Perhaps you have recently experienced a traumatic event. Or maybe your trauma happened years ago and you are struggling with the aftermath. These types of events are often emotionally charged and this emotion can become locked with the memory in a way that can alter your beliefs about yourself, about other people, and about your safety. Some common experiences reported by people who have experienced a trauma are:

• Feeling disconnected from your body or the world around you.
• Feeling like you are walking around with constant low grade anxiety.
• Feeling like you have to be on alert and scanning your environment for danger or threat.
• Being triggered by sights, sounds, sensations, smells, and other sensory inputs that take you back to the traumatic experience as though you are reliving it over and over again.
• Persistent nightmares about the traumatic experience.
• Desire to check out and avoid people, places, or other things that remind you of the traumatic event.

If any of these feel familiar to you, we encourage you to call and request more information about our treatment for trauma. One approach that is utilized at Origins Family Counseling is EMDR. This is an evidenced-based treatment protocol for trauma and PTSD. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It utilizes a combination of Bilateral Stimulation which replicates your brain’s natural processing system that happens at night during REM sleep with brief reports about what you are noticing during the Bilateral Stimulation. EMDR is one of 4 methods for treating PTSD that were given the highest level of evidence and recommended by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and the Department of Defense in 2010.