PTSD and Trauma Therapy

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a condition that develops after an individual has experienced or even witnessed a devastating event or series of events. Maria Droste Counseling Center in Denver, CO, offers in-person and online PTSD therapy, regardless of your ability to pay.

Why to consider trauma therapy

When we experience trauma, our brains need time to process this event to make sense of the experience. If an event is beyond our ability to understand, or if the trauma repeats over time, our brains can have difficulty effectively processing the trauma.

Many victims of childhood abuse, domestic violence, or other violent crimes can develop PTSD, as well as soldiers returning from war. In these cases, PTSD may develop and begin to cause the sufferer to feel unsafe in their current life, even after the traumatic events have passed.

Symptoms of PTSD

To begin with, people with PTSD often experience nightmares, flashbacks, and feelings that they are unsafe. They may also experience hypervigilance, which means they feel they must constantly be on the lookout for danger. These symptoms, therefore, lead to heightened heart rates, sweating, and rapid breathing. Additionally, PTSD sufferers may have difficulty sleeping, and report being easily startled and frequently anxious.

Alternatively, individuals with PTSD may experience a numbing of emotions, that is, a loss of interest in usual activities. In addition, many people experience feeling depressed or guilty, which can lead to avoidance of places or people that remind them of their trauma.

These symptoms can become quite debilitating and can often cause as much harm in an individual’s life as the original trauma. In summary, the effects of PTSD can continue throughout one’s life and damage one’s family, career, and social life if left untreated.

Trauma can be healed

Injuries and traumatic events can rob us of many things, including our joy in life. Sometimes we find it difficult to deal with these things by ourselves and need help.

The good news is that there are very effective treatments for PTSD that alleviate symptoms and enable a sufferer to process the trauma and learn skills and tools to become stronger, healthier, and happier. Treatment can empower an individual with PTSD to move past their trauma and reclaim their lives, their families, and their futures.

Types of trauma therapy

As is the case for most diagnoses, there are many different approaches to treatment that are effective for resolving the effects of trauma. All of our therapists take a trauma-informed approach to treatment, meaning that they aim to establish a sense of safety, empowerment, and healing in each session. Our therapists operate with the understanding that trauma is never the survivors fault, and that most clients have experienced some form of trauma throughout their lifetime.

In addition to a trauma-informed approach, many of our therapists are trained in trauma-specific interventions including EMDR, Cognitive Processing Therapy, and DBT. If you have questions about which type of treatment may be most effective in addressing the impact of your trauma, contact us to learn more.

Most types of trauma intervention follow the tri-phasic treatment model developed by Judith Herman. This model encourages trauma therapy to work in 3 phases: establishing safety, remembrance and mourning, and reconnection and integration.

TRI-PHASIC TREATMENT MODEL

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