Trauma focused therapies are a specific approach to therapy that recognizes and emphasizes understanding how the traumatic experience impacts a person’s mental, behavioral, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. 

Trauma and ADHD - The link between trauma and ADHD is multifaceted: The first way is early emotional trauma in childhood or even preverbal (before birth) can “mimic” ADHD and not really be ADHD at all. Which is why it is so important to have a proper evaluation. Secondly, some may have trauma and ADHD as research shows that having ADHD is associated with a higher rate of traumatic events happening due to a compromised executive function system. The third reason is that individuals with ADHD are more likely than other people to experience it as traumatic. This relates to the heightened sensitivity to experiences that people with ADHD seem to have.

 

Trauma focused therapy is rooted in understanding the connection between the trauma experience and emotional and behavioral responses. The purpose of trauma-focused therapy is to offer skills and strategies to assist you in better understanding, coping with, processing emotions and memories tied to traumatic experiences, with the end goal of enabling you to create a healthier and more adaptive meaning of the experience that took place in your life

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Trauma-informed techniques we offer: 

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    Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences.  Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain.  Once the block is removed, healing resumes.  

 

EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes.  The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. 

 

    Brainspotting (BSP) locates points in the client’s visual field that help to access unprocessed trauma in the subcortical brain. Brainspotting (BSP) was discovered in 2003 by David Grand, PhD. Dr. Grand discovered that "Where you look affects how you feel.” 

It is the brain activity, especially in the subcortical brain that organizes itself around that eye position.

Brainspotting makes use of this natural phenomenon through its use of relevant eye positions. This helps the BSP therapist locate, focus, process and release a wide range of emotionally and bodily-based conditions. BSP is also a brain-based tool to support the therapy relationship. We believe that BSP taps into and harnesses the body’s natural self-scanning, self-healing ability.

 

When a Brainspot is stimulated, the deep brain appears to reflexively signal the therapist that the source of the problem has been found. BSP can also be used to find and strengthen our natural resources and resilience. BSP is designed as a therapeutic tool that can be integrated into many of the healing modalities. BSP is even more powerful when used with the enhancement of biolateral sounds.