When we face real, imminent danger, it is natural and healthy to feel afraid. The feeling of fear triggers biochemical changes in the body to prepare it to fight, flee, or freeze. This reaction is healthy and designed to help protect us from harm.
However, in the aftermath of extended danger and/or extreme danger—as in the case of being physically, sexually, and/or emotionally abused; sexually or physically assaulted, or combat experience—the body sometimes loses the ability to shut off this response system, and it remains in a heightened state of fear and arousal.
In turn, you might feel continuously in danger and fearful even when the danger has long since passed. It is also why you might feel that even a small issue today feels exactly like the danger you faced long ago.
The body and brain store the chemical changes they underwent at the time of the trauma(s) you endured, effectively becoming a “different person” than you were before the trauma. In addition, your trauma memories of the abuse or trauma are not stored in the same area of the brain as all your other non-traumatic memories. Instead, those distressing memories are stored in the amygdala, commonly known as the “reptile brain.” This part of the brain is responsible for our emotions and gut reactions to perceived dangers and threats during certain events.
Feelings and reactivity around the memory are effectively “frozen” together and not accessible to analytical thought or logic, which takes place in another part of the brain. Perhaps you have tried trauma counseling, where you talked and talked about your abuse and trauma without feeling much better about what happened to you.
We offer a different solution.
At OptimalLife Wellness, our therapists employ mind-body PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) & trauma counseling techniques for effective treatment options, such as Comprehensive Energy Psychology, Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Trauma Informed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and other integrated, holistic trauma treatments & techniques to effectively “reprogram” your brain to a pre-traumatized state. Our trauma counseling therapists also employ the latest in neuroscience to craft an individualized treatment plan for your path to wellness.
You don’t have to keep reliving your trauma. You can have the life you have always wanted. We can help get you there.
