Healing Trauma

Healing trauma requires “being truly heard and seen by the people around us, feeling that we are held in someone’s mind and heart. It requires feeling comfortable with feeling what you feel, to know what you know without questioning and to feel full ownership of your mind and body (Van der Kolk, 2014).” In the past, mental health practitioners would understand healing of trauma through a lens of needing to release the feelings and would attempt to do so with talk therapy, or retelling the story. Now we understand that when trauma occurs, the memory can also become locked in the body. Unfortunately, recalling the memory and understanding why you feel strongly about it often does not heal the trauma.
Neuroscience research shows us that healing occurs when we interface with the emotional brain. Opening the past may retraumatize you further if you are not managing your emotions in the present. Therefore, to begin the healing of trauma requires starting with learning to regulate your emotions in the present. Also, because traumatic memories are highly somatic (recalled in the body as much as the mind) mind-body therapies can be highly effective. 
Here are some research-based ways to start with your own healing:      
 
  1. EMDR: short for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. In my clinical experience, I have not seen anything as effective as EMDR. It has been extensively researched and considered the gold standard treatment for trauma. It should not be done virtually, but in person with a licensed clinician. I’ve seen dramatic changes and healing after only a few sessions and find also that the client leaves feeling empowered instead of overwhelmed. EMDR healing is believed to be similar to what the body does naturally during rapid eye movement sleep when a person processes stress. EMDR includes “allow[ing] experiences that are causing problems to be ‘digested’ and stored appropriately in your brain. That means that what is useful to you from an experience will be learned and stored with appropriate emotions in your brain, and be able to guide you in positive ways in the future. The unhealthy emotions, beliefs, and body sensations will be discarded. The goal of EMDR therapy is to leave you with the emotions, understanding, and perspectives that will lead to healthy and useful behaviors and interactions (Emdria.com).” Our own Dr. Elizabeth Topp is a certified EMDR therapist.
                            
  2. Neurofeedback:  this is the training of the brain function by using painless brain wave sensors to observe the brain while the person is performing a task, usually on a screen, such as a video game. The brain gets rewarded on the game when it moves to more appropriate patterns (Fisher, 2014).  In addition to trauma, I’ve also seen it work very well with inattention and anxiety.
                            
  3. Yoga: by regulating the body, you regulate the mind. A regular practice of yoga has been shown to help heal trauma (Van der Kolk, 2014).  Other forms of body movement that are likely also effective include martial arts, Brazilian capoeira, and certain kinds of dancing. However, there hasn’t been enough research to call these other modalities effective yet.

  4. Mindfulness: the research on mindfulness practices to help with self-regulation is immense. When someone is traumatized, they become disconnected from their body sensations and thoughts. Mindfulness helps bring us in touch with our inner world. It helps us practice self-regulation so we are less likely to go into fight, flight or freeze states (Kabat-Zinn, 2013).  Practicing mindfulness has been shown to help with depression and chronic pain (Hofmann et al, 2010),  as well as decreasing cortisol levels, blood pressure and helping the immune system (Davidson et al, 2003).

Here is who we recommend for healing trauma and working with your family:

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Estela for parent coaching
Dr. Elizabeth fro EMDR, trauma, parenting
Dr. Melissa for clinical psychology, family systems