Counseling For Trauma

Therapy for PTSD/Complex -PTSD

Psychotherapy

Here at Evolve Therapy Group, we aim to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex trauma (C-Trauma)., their causes, symptoms, and available treatment options. Our goal is to offer support, information, and resources to those who may be struggling with PTSD or C-Trauma, as well as their loved ones. Our experienced and trained clinicians are here to help you understand your trauma. Trauma is not your fault, and it does not define you, it is what happened to you.

Your Brain has an intense response to trauma in the moment. To protect yourself, your mind and body enters a fight-or-flight response, which is to create alertness, increases your stress levels. Even though you may no longer be in immediate danger, the state of fear and alertness become our body/mind “automatic/protective” state. This can make you feel extremely anxious, tense, and hopeless. It is important that you understand you are not alone if you’re dealing with lasting effects from a traumatic event. To overcome these changes and regain control over your mental health, it’s important to reach out for support. Therapy can be a valuable opportunity to process what happened to you, explore your response to the trauma, and learn coping strategies for your triggers. provide therapy for PTSD so that our clients can regain their peace of mind and navigate life free from the burden of trauma.

What is PTSD? 

PTSD is a mental health disorder triggered by experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. It can affect anyone, including soldiers, first responders, survivors of accidents or natural disasters, and individuals who have been victims of abuse or violence. 

Symptoms of PTSD:

To be diagnosed with PTSD, you must have at least one symptom in each of four categories after experiencing, witnessing, or learning about a trauma. The following are the four categories of symptoms:

1. Intrusion: Re-experiencing the event through unwanted memories, flashbacks, or nightmares.
2. Avoidance: Attempting to avoid thoughts, feelings, people, situations, or other stimuli that remind you of the trauma.
3. Change in mood or cognition: Negative thoughts or feelings after the trauma, including memory loss, negative beliefs about yourself or the world, social isolation, or loss of interest in activities.
4. Arousal and reactivity: Irritability, hyper-vigilance, heightened startle response, difficulty concentrating, difficulty sleeping, or risky behavior that began or worsened after the event.

Understanding Complex Trauma (C-Trauma) Complex trauma, also known as C-Trauma, refers to exposure to multiple traumatic events over a prolonged period. This can occur in situations such as ongoing abuse, neglect, or living in a war zone, the pandemic of Covid. C-Trauma can result in similar symptoms to PTSD but can also have additional effects, including difficulties with emotion regulation, trust, and forming healthy relationships. 

Treatment Options:

 Seeking professional help is crucial for individuals with PTSD or C-Trauma. Effective treatment options include therapy, medication, and a combination of both. 

-Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

-Psychodynamic Therapy

-Trauma Informed Therapy

-Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), 

-Exposure therapies are commonly used as therapeutic approaches. 

What are the Benefits of Therapy for PTSD/C-PTSD?

Therapy provides a safe environment for you to process your trauma.

If you try to process the event on your own, though, you might experience flashbacks or other painful responses.

 Verbally processing your experience can help you understand how you feel about your trauma and why you responded in the way that you did. By understanding yourself and your experiences, you can more easily complete the in-depth mental health work needed to recover from your PTSD.

Therapy helps you develop coping skills.

One of the biggest challenges when you have PTSD is navigating triggering situations or events in your daily life. While you may be able to simply avoid certain triggers, no one wants to live in fear of flashbacks or panic attacks. In therapy, you’ll work on developing healthy coping skills so that you can eventually face your triggers directly. You’ll learn to be more aware of your thoughts and feelings in the moment, and you can practice calming strategies to reduce your fight-or-flight response during difficult situations.

Therapy can help you prevent or heal from co-occurring mental health disorders.

Individuals with PTSD are more likely to have a co-occurring psychological disorder, so therapy provides an opportunity for you to address your overall mental well-being. If you’ve been through a trauma, you might struggle with anxiety, depression, substance abuse, or other issues. We are here to help you through these other disorders that are a result of trauma.