Common Symptoms of Trauma

Trauma Counseling and EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) are specific type of counseling aimed at reducing symptoms resulting from traumatic events. What is traumatic varies from person to person. We all have different responses to all of our experiences. The same experience that causes one person prolonged distress might not cause another person the same lasting symptoms; however, sometimes those lasting changes in who we are or how we interact with world are a source of pain, relationship disruption, and impairment in many areas of our lives. When we experience prolonged challenges, we have likely experienced an event as traumatic.

Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other trauma and stress related disorders result from disturbing experiences causing prolonged distress. It is believed that the experience and resulting memory is not adequately processed when we are unable to move past the disturbance. These unprocessed memories contain the emotions, thoughts, beliefs and physical sensations that occurred at the time of the event. When the memories are triggered these stored disturbing elements are re-experienced and cause distressing and impairing symptoms.

Commonly, trauma is experienced in the following ways:

• Anxiety and Panic. Experiencing an overwhelming worry, upset stomach, restlessness, rapid breathing, shakiness, sweating, and difficulty concentrating.
• Nightmares. Sometimes this can include aspects of the trauma, but often it does not. These disrupt your sleep and are distressing.
• Intrusive Thoughts or Images. These are difficult to control and impair your day to day functioning.
• Flashbacks. Feeling like you are experiencing the trauma now. This can include all or some of your senses.
• Hypervigilance. Being easily startled and jumpy contributes to a general sense of discomfort and inability to relax and rest.

Symptoms of trauma including a pervasive sense of anxiety can result in irritability, anger, and make it difficult to concentrate. You can feel sensitive both emotionally and physically and as a result it can be challenging to connect to others and activities you enjoy.

The level of distress trauma can result in can also increase numbing behaviors, such as substance and alcohol use. It can also cause you to avoid anything that could trigger symptoms. This might look like overworking, avoiding interactions with others, or cutting yourself off from your feelings.

Trauma Counseling and EMDR Therapy

Trauma can be treated in a number of ways. Trauma Counseling can involve various types of intervention. Each involve some form of processing aspects of the trauma(s). Some types of therapies include:

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) is an approach which does not require exposure therapy or verbal processing of the trauma. This often short intervention pairs bilateral stimulation with the memory of the trauma(s) to assist in restoring memories in an adaptive functional way, reducing or eliminating the trauma triggered symptoms. EMDR can assist with coping with past traumas sometimes in less time than other types of therapy and is less invasive intervention. For more information about EMDR, please reach out. Dr. Amanda Pruit is a trained EMDR therapist and is ready to answer any questions you have about it.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that developed as a result of the experience which have lead to difficulty functioning. Identifying these patterns help focu on what needs to be changed to decrease distress and increase function.

Cognitive interventions, such has Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), focus on identifying the beliefs formed as a result of the experience. Whether challenging unhelpful beliefs.

Prolonged Exposure involves exposing yourself to the memory of the trauma, resisting avoidance, and gradually reducing the dysfunctional response.