Depression and trauma go hand in hand. Many people who have experienced trauma have symptoms of depression. When the body and mind are overwhelmed by a traumatic event its natural response is to shut down emotions and feelings…both good and bad. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a non-drug treatment that can help some people […]
Just like adults children can experience PTSD symptoms. EMDR therapy is successful in treating trauma survivors both young and old and is the most researched psychotherapeutic treatment for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). When a painful or upsetting experience happens, the memory of the experience sometimes stays “stuck” in the body and mind. Over time, the […]
It takes guts to overcome fear and heal from rape. Every hour 78 women are raped in the United States. Men and children are also victims of rape. In fact,1 in 33 men are sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. And over half of all rape victims know their attacker. Rape is a crime of power, […]
The word freeze has now been added to fight or flight as a third response that can occur to both humans and animals during a threat for survival. For human beings, the freeze response can occur when we’re terrified and feel like there is no chance for our survival or no chance for escape. It […]
The flight or flee response to trauma is commonly see in the wild when a lion chases his prey. If the prey is lucky it will out run the lion and survive. As humans we too have the flight response when faced with a threat. When we are fearful of our lives or feel a […]
Trauma is not something that we like to think about , let alone talk about. Trauma itself is also commonly misunderstood leaving individuals who are affected by it to feel stigmatized, alone and not receive the assistance they need. In order to better help people with trauma we must understand that their reactions are normal […]
If our body and mind cannot move past a traumatic experience then we get stuck in a fight, flight or freeze mode. The fight response is about survival and hope. We activate it when we believe there’s a chance we can outfight our attackers. The sympathetic branch activates the fight response. It tells the heart […]
During the holidays it can be difficult navigating family dynamics in healthy families but it is even more challenging for adult survivors of childhood abuse to spend the holidays with family members who have abused them. There are a variety of reasons why a survivor would spend the holidays with family members who abused them […]
Below are the three stages of the recovery process for trauma that we follow as therapists at Vancouver EMDR Therapy. We use EMDR therapy in every phase of the recovery process whether it is helping to create safety and increasing inner resources or processing traumatic memories and strengthening new ways of experiencing self and others. […]
We are learning more about trauma all of the time. New research is giving us insights into the effects of trauma and the subsequent behaviors that people exhibit. The more that we know about trauma the more that we can help survivors, including give a voice to their experience. Below are some examples of what […]
