Trauma Recovery and PTSD
Trauma counseling available virtually throughout Michigan
If you ever experience emotional distress…
And your system doesn’t know what to do with it so you get stuck in it …
You’ve experienced trauma. It may have been a single event, or it may have been years of abuse or neglect.
It doesn’t matter if somebody else had it worse.
It doesn’t matter if others don’t see it as trauma.
Your system (body – mind – spirit) does, and that’s all that matters.
If you find yourself reacting instead of responding… or freezing and shutting down …
That’s what you do when your system feels out of control or threatened.
It happens instantly: A word, an action, a tone of voice, an attitude… the sensations surge through you, causing you to lash out, collapse, or hide.
That’s what life looks like when you run in “survival mode.”
If you’re here, you’ve probably been living that way for a long time.
That’s not really living – it’s Surviving
You always try to please everybody just to keep the peace – at great expense – at YOUR expense.
You push it away and try to move beyond it, but it’s still there.
The past is gnarled up inside you, and sometimes, you realize you’re reacting to it instead of what’s happening in the present.
Troubling memories bubble up…
You live in fear of what might happen…
You’re always on the lookout for the next bad thing…
You’re on edge, and if you’re like most people who have experienced trauma, you might not even know why.
You tell yourself to keep moving…
Maybe you’ve tried to convince yourself, “it wasn’t that bad” – or “Others have had it way worse.”
Perhaps you’ve been in the military, law enforcement, or among first responders, so you stuff it down, vowing not to be weak or “let it get the best of you.”
Maybe you’ve never been on the front lines of anything, so you dismiss the possibility that you COULD have PTSD.
Well, guess what? Most people diagnosed with PTSD have never been in the military.
What do we mean by “Trauma”?
Our working model of trauma is very different from most – it is more on a world-view scale. Yes, it can be a single horrible event such as a fire, being held hostage, etc., but more often it is an experience that lasts and repeats. So we define it like this:
Any experience that is so highly emotionally and/or physically distressing that you are not equipped or supported adequately to process. The result is that the experience remains “stuck” in the present and feels like it is likely to happen again at any moment. It causes automatic reactions and choices over which we feel we have no power and repeatedly interfer with living.
This is a much broader definition that is being recognized in modern science and is the reason more people are realizing that they are struggling with trauma. It is not just a single event. Chronic trauma such as childhood trauma (which can include things like emotional abandonment, lack of connection – not limited to physical abuse) can actually be seen in brain scans because it affects the way our brain wires and functions. Not being “equipped” or supported could be due to age and maturity level, lack of safe, secure connection and support, lack of emotional connection, or it was something so horrible that nobody could be equipped to deal with it.
The “stuck” is not only in your brain – it is in your body’s neurological system. This is why we realize that talk therapy – while vital – is simply not enough. To heal trauma, we must work with the whole person.
That’s what makes TADAS Counseling so different.
Recovery requires a different approach.
Talking about it begins the release, but it is often not adequate to heal.
At TADAS, we do NOT go over it again and again and again. That approach has been disproven.
To heal, you have to address the brain-to-body-to-brain connections that were formed when the trauma occurred and after.
In the past decade, new approaches like somatic work, breath work, polyvagal work, EMDR, Brainspotting, Brain Mapping, and Neurofeedback have been developed to help you process the trauma both emotionally and physically.
At TADAS, we’ll work with you as a whole person; it’s not just talk therapy anymore!
–Ruth Lanius, MD
The first step to getting better is reaching out right now.
We can assess whether you have PTSD or another stress-related situation. Either way, we can help, and it does not have to be permanent.
We’re here to help you find the relief you deserve. Numerous people of all ages have come to us with these issues and have found lasting relief. Oh, the stories we could tell!
Change from the core is the way to genuine, lasting change.
Trauma does not have to define you. Call today for your free consultation: (248) 284-6050.
