TRAUMA THERAPY
YOUR THERAPY SHOULD BE AS UNIQUE AS YOU ARE
What We Mean By Counselling and Trauma Therapy:
Counselling is our field, practice and profession, As defined by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association:
“Counselling is the skilled and principled use of relationship to facilitate self-knowledge, emotional acceptance and growth and the optimal development of personal resources. The overall aim of counsellors is to provide an opportunity for people to work towards living more satisfyingly and resourcefully. “
There’s no agreed upon difference between counselling and therapy, and many people use the terms interchangeably. However, much of the counselling we do is specifically referred to as “trauma therapy.”
What Is Trauma Therapy
We believe the most effective way to help people is by understanding how traumatic and stressful experiences leave lasting effects, and knowing how to remedy them.
In the past, therapists used to believe that trauma was limited to accidents, abuse, and the atrocities of war. These events are referred to as big “T” traumas because they are easily recognized by most people. However, our understanding of trauma is evolving, and the significance of small “t” traumas is now better recognized.
Each one of us has been impacted by trauma: negative experiences that made us feel overwhelmed, confused or powerless.
We have come to learn that all of us experience a collection of small “t” traumas over our lifetime. Any experience where we feel overwhelmed, confused or powerless can activate our survival systems - flooding us with stress hormones and signals we are in danger. These stressful experiences can leave lasting impacts on the brain and body, disrupting our mood, energy, relationships and thinking patterns.
Stress and trauma activate your survival system, and in order to protect you, your nervous system changes to help you cope.
Your brain and body are trying to keep you safe, but unfortunately, these overactive survival strategies can significantly disrupt your life, damaging your relationships, mood, energy and thinking patterns
Even though you know what you’re doing isn’t working, and you’re trying to do things differently,
you find yourself stuck, with the same feelings, patterns, and problems.
Small “t” traumas are more common events, including:
Social isolation
Suffering an injury or receiving a diagnosis
Living with chronic pain or illness
Watching a loved one suffer
Finding out about a partner’s infidelity
Divorce and separation
Losing a job or starting a new job
Moving to a new town
Having a baby, adopting a child, or other family transitions
Grief and loss
Legal trouble
Financial hardship
Being betrayed or losing connection with a friend
Many of us have experienced environments, at home, work or school that lead to chronic stress:
Frequent conflict
Being criticized for emotions
Lack of safety, protection and support
Lies and secret-keeping
Chronic invalidation and denial
Unrealistic and unfair expectations
Absence of joy, delight and celebration
Oppression and prejudice
Whatever difficult situations you’ve been through, you found ways to survive.
Those survival strategies came at a cost to your authenticity, energy, and wellbeing.
Those old ways got you to where you are now,
but they might be preventing you from getting to where you want to be.
If you feel like you’ve outgrown your survival strategies, but don’t know how to put them aside,
it may be time to consider trauma therapy.
Symptoms of unresolved trauma in relationships:
Difficulty trusting others
Not feeling close to or truly “loved” by others
Feeling fearful to connect with others
Feelings of loneliness, rejection and abandonment
Lack of assertiveness or boundaries
Symptoms of unresolved trauma in identity:
Imposter syndrome, never feeling “good enough”
Self-sabotage, difficulty celebrating accomplishments
Expecting the worst or waiting for the “other shoe to drop”
Feeling chronically dissatisfied, or uninterested in life
Overachieving, perfectionism and procrastination
Symptoms of unresolved trauma in self-regulation:
Reliance on maladaptive coping strategies
Tendency to distract or numb
Inability to be slow down, be still or feel “present”
Poor self-care and stress management
Constantly feeling overwhelmed
Easily triggered to fight,flight, and freeze responses
We offer a variety of neurobiologically-based therapies designed to help the brain, body and mind process traumatic and stressful experiences - releasing you from the harmful effects of the past, and freeing you to pursue the life you want in the future.
THERAPY APPROACHES USED BY OUR COUNSELLORS:
Observed and Experiential Integration (OEI)
Lifespan Integration (LI)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Gestalt and Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Somatic Experiencing and Body-based therapies
Compassionate Inquiry (Gabor Maté method)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
As trauma-informed therapists, our team is trained to understand how your brain, body, and mind have been impacted by stressful events and identify what’s holding you back. Based on your goals and where you’d like to be in your life, we come up with a collaborative treatment plan tailored with effective trauma therapy techniques and treatments.
If you are considering counselling, we encourage you to try a free consultation call with one or more of our team members who specialize in treating various types of trauma:
Violetta Przeworski (online and in-person)
Ryan Newman (in-person and online)
Laura Pickrell (in person and online)
Denea Maughan (online only)