Trauma/EMDR Counseling
Are you struggling with the effects of a traumatic experience?
Out of the blue, you get hit with disturbing memories or have trouble sleeping because of nightmares.
You don’t want to be alone, but find it difficult to trust others.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by memories or sensations that bring you back to the trauma.
The depression, anxiety, and panic attacks interfere with your life.
You’re not even sure if you’d call the experience traumatic, but you know that it’s been hard for you to cope.
You wish the past wasn’t holding you back from moving forward with your life.
Going through a painful, traumatic experience makes it so hard to feel a sense of safety and stability. Because traumatic memories are linked to the emotional center of our brain, every trigger – sights, sounds, smells, etc. – bring up the pain and terror you experienced back then.
It’s exhausting to live with the hypervigilance that accompanies a trauma reaction. No matter when the experience occurred, you probably feel a sense of not having control and worry you’ll never have control over your life.
You're Not Alone!
We want you to know that you are not alone in your experience, in fact, up to 70 percent of Americans experience some sort of trauma in their lives.
Psychological trauma can come from many places, such as sexual abuse, childhood abuse, bullying, witnessing scary situations, natural disasters, abusive relationships… this list could go on forever. Those incidents can lead to feelings of shame, depression, or anxiety.
But the good news is you don’t need to feel this way forever!
It’s possible to encounter the people, situations, or places that trigger your trauma, and have no reaction at all. I want to help you keep the knowledge of what happened to you in your past, without the painful emotions.
The way we do that is through Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), or generalized trauma therapy.
Schedule your free consultation call today to learn more about how EMDR and ART trauma therapy can help you.
What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy has been thoroughly researched and been found repeatedly to help patients experience healing from trauma and other difficult life challenges, which may include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety/panic attacks, or depression.
One of the most significant benefits of EMDR therapy, is that it does not require you to speak in detail about the distressing event, or to complete homework between our therapy sessions. Instead, we spend our time focusing on helping your brain to resume its natural healing process.
When we are done with treatment, our goal is to remove the traumatic "fight, flight, or freeze" response from your memory of the distressing event. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to have the memory without the negative emotion?
Laurie Giancola, EMDR-Trained Counselor
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We utilize both cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and accelerated resolution therapy (ART) to help our clients reach their goals.
Every session is individualized to your needs, because nobody benefits from a cookie cutter approach to therapy. We will focus on the specific strategies that will best apply to your situation. And when something doesn't work, we toss it out and try something new. EMDR and ART tend to be our therapies of choice for trauma.
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When you're overwhelmed, stressed, and anxious, it makes sense that you'd be hesitant to add one more thing (therapy) to your plate.
What our patients tend to find is that our work together helps them feel more energized and organized in their life so the challenges no longer feel insurmountable. Skeptics often turn into believers once they begin to enjoy the progress they've made.
Therapy is an investment in your personal well-being, and much like exercise it takes a bit of effort to see the best results.
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If I had a nickel for every time I heard this, I'd be retired by now. I'm sorry you've had that experience and it's understandable that you wouldn't want to waste your time trying therapy again.
I can tell you that we constantly monitoring to ensure I'm the right fit for our patients and we have no problem referring them to someone who would be a better fit. If you ever feel we're not right, we welcome that feedback so we can get you on the right path to feeling better. Your progress is most important, whether it's with us or not.
Our patients fill out short rating scales periodically so we have actual data to measure progress... or identify if we're stuck. This data is so valuable in ensuring we don't spin our wheels.
We can't promise results, but we can promise that we will always be working at least as hard as you.