June 27 is PTSD Awareness Day! Understanding the aspects of PTSD can help us to feel more in control in navigating its challenges. A key concept within the understanding of PTSD is the “Window of Tolerance”. This idea contextualizes some experiences within PTSD and gives us a helpful visual to work with in treatment. The short of it is this – how much can we tolerate within this window before our symptoms are activated, we’re emotionally flooded, and we feel disregulated.
Reaching out for help following a traumatic experience is tough. There seems to be so much to consider when finding a therapist. Here are some things to focus on as you begin that search:
Creative Family Counseling offers several evidence-based trauma treatments at our practice. Being an “evidence based” approach means that the theory, protocol, or method of the counseling model used has been proven through research studies to reduce the symptoms associated with the trauma.
While Creative Family Counseling offers many different Specialties for clients, depending on their interests and therapeutic needs, EMDR Therapy is a specialty that many people have questions about when first introduced to it. For this reason, I sat down with my colleague, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Dawn Pendleton, who is Certified in EMDR. As a seasoned clinician with over 20 years in the field, Dawn has used numerous types of approaches to therapy, including EMDR. She states that her goal is to facilitate healing for her clients in as short an amount of time as possible, which is why she’s so passionate about her use of EMDR. In this interview, Dawn gave some background on this therapeutic tool, discussed how and why it is used, and suggested who might benefit from EMDR Therapy.
Trauma is a word that gets tossed around a lot in our culture. Much like colloquial usage of words like crazy, bi-polar, and depression, people adapt words to alternative meanings. However, trauma is a real mental health issue with specific, and at the same time murky, definitions. The word trauma can be specific when it comes to the Diagnosis Statistical Manual’s (DSM-5) definition of trauma. This Manual is used by Therapists to determine if someone meets the criteria of a trauma-related mental health diagnosis. Trauma can at the same time be murky in definition because mental health professionals understand that trauma can take on many different facets depending on both the person and context impacted by the trauma.