Taproot Psychology

Trauma is a response to an experience or series of experiences that cause psychological and physiological distress. Traumatic experiences range from sexual or physical assault and abuse, psychological abuse, accidents, war, losing a loved one, natural disasters, grief, and more .You may have been involved in the event directly where harm was caused to you or indirectly by having witnessed someone else being subjected to harm. However, trauma is not necessarily an event that happens to us but what happens inside of us if our nervous system is unable to process and make sense of an experience. The events in themselves can affect each of us very differently. Trauma occurs when our nervous system is dysregulated and unable to return to equilibrium. It can manifest as many things, including somatic and body-based responses, emotional distress, flashbacks, nightmares, and dissociation.

ds for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It occurs when a person’s nervous system becomes stuck on “on”. When you are stuck in this overstimulated state you are unable to make sense of what happened, find yourself in a state of shock and being unable to process your emotions. Your traumatic experience can change how you view yourself, others, and the world around you. You may experience nightmares, flashbacks about the event - where it feels like it is happening again. You may also find yourself feeling on edge, feeling unsafe, experience low mood and anxiety, be withdrawn and avoiding reminders of your trauma. You may find that your relationships are impacted in some way.

Complex trauma is an emotional response and exposure to ongoing traumatic experiences, such as childhood abuse and neglect. People who have experienced complex trauma suffer from prolonged symptoms of trauma that are pervasive and intrusive.

Trauma refers to any event that causes psychological and physiological distress. Someone can experience one specific traumatic event and still develop symptoms of PTSD. Often a traumatic event is a one-time occurrence, such as an accident or a single assault or a natural disaster. Complex trauma refers to an ongoing series of traumatic events. Two common causes of complex trauma are sexual violence and childhood abuse or neglect, but there are many ongoing sources of trauma that result in complex trauma.

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing. It is a form of psychotherapy used to help people who have experienced traumatic events heal and process their emotions and experience. EMDR is a highly effective treatment for people who have experienced trauma or an adverse life experience.

During an EMDR therapy for trauma session, you will be asked to remember a traumatic event. You will be asked to focus on this event while your psychologist performs bilateral stimulation by directing lateral eye movements, using hand-tapping interventions, or even audio stimulation to give you something external to focus on. When you keep the memory in mind and complete the repetitive movement, the emotional charge of the memory lessens and it becomes desensitised. It also becomes easier to think differently about the experience as the memory is reprocessed. In EMDR therapy, your source of healing comes from an internal place rather than the interpretations and dialogue between you and your psychologist.

EMDR helps people experiencing depression, anxiety, flashbacks, nightmares, feeling disconnected from themselves and struggles with intimacy, sex, and relationships. EMDR is also a highly effective form of treatment for people with PTSD and who have experienced complex trauma.

If you are tired of suffering and want to jumpstart the healing process, intensive trauma therapy could be right for you. You might feel as if you want to spend more time working with your therapist and that one or two sessions a week aren’t enough. You should be able to invest in yourself and have a basic level of stability in your life in order to go through the intensive program.

EMDR intensives include a pre-assessment consultation to see if it is an appropriate form of treatment for you, to identify what you’d like to work on and create a plan. Dr Kelly will provide a personalised treatment workbook to use as a guide for before, during, and after the intensive therapy experience. She will make a tailored treatment plan to your specific needs. The intensive is truly unique for every person – some people do a full, 6-hour day with one break every three hours while others do a long weekend, like a retreat. You can expect longer sessions than your regular therapy sessions with a few breaks. After this intensive, you may no longer require EMDR therapy. These intensives give you a stronger and broader skillset to manage your emotions and will provide you with resources to take into your daily life.