TRAUMA

Trauma is an emotional response to a triggering event, a series of events or a set of circumstances. The event can be anything that affects our central nervous system and causes lasting adverse effects on our daily functioning.

Most times when we think of trauma, we think about someone who has been in a natural disaster, raped, or in an accident. Most of us don’t think of things like being bullied at school by our classmates or being yelled at by our alcoholic parent as trauma. I like to think of trauma as big “T” trauma or a little “t” trauma. Both are trauma. Our brain does not decipher the difference between the two and we store the traumatic experience maladaptively to cope. Holding the memory and trying to carry on with life “as usual” is challenging and most times impossible; we do the best we can.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a type of evidence-based treatment for those who have experienced trauma of any kind, and most of us have.  

EMDR helps us reprocess our experiences so they lose their charge and allow us symptom relief. It’s amazing to heal wounds that have been festering for decades, informing how we see and experience ourselves.