PTSD Trauma Therapy & Counselling

Everyone experiences PTSD differently. However, there are three common symptom groups which can be accompanied by other additional symptoms:

Re-experiencing the Traumatic Event

This is the feeling that the trauma incident is happening again. This can be caused by sudden “flash backs”, thoughts, images and nightmares. Even a sound or a smell can trigger your body into a full physical re-experiencing of all or part of what took place, or sometimes more sensations than you felt during the event itself.

Avoidance or Numbing

The attempt to avoid any person, situation or event that might trigger any memory or sensation connected to the trauma event is a common ‘avoidance’ symptom. When numbing occurs it is as if the mind and body block out any memory or physical sensation that can provide any reminder of the event. This numb feeling can also intrude upon day to day living in the form of a pervading sense of detachment or disinterest.

Hyper Arousal and Increased Anxiety

This is when you find yourself in a constant state of vigilance for any person, place or thing that could trigger an emotional or physiological reminder in your body. The effort required to maintain this constant state of alertness tends to give rise to increased levels of anxiety, tension, irritability and exhaustion.

Your trauma psychotherapist can provide a safe, confidential space where you can learn concrete strategies for coping with the intense physiological symptoms caused by post-traumatic stress disorder. Your trauma counsellor can also help you understand certain factors that are often outside the trauma occurrence itself, but can significantly contribute to your ongoing symptoms. You will learn how to address these, and this combined approach can enable you to rebuild your confidence and feel more in control of your life again.

Some common counselling and psychotherapy approaches used to help people overcome post-traumatic stress disorder include:

Integrative Psychotherapy

Integrative psychotherapy is an individually tailored type of therapy that combines elements from a broad spectrum of psychotherapy approaches. Your therapist will take into consideration the nature of your trauma and your personality style in order to create a course of treatment that is best suited to your unique needs. It may also include elements that can help address other issues which can contribute to PTSD symptoms such as anxiety, depression, phobias and OCD.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioural therapy can be very useful in helping people understand their thought patterns and how to weed out those that are unhelpful or harmful, and contribute to making symptoms worse.

It is not unusual for people who have undergone a traumatic event to blame themselves for things they couldn’t have changed. CBT can help you understand how the event was not your fault and change the way you think about what happened. Learn more about cognitive behavioural therapy at KlearMinds

CBT therapy can help give PTSD sufferers a feeling of control over their fear and help them come to terms with what happened to them. You can learn how to replace any unhelpful thoughts with more realistic ones and thereby develop the capacity to cope much better when presented with a trigger. You can also discover how to alleviate any associated feelings such as guilt, fear or anger.

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR employs a series of side-to-side eye movements which are used to help reduce the symptoms of PTSD. This approach can help people more effectively process flashbacks and memories and lessen their impact.

EMDR can help change the way you react to the memories of what happened to you. You might be asked to focus on stimuli such as hand taps, sounds or eye movements while talking about such memories. Evidence indicates this approach can help people change how they react to the memories over time.