Healing Trauma

Some difficult memories will store in your brain with the same unpleasant emotions, thoughts and body sensations that you had when the original event occurred.  When these memories come into your awareness, you will experience those symptoms.  For some memories, this can feel mild and others can feel intense.  Often, when an intense memory surfaces, our natural instinct is to try to avoid thinking about them.  When that happens, the memory can remain unprocessed and still loaded with distress.  While a traumatic memory is stored in your brain, it can shape how you think, feel and act on conscious and subconscious levels. If you have a more intense traumatic memory stored in your brain, you may experienced heightened anxiety, or be frequently scanning for danger or have difficulty feeling safe.  

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

While everyone can have mild, moderate or intensely traumatic memories that affect them, some people develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  PTSD can consist of the following symptoms:

• Intrusive Thoughts
  
• Distressing dreams
  
• Flashbacks
  
• Psychological and/or physiological distress to internal or external cues
  
• Avoidance
  
• Difficulty remembering parts of the event
  
• Negative beliefs about self or others
  
• Persistent negative emotional state
  
• Diminished interest in activities
  
• Feelings of detachment or estrangement from others
  
• Difficulty experiencing positive emotions
  
• Irritable behavior or angry outbursts
  
• Reckless or destructive behavior
  
• Hypervigilance
  
• Exaggerated startle response
  
• Difficulty concentrating
  
• Difficulty with onset of sleep
  
• Difficulty with maintenance of sleep
  
  

EMDR for Healing Traumatic Memories

PTSD is a normal brain reaction that comes as a result of going through a very difficult situation.  The good news is that whether we have PTSD or not, there is always hope for healing our traumatic memories!  Instead of perpetually avoiding negative memories, your brain needs to come in contact with that memory and process it in a systematic and constructive way to help heal it.  Processing and healing the memory usually involves more than simply talking about it.  There are various therapy techniques to help with this. One of the most common and widely used technique is called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).  EMDR involves using systematic steps to process and heal the distressing emotions, thoughts and body sensations that are locked in the memory.  If you suspect you have traumatic memories that are negatively affecting you, seek out a trauma-informed therapist to help you pursue healing.

Healing Trauma Video