Trauma and EMDR
Do you suffer from Trauma?
Directions: Answer Yes or No
- Do you frequently have a hard time sleeping?
- Do you often have a hard time focusing?
- Do you find yourself suddenly intensely irritable or angry for something that in the past wouldn’t have bothered you?
- Do you find that your lifestyle is constricted by efforts to avoid certain people, places, things that remind you of past bad experiences?
- Do you feel numb or detached much of the time?
- Do you have recurrent dreams or disturbing and intrusive images, thoughts or flashbacks?
- Do you feel like you overreact to things that wouldn’t bother others?
If you answered ‘Yes’ to 4 or more of these questions, chances are that you suffer from trauma. You do not have to live with these symptoms. Call Ondina at (415) 381-1065 for an assessment.
Definition of Trauma
Trauma can be defined as an overwhelming experience that threatens or is perceived to threaten a person’s survival or well being. It often involves an experience that is out of the ordinary and every-day. It usually evokes intense fear, helplessness or horror. Trauma is a huge and complex field. There are varying degrees of trauma from the ‘low grade, constantly in the background kind’ to the ‘life crippling kind’. Most people have some degree of trauma in their background which they have learned to live with, sometimes at a significant cost to their health and well being.
How Does Past Trauma Effect Me Now?
For instance someone who grew up with an abusive, overly critical parent might have very poor self esteem and find themselves using addictions to ‘numb out.’ Although ‘numbing out’ might have been a useful strategy growing up, because it lessened the pain of the constant abuse, later in life this person might find their lives seriously compromised as a result.
Another person might have been chased and bitten by a dog as a child and consequently develops an intense fear of dogs. Every time they see a dog they experience a fight or flight type response or simply freeze in place.
Healing Trauma
These traumas are locked and stored in the muscular and cellular memory of the person and cannot simply be reasoned out by the conscious, logical mind. I use somatic (body-mind based) therapies, that do not involve touch and EMDR to help a person start to release long held traumas and move towards the life, relationships/ work they want for themselves.
What is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing. EMDR is one of the most researched methods for working with trauma and is very popular, in particular with insurance companies because of it’s high and rapid effectiveness rate. People report improvement in as little as 1-3 sessions.
Getting Help
Getting help is as easy as making a phone call.
Call Ondina (415) 381-1065 now for a FREE initial phone consultation or to discuss any concerns or questions you might have or e-mail: ondinah@gmail.com
I offer confidential individual and couples therapy at reasonable rates (sliding scale available,) in Mill Valley and San Francisco.
I also run groups for women struggling with body image and/or eating disorders in Mill Valley.
- EMDR Trained
- Evening appointments available
- Blue Cross and most insurance companies accepted
- GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) friendly
- Couple (traditional, alternative and queer) therapy offered
Call for more information, or to schedule an initial session: (415) 381-1065 or email at ondinah@gmail.com
