Trauma & PTSD Counseling
Denver, NC
Trauma & PTSD Counseling in Denver, NC
What is trauma?
In order to really talk about trauma therapy and what it can do for you, it is important to first understand what trauma is. In order to better explain trauma, we encourage people to think about the concept of a wound. It is not a pretty analogy, but stick with us. As we go through life, we are continuously getting wounded by people and events. These wounds start off as simple paper cuts. However, as they are reinforced through other people, other events, and even our own thoughts, the wounds get bigger and bigger until they start causing significant impairments in our lives. Just like with a big physical wound, wounds from trauma need to be healed and dealt with in order to live a more enjoyable and healthy life.
So, what can cause paper cuts rather than big wounds to begin with? Small wounds can come from any experiences we have had that caused us to feel negatively about ourselves, other people, or the world in general. For example, in second grade, when you failed your spelling test, you may have felt like you were not good enough. Then, as you had other things happen in life, you continued to feel not good enough (the wound gets bigger). That can be trauma to you. It may not be to everyone, but if it hurt you and stuck with you, it is a wound that needs healing.
Your thoughts are heavy
Some days you find yourself caught in negative thoughts. Some of the thoughts are actually memories. You can’t stop remembering something you experienced or saw. Some thoughts are negative thoughts that have come from past situations, such as I’m not good enough, it’s my fault, I can’t trust others, or I can’t show my emotions. Many things you do, see, hear, or maybe even smell remind you of the memories or thoughts. At times, you feel like they are happening again. They even follow you into your sleep, or lack thereof. Sometimes the thoughts keep you awake, and other times, they seem to come out of nowhere while sleeping.
Your emotions are high
You have moments of feeling incredibly irritable, sad, or anxious that seem to come out of nowhere. Or, maybe you know exactly where it came from because something reminded you of your past. That is why you avoid those thoughts and those triggering situations/things. You also find yourself feeling scared or worried. You sometimes startle easy when someone comes to say hi or touch you. You may also notice, well, everything because you don’t want to be startled. At times, though, you may also feel depressed and hopeless, like nothing matters.
You don’t feel like yourself
In addition to your thoughts and emotions waging war within you, you have also noticed some troublesome symptoms. You are having trouble concentrating. In fact, there are some things you cannot even remember. Your friends and family may have also started to notice that you are withdrawing from your usual social circles and hobbies. In some cases, you may have replaced these with a behavior that is actually pretty reckless. Overall, as time goes on you feel as though you are loosing the person you used to be.
We can help!
Trauma is often misdiagnosed because it causes symptoms of most every other diagnosis. In order to help you, we start by helping you to understand that you are not broken. You just need some help. In order to help, we first help you gain control over symptoms, such as anxiety and depression, so that we can work on the hard part: the trauma. This sets you up to have skills to handle anything that comes up in the process of therapy. Then, we can move into using approaches like EMDR , CBT, and DBT to challenge the thoughts and emotions that have come from the trauma you are either currently going through or have been through. At Equalize Counseling & Consulting, our preference is to use EMDR therapy because it helps clients heal rather than just put a band-aid on the past. Click here to read more on EMDR.
We’d love to help you. Click here to schedule your free 15-minute phone consultation for trauma & PTSD counseling in Denver. Trauma often presents as many diagnoses that you could use help with. Check out our other specialities to see how we can also help anxiety, depression, couples, families, and weight loss.
Free yourself from the baggage of the past
