Our therapists offer PTSD & trauma therapy in Charlotte, NC

My go-to approach for helping people in PTSD/trauma therapy is EMDR. I find the best benefit in EMDR because it is one of the most effective evidence-based treatment modalities for complex trauma. I will also include other important elements of CBT, DBT, ACT, ego state therapy, etc.

When working with clients who have experienced trauma, I get the best results by first focusing on building the therapeutic relationship. After that, ensuring that my clients feel safe, both in their surroundings & in the therapeutic relationship, is another key step. While it is hard, exposure therapy is the best way I have found to treat trauma. Often, I use narrative therapy to get my clients to talk about their experiences so that they can confront the avoidance that developed after they experienced the trauma. It sounds really scary, but as we go through it, it becomes less so, & gives really good results.

In trauma therapy, I like to teach people the neurobiology behind what they are experiencing. To know that it isn't because there is something wrong with them, but simply that it is a biological issue that can be resolved. Most importantly, that they don't have to deal with this forever!

I first start by teaching mindfulness & grounding techniques to ensure that my client feels safe in their surroundings. I often lead my clients who are doing trauma work through guided meditations in session, so that they feel like they have a mental place that they can escape to that separates them from the mental space of the trauma. I have taught my clients tapping techniques to help decrease anxiety. I teach my clients how to reframe their thoughts so that they can take a negative thought & think more positively when they are feeling overwhelmed or anxious.

I know someone is making progress when they are able to feel it as well.

I can tell a client is making meaningful progress in trauma therapy when they are becoming less dissociative, less impacted by flashbacks, & more easily able to withstand talking about traumatic experiences & the avoidant behaviors that developed afterward. They are closer to their baseline than they are to the upper limit of their window of tolerance.

The most important thing you can do to supplement your time in trauma treatment is to utilize those same skills and things that you have learned outside of sessions instead of only in therapy. Other things include completing any homework assignments like journaling, drawing, completing worksheets, etc. depending on what is assigned by the therapist.

My clients can supplement trauma therapy by exercising! They can journal about their experience in therapy, if that is helpful for them. They can engage with people who fill them up & they can spend time outside in nature. These things help bring light & joy to people & being outside in the sunshine will give people energy & help with positivity.

The first thing you can do before starting trauma therapy is to ensure that you are ready and willing. If you don't have that willingness to be vulnerable and to trust, then therapy won't be effective at all. PTSD is curable. The thing that stops most people is avoidance or dropping out of treatment due to avoidance.

To prepare for the first trauma therapy session, my clients can be ready to communicate their needs to me. If they need a break, they can tell me. If they need to stop, they can tell me. If they want to only do trauma work for part of the session, they can tell me. They need to prepare to engage in mindfulness & be willing to sit in the quiet & the still.