless of which therapeutic method you utilize, both are highly effective in targeting trauma and allowing your body to eradicate the agonizing emotions.
It’s time for relief: Reclaim your life and restore your mind!
It can be very scary and frightening to face your deepest wounds. The idea of opening Pandora’s Box and feeling the emotions is enough to cause many people to slam the box shut and run.
Prior to a trauma session, your fears and concerns will be addressed in a regular therapy session. Then, when you are ready and comfortable to engage in a trauma session, your mind, body, and soul will feel adequately prepared and ready to heal.
Let’s start the healing process today! Don’t wait another day carrying around the heaviness of your past.
Call today to set up a consultation with either Deandra Hennemann or Angie Mabe: (407) 285-6284