When a person experiences a sense of threat, the central nervous system’s fight or flight response is activated. In the face of traumatic events, a person’s system can become completely overwhelmed resulting in a chronically overactive fight or flight response and/or a chronic sense of reliving the traumatic events. The nervous system essentially becomes stuck in a defensive physiological state.

Research on the effects and treatment of trauma has revealed that traumatic experiences often have a long-lasting physiological and psychological impact which may, depending upon the nature of the traumatic events, include:

• Disruption in the functioning of the centers of the brain that involve higher order, abstract thinking (including planning and prioritizing) and that regulate attention and concentration
• Heightened activity in the part of the brain that interprets threat and danger
• Sympathetic nervous system dominance, which can lead to: hyper-vigilance with a sensitive startle response; agitation; anxiety; reduction in heart rate variability; heart palpitations; and/or difficulty sleeping
• Sense of disconnection or dissociation from others and/or the environment
• Sense of disconnection from one’s self and one's own body including poor self-care
• Tendency to relive (flashbacks) and/or reenact the traumatic events, and distress upon exposure to anything that serves as a reminder of the events
• Nightmares
• Social withdrawal including significant difficulty trusting others even a spouse/partner
• Trouble controlling emotions
• Aggressive impulses based in an overactive sense of needing to defend oneself
• Confusion and/or inhibition in the area of sexuality
• Altered sense of meaning in life

Our therapists utilize a comprehensive approach to helping our clients to recover from trauma. We tailor therapy to the specific needs of each client’s situation incorporating some combination of the following strategies:

• Development of effective coping skills for regulating emotional states and physiology and for improving lifestyle habits
• Body-awareness exercises to facilitate more effective processing of emotions and to facilitate reconnection with and increased regard for one’s own body
• Processing of the emotional impact of the traumatic events in order to make greater sense of experiences that have produced significant pain and confusion
• Nutrition Therapy to assist with rebalancing the central nervous system
• Referral, if necessary, for a medication evaluation (available at our practice) 

We work with trauma survivors holistically to restore healthy mind/body functioning so that our clients can release the past and feel more genuinely alive in the present.

Please contact our office at 724-934-3905, or via our online Contact Form, for more information or to schedule an appointment.