Bay Area Community Counseling has specialists ready to help you, your child, or your partner face their trauma and overcome PTSD!
Psychological trauma is a type of distress that occurs as a result of a disturbing, frightening, and often life-threatening event. A traumatic event involves a single experience, or an enduring or repeating event or events, that completely overwhelms our ability to cope. It may be even more challenging to integrate the thoughts and emotions associated with the experience.
Typical causes of psychological trauma are violence, sexual, physical, and/or emotional abuse, the threat of any of these types of abuse, or the witnessing of any of these kinds of abuse. Natural disasters, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and mass violence, such as genocide and war, can also cause psychological trauma.
A variety of events can cause trauma, but there are commonalities. There is frequently a violation of familiar beliefs and norms; what is culturally is considered to be a human right in the community and/or nationality. The event likely causes a state of confusion and/or a state of extreme insecurity. This also occurs when people or institutions that we rely on for survival are inconsistent, absent, or they unexpectedly betray us.
When trauma leads to PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, there are many thoughts and behaviors that cause a significant amount of distress in many aspects of our lives. The body's response to the distress has even been shown to cause physical changes to our brain chemistry. Fortunately, therapy can help!
We provide effective, evidence based treatments to trauma/PTSD, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), which allow individuals to get their life back! When working with someone in a relationship, we may also strengthen the relationship with Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), and work through the effects of PTSD on the relationship. When working with children or adolescents, we also work with families to help them understand the trauma/PTSD and how it manifests in the family, and use the relationships of family members to shore up support as the child or teen confronts their trauma/PTSD. There is help, so don't delay treatment any longer!