• Trauma, Complex Trauma & Dissociative Disorders

• Substance Use & Compulsive Behaviors

• Mood Disorders

• Anxiety

• Chronic Pain

• Relationship Issues

• Spirituality

• Supervision

• Consultation

Trauma

We tend to think of trauma as large adverse events, like a horrific car accident, going to war, or significant long term abuse. However, less intense and prolonged experiences can also have a deep impact on our perception of ourselves, others, and the world. Often, we don’t even recognize certain experiences as trauma because they felt “normal” in our family system and were never discussed. In some families, there is an unwritten rule of “don’t talk, don’t feel, don’t trust”. Additionally, our society is also traumatic toward oppressed groups (women, BIPOC, LGBTQ, Neurodivergent folks, larger bodied folks, older people, and the disabled). We internalize this oppression that has a profound effect on our mental and physical wellbeing.

We are hard wired as human beings to avoid pain. When you put your hand on a hot stove, the immediate reflex is to pull your hand away. Emotional pain is much the same in that we often turn away from the pain in an effort to avoid the negative experience. While this often works in the short term, avoidance actually increases the adverse experience in the long term. Many people ask “why should I look at something that happened five, ten or even 20 years ago? It’s over now.” Trauma lives in our nervous system well after an event and often does not subside with time. We maintain the negative beliefs about ourselves, others, and the world at large (consciously or unconsciously). This impacts everything we do in our lives, including our current quality of life and our current relationships. Treating trauma allows the nervous system to activate the parasympathetic response (or “rest and digest”) verses the sympathetic nervous system (or flight, fight, freeze, fawn). People with unhealed trauma often have a very difficult time relaxing as their bodies are always preparing them for a battle. Additionally, untreated trauma may also unconsciously set us up for repeated traumas as this is what is familiar to the nervous system. The parts of self that know we need to connect to survive often place people on pedestals and dissociates us from any dangers that might be present. Working with the dissociation allows us to increase our ability to act (think about how we would like to respond) rather than react (fight/flight/freeze/fawn) to external circumstances. Trauma often manifests as flashbacks, dissociation, nightmares, panic attacks, negative beliefs about self/others/world, intense anger or blame, social difficulty, intrusive thoughts, self injury or suicidal ideation, avoidance of reminders of trauma, mood changes and physical or somatic symptoms.

Complex Trauma &

Dissociative Disorders

Complex trauma is defined as prolonged and often inescapable trauma. This can range from Complex PTSD, Borderline Personality disorder, to Dissociative Disorders. The ongoing adverse affects have often had a more profound effect on the ability to cope and in shaping the personality to avoid further harm. Dissociation often includes: periods of amnesia or poor memory, feeling out of body (depersonalization) or as if the world isn’t real (derealization), getting lost in day dreaming, feeling detached from emotions or numbness. Dissociative disorders (DD) can often include suicidal thoughts/actions and or self injury and as many as 70% of people with a DD have or will attempt suicide at least once in their life. Ongoing suicidal thoughts are normal with DD as even thinking about death can provide relief when suffering is too great to bear. DDs are often misdiagnosed or over looked for several reasons: 1)they present similarly to other diagnoses and may have over lapping symptoms, 2) therapists are often not trainined in the complexity of these disorders and their proper treatment and 3)the nature of dissociation is to hide/avoid pain. Parts of self are often happy to remain hidden without being addressed directly.

We have had years of ongoing training in treating complex trauma and DD using the Theory of Structural Dissociation and a combination of modalities, including: Internal Family Systems (IFS), Eye Movement and Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Comprehensive Resource Model (CRM). When complex trauma is not addressed, the defense system often overrides the attachment system and it can be extremely difficult to maintain relationships or sense of calm. Treating the trauma allows the system that has been rewired for protection to again rewire toward connection.

Substance Use & Compulsive Behaviors

Becoming reliant upon or dependent (emotionally or physically) on a substance, behavior, or people (etc), actually begins in childhood. From the ACE study on Adverse Childhood Experiences, we know that the more trauma we experience in childhood, the more likely we are to develop substance use and other compulsive behaviors. This is because of the impact trauma has on our nervous system. Developmental/attachment trauma (a disruption in attachment that occurs between birth and age three) sets the stage for how we attach to ourselves, others and how we perceive the world through adulthood. When attachment is disrupted, we do not learn how to self sooth as our nervous systems are constantly on guard and we reach to external people places and things to self regulate. Additionally, living in a society that has toxic ideals (racism, capitalism, perfectionism, urgency, ableism, etc) and glorifies checking out through substances/work etc, this sets us up to require these things to cope. These things (food, alcohol, significant others, work, gambling, drugs, etc) are normal reactions to a traumatic society and give us a sense of safety until they don’t (when we begin to see their impact on of our wellbeing, family, jobs, finances, physical health.)

Those who have tried treatment and struggle to maintain their recovery, often have not yet addressed the underlying trauma. Even when doing all the right things, they find it difficult to feel comfortable in their own skin or experience joy. Clearing the past trauma and any triggers that present in the present, allows people to begin to relax and enjoy their recovery and new relationships. Receiving the proper treatment is imperative to supporting this new way of life. We welcome and encourage all forms of recovery, whether it be harm reduction, traditional 12 steps, SMART recovery, Refuge Recovery, Positive Recovery, Conscious Recovery, or any of the other recovery groups that exist. Your recovery has to work for you.

Mood Disorders

Changes in mood can become overwhelming when they begin to interfere with our daily life or our life satisfaction. They often affect our work, relationships, sense of self, may increase our risk for drinking or using other substances/behaviors to mitigate emotions, and can include suicidal/self injury thoughts or actions. It is important to intervene early when you notice these symptoms. Mood and anxiety symptoms often go hand in hand.

Anxiety

Anxiety is a frequent companion with mood disorders, trauma and substance use/compulsive behaviors. This may present as social anxiety, generalized anxiety, panic attacks, trauma triggers, or phobias. Often triggers for anxiety in the present moment are actually the brain reacting to a situation in the past. This may not be conscious and we may not even know why we are anxious. The nervous system response to the present is activating old traumas that are not yet healed and tends to decrease significantly after treatment.

Chronic Pain

When physical pain becomes chronic, it can take a large toll on our mental health. The pathways involved with pain are actually shared with those involved with depression, so if we have one we are more likely to experience the other. Our thoughts about our pain can actually influence our pain severity, as can our behaviors. Changing the way we think about our pain, adopting new behaviors, and using interventional pain methods, all help to make living with chronic pain more manageable. In addition, those with a trauma history are also more likely to experience pain due to the effect on the nervous system. Because “the issues live in the tissues”, treating trauma can also help to reduce our physical experience of pain.

Relationship Issues

When we have experienced adverse experiences as children, our ability to connect deeply with ourselves and others is impacted. This can manifest in many ways, including: repeating patterns (consciously or unconsciously) that existed in childhood, including: staying in imbalanced relationships, constant relationship turmoil, or avoiding relationships altogether. Addressing our attachment style that inherently shapes our adult relationships, helps us to understand and begin to transform the way we relate with self and others to form more satisfying and enriching experiences.

Spirituality

Often our deepest pain is actually what “wakes” us up to new ways of living. Many experience religious trauma as a result of being raised in a particular religious group or church where they have experienced oppression. Often this involves unlearning rules, ideas, and concepts that we have been taught that do not align with our truth, and releasing the associated emotions. The term “dark knight of the soul” has been widely used to describe this phenomenon in which though the process of growing and healing, we often create new meaning in our lives and the definition of what is important to us may change. We love walking through this process with clients and helping them discover what is meaningful to them, what brings them joy, what makes them feel alive, and connecting to all that can assist in the process. Our hope is that our clients learn to manifest the lives they desire. If this does not include spirituality, we support that too!

Supervision

Julie Jones is licensed as a LPC-Supervisor and provide supervision to LPC-Associates working toward licensure.

Consultation

We enjoy connecting with colleagues to provide consultation for other clinicians.