Treating Trauma
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Therapies
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
directly addresses the effects of trauma on the nervous system, body and mind. It combines traditional cognitive talking therapies with more scientific somatic approaches in order to reduce and resolve trauma based symptoms and restore natural and adaptive ways of managing stress. The techniques used enable the client’s body, mind and nervous system to realise and ‘feel’ that the traumatic event is over and that the danger has passed. Once this has been achieved the trauma can be processed and become part of a person’s history instead of them reliving parts of the experience as if it was happening over and over again. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing) A type of psychotherapy that incorporates elements of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. EMDR is a therapeutic technique developed to enable traumatic memories to be processed in order to reduce the lingering influence of images, smells, sounds and feelings associated with the traumatic experience. The 'Rewind' technique is a gentle, safe and non threatening psychological method for detraumatising people and is also used for removing phobias. A phobia is an uncontrolled, persistent, irrational fear that is accompanied by a compelling desire to avoid the object, sensation or situation that provokes the fear. Dissociation My interventions recognise the important role and innate wisdom of dissociation in enabling us to survive overwhelming trauma. Woody Allen describes the role played by dissociation in his quote: 'I'm not afraid of dying. I just don't want to be there when it happens.' Dissociation enables us to alter our consciousness in a way that allows us to disconnect and separate from the full impact of the traumatic experience. It protects us from feeling the terror and fear of dying and ultimately from the pain of death. At one end of the spectrum dissociation manifests as a kind of spaciness and disconnection and at the other end of the spectrum, following extreme and enduring trauma, it can develop into Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). In therapy, we work towards increasing awareness of dissociation in order to achieve integration and move towards a sense of feeling whole. |