To revisit the previous blogs in this series, you can click here for Part 6, or here for all blogs in this series. When trauma goes unaddressed for extended periods, the initial signs and symptoms – which were outlined in the previous blog as “Primary Signs and Symptoms” – often grow in … Read More
Trauma & EMDR- Part Six
If you’re questioning the possibility of a trauma, here we’ll list some primary signs or symptoms that may possibly indicate you have experienced a trauma. If you recognize these signs and symptoms in your life (or your loved one’s), we encourage you to pursue therapeutic assessment and help with a … Read More
Trauma & EMDR- Part Five
The fact that traumatic experiences are encoded and stored differently in the brain explains why we can sometimes know things intellectually (in our head, in our logical brain), but we feel something entirely different (in our sensory responses and in our emotional brain). We may know intellectually that a person … Read More
Trauma & EMDR- Part Four
In this series, we’ve talked about big “T” and small “t” traumas; and I suggested that we’ve all experienced a trauma that has impacted us, whether or not we’ve named it as such. Big “T” traumas: life-threatening events; combat, crimes like rape, kidnapping, and assault; and natural disasters like earthquakes, … Read More
Trauma & EMDR- Part Three
Francine Shapiro, the creator of EMDR (I’ll explain EMDR later in the series), defines trauma as “any event that has had a lasting negative effect… When you lose your peace of mind, or if you never had it, there can be serious physical and psychological consequences no matter what the … Read More
Trauma & EMDR- Part Two
In Part one of this series on trauma and EMDR, we acknowledged that it’s not uncommon for us to have a hard time recognizing traumatic events in our own lives. The reason we may need to look carefully and honestly at our past is because traumatic incidents often hijack our current … Read More
A Buzzword Defined: What Does Trauma Really Mean?
We hear the word used conversationally—“that was so traumatic!”—and sometimes, it’s true. Yet, many forms of trauma don’t come up in conversation at all. What is trauma, really? In this series, we are going to take a closer look at what trauma means, its effects, and how we can move … Read More
Trauma & EMDR- Part One
Most of us consider a “traumatic” event to be something we hear about in the news – or those terrible things that happen to other people. We reserve the use of the word “trauma” for the experiences of war veterans or survivors of natural catastrophes or terrorist attacks. But trauma … Read More
Are Trauma Triggers Hijacking your Brain?
Have you ever been accused of overreacting? The cause may be your reaction to a trauma trigger. Triggers are memories, behaviors, thoughts, and situations that escalate emotional reaction. When you are in this highly emotional state, you lose the ability to make rational decisions. For some, it can result in … Read More
Crisis and Trauma: When to Seek Help
*In the aftermath of the impact of Hurricane Harvey, we are going to repost a series on dealing with crisis and trauma. How should I help myself and my family in a time of crisis? There are a number of steps you can take to help restore emotional well being … Read More
