You’re tired of being stuck.

Stuck feeling down, angry, worried, alone.

You’ve tried positivity and gratitude. You tell yourself if you could do it “right” things would get better. The result of which is an internal battle trying to be “right” all the time.

Yet instead, you end up snappy, irritable, and striking out at those close to you.

Then, the next thing you know that inner critic starts in. It’s loud and mean, saying things like you’re a failure, a problem, bad. It’s unrelenting.

Why is it so hard to be happy, to enjoy the good things in your life?

Getting UNstuck is possible!

Trauma Therapy and PTSD Counseling can help.

You may be surprised to hear, but you’re not alone. In fact, lots of people feel like you do.

You’re feeling this way not because you’re a problem or a failure or even “bad”, but because of how you’re built as a human person. You’re wired for survival, protection, and to keep loved ones close.

Your inner critic is a protective mechanism. It believes if you do everything the way “you should”, you will feel more security. This part of you thinks that if it bully’s you into doing things “right” you will never experience pain. Unfortunately that part is incorrect. Bullying yourself in this way doesn’t work and the elusive rightness never happens. Yet, the goal of this internal part is that you feel better which is the important thing to understand.

The difficult experiences in your life have affected how your brain works. It always working to make you feeling safe, secure, and connected to others. When hard things happen and you feel some sort of emotional or physical pain, your brain records them as unsafe. This changes your internal wiring and is what defines trauma as traumatic.

Symptoms of trauma and PTSD

Everyone is unique and has different reasons for coming into our counseling clinic. Some common reasons someone might come to see trauma counselors include:

• Depression
• Inability to relax
• Trouble sleeping
• Avoidance behaviors
• Flashbacks
• Outbursts
• Relationship distress
• Irritability
• Panic attacks
• Isolation
• Intrusive thoughts

Good news, our trauma counselors can help!

As trauma therapists, we understand how distressing trauma can be. How it affects every aspect of your life: work, home, family, and friends. We know that you can’t “just get over it”, even though you’ve tried and tried. The thing is with PTSD, you need help getting over it. That’s what we do, we help people heal from trauma.

Lifetouch Counseling’s Approach to Trauma Counseling.

Our therapists are ready to help you heal from your trauma. We understand how the brain manages trauma. Traumatic experiences live in lower parts of your brain. Simple talk therapy does not access them and we need other ways.

We have several tools in our tool belt we use in PTSD Counseling.

One of which you’ve is EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing).

This intervention utilizes the movement of the eyes to access trauma in the brain. This technique has been around for several decades and processes trauma. EMDR has become a mainstream trauma processing tool used to help PTSD symptoms. You can read more about EMDR Therapy, here.

Another tool, that is cutting edge trauma therapy is Brainspotting.

David Grand discovered Brainspotting in the early 2000’s. It has rapidly become an intervention that trauma counselors prefer. This technique uses eye position to locate and process trauma in the brain. It also uses bilateral stimulation by listening to music during Brainspotting sessions. Check out our Brainspotting page for more information.

Another instrument of PTSD Treatment is the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP).

This therapy engages the Vagus Nerve, which is the main sensory neural network in the head, face, and body. The SSP also uses music as well. Because the nervous system gets stuck from trauma, the SSP teaches it flexibility. It achieves this through an auditory filtering in the music. Read more about the SSP here.

Finally, trauma heals best through safe and secure relationship. Our trauma counselors provide safety and security with each client. This in conjunction with the trauma tools is the best and easiest way for you to heal.

What’s holding you back from starting your trauma therapy?

Embarrassed or feeling weak? It takes courage to reach out for help, but it’s worth it.

Additionally, this is a common misconception of weakness. You think, because I can’t get over it, I’m weak. It’s the opposite, your nervous system is so good at protecting you and keeping you safe that it’s overworking. We can help it to stop trying so hard to protect you from things in your past, so you can get on with your life.

Worried about the time commitment? Counseling is a process that does take some time. Yet, we do offer in person and online therapy to make attending therapy easier. Give us a call, we want to help!