Trauma

Traumatic experiences

Common experiences can be traumatic:

  • Failing a test
  • Botching an important presentation
  • Being fired
  • Being humiliated by a teacher in front of classmates

And there are major life traumas:

  • Being a victim or witness of rape, violence or abuse
  • Experiencing a serious accident or natural disaster
  • Losing a cherished loved one
  • Experiencing divorce as a child or as a marital partner
  • Living through a terrorist attack

Trauma can have lasting effects on our emotions, thinking, and physical well-being.

If you've experienced trauma, you might:

  • Have trouble with sleep, concentration, memory
  • Frequently feel fearful, sad, irritable, numb, distrustful, helpless, angry, resentful, betrayed
  • Isolate yourself or avoid certain activities
  • Avoid most risks, play it too safe
  • Experience upsetting "flashbacks"
  • Become hyper-vigilant - always on the lookout
  • Misinterpret your environment or people's intentions, sensing danger where none exist

Proper treatment can alleviate the effects of trauma.

My clients often have a palpable sense of relief after they address their traumas in therapy. Perhaps you'd like to:

  • Breathe easier and feel more comfortable in your body
  • Feel more relaxed and better able to enjoy your life
  • Distance yourself from intrusive memories
  • Eliminate "flashbacks" and nightmares
  • Alleviate the negative emotions associated with traumatic memories
  • Embrace new challenges with optimism and confidence
  • Enter into new relationships with trust
  • Feel secure and safe enough to shed rigid routines and rituals

A breakthrough in the treatment of trauma

Many of my clients have suffered major life traumas. My goals are to help them recover to the greatest extent possible, and do so with an extremely gentle approach to avoid further pain.

I've found that Emotional Freedom Technique meet both goals:

  • EFT is extremely effective in helping people significantly alleviate the effect of trauma
  • I'm able to apply EFT in a way that avoids unnecessary suffering

Here's an example:

A client of mine was a victim of childhood sexual abuse that lasted several years, and was raped twice as an adult. She revealed to me that she normally slept only a few hours each night. Fear and anxiety kept her awake, pacing and peering out of her window to watch for trouble. Still, she resisted my treating her anxiety to help her sleep, saying "I don't want to relax! If I let my guard down, bad things will happen to me." Trauma had lead to a belief that anxiety kept her safe.

She did agree to use EFT on her fear of letting go of her anxiety. Minutes later, she was much more relaxed and willing to address her remaining fear and anxiety. Soon she was ready to take a nap! While not entirely free of all anxiety and agitation, at our next session she reported sleeping 10 hours a night.

The technique did not erase the memories of the traumatic events. Rather, it helped to rapidly release the negative emotions connected to the experiences.

Likewise, I helped a woman in a near-fatal auto accident. After our session, she could recall the incident clearly, but it no longer provoked fear and anxiety.

If I am helping a client with a single isolated trauma, we often can achieve excellent results in one to three sessions. Others come with extensive histories of trauma and accompanying systems of thinking, feeling and behaving that do not best serve them. Of course, these cases require more sessions.

Normally, I work with clients in person, though phone sessions are possible.


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