Trauma Therapy
|
The American Psychological Association defines trauma as: an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape or natural disaster. Immediately after the event, shock and denial are typical. Longer term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea. While these feelings are normal, some people have difficulty moving on with their lives. Therapist can help these individuals find constructive ways of managing their emotions. This is what is called a big “T” trauma.
Individuals can also experience small “t” traumas. These are described as smaller or less traumatic events stemming from childhood to young adult that leave a person with similar problems as a large T but not diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome or PTSD. Examples can be name calling in childhood, to trauma in childbirth, divorce, car accidents, etc. Brainspotting is a revolutionary new therapy for rapid and effective change. It was developed by David Grand, PhD in 2003. Brainspotting is a brain-based therapy treatment that goes beyond the mind to gain direct access to the brain. The motto of Brainspotting is, "Where you look affects how you feel." If something is bothering you, how you feel about it will literally change depending on whether you look off to your right or to your left. Our eyes and brains are intricately woven together, and vision is the primary way that we, as humans, orient ourselves to our environment. Signals sent from our eyes are deeply processed in the brain. The brain then reflexively and intuitively redirects where we look moment to moment. The brain is an incredible processing machine that digests and organizes everything we experience. But trauma can overwhelm the brain's processing capacity, leaving behind pieces of the trauma, frozen in an unprocessed state. Brainspotting uses our field of vision to find where we are holding these traumas in our brain. Just as the eyes naturally scan the outside environment for information, they can also be used to scan our inside environments - our brains - for information. Brainspotting uses the visual field to turn the "scanner" back on itself and guide the brain to find lost internal information. By keeping the gaze focused on a specific external spot, we maintain the brain's focus on the specific internal spot where trauma is stored, in order to promote the deep processing that leads to the trauma's release and resolution (Grand, 2013). Brainspotting can be used with clients who need to remain grounded during the treatment process, including clients with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and those who are significantly detached from their own experience. Brainspotting.com is the official website for David Grand, PhD. and it provides comprehensive information about Brainspotting. Buffy is trained 40 hours in both Level I and II in EMDR. (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing). To understand the process please review the information page of EMDR at www.emdr.com |
If you would like more information or make an appointment please call
980-250-2438
