Heal From Childhood Trauma

Children can be traumatized by any experience that overwhelms them. If the experience is too much for the child and their internal resources then they can be traumatized. Children can be traumatized in many different ways, not just through abuse or neglect. They can be effected by divorce, inconsistent parenting, narcissistic parents, bullied at school and humiliated by peers, medical trauma and repeated disappointments. Theses experiences cause long lasting negative effects and can lead to low self esteem, depression and unhappiness as a adult.

“It’s not what’s wrong with you, it’s what happened to you.”

Deep healing is possible for survivors of childhood abuse. I combine EMDR therapy with Internal Family Systems and “parts work”.  IFS is built on the idea that we all have parts of ourselves including; protector parts, parts that hold burdens (or carry wounds) and we each have the Self which holds inherent wisdom and healing energy to mend our scars. IFS combined with EMDR helps to heal the deep scars of being betrayed and abused by parents or caregivers. The trauma caused by parental abuse and neglect can be some of the most difficult to heal from and the most life impacting trauma a person can experience. With IFS and EMDR therapy it is possible to heal from the far reaching wounds of relational trauma and the feelings of shame that often goes with it.

I have been trained to use a special EMDR protocol called the Early Trauma Protocol (ETP) by Katie Oshea M.S. and Sandra Paulsen Ph.D. to work with individuals who experienced childhood trauma and were abused and/or neglected in early childhood between the ages of birth to 3. When we experience abuse and or neglect before the age of three we do not have explicit memories. Because the brain is developing it is not able to remember exactly what happened to us. At that age memory is stored in the right hemisphere and is not subject to direct recall. Many people will have a “felt sense” of what they experienced at a young age. They might also know of stories that they were told by parents, siblings or other adults in their lives.

Trauma in young children is stored in a “baby state” in which there are no images or thoughts about the trauma, just a felt sense of terror, abandonment, hurt or shame that never seems to go away. Babies absorb everything around them including their mother, father, and environment. This includes the relationship template from those caring for them and becomes embedded into their body including their cells and muscle tissue.

With the Early Trauma Protocol I  start by resetting the affective or emotional circuits. When babies and young children don’t feel safe to express or show emotions then the emotions can be stopped or dysfunctionally stored. I use a form of EMDR therapy to help clients to feel and express their emotions in a healthy way.  Then I target the childhood trauma by developmental time frames using a felt sense of trauma or what the client has heard of their early childhood experiences. In this process we review the trauma material, then use EMDR therapy with a bilateral tapping method to release the trauma. Next, we use a reparative process which allows the client to imagine what they needed but didn’t get, and then help the client to install positive thoughts or beliefs about that time period