Trauma Therapy - Edmonton & St. Albert Psychologists

Trauma Can Cause Anxiety, Depression, And Physical Pain

Trauma can be disturbing and lead to debilitating anxiety. When you think about your trauma or encounter a trigger that reminds you about it, you may feel keyed up or on edge, like something terrible is about to happen. Your sleep may become disturbed by insomnia and nightmares, or you may have panic attacks involving shortness of breath, rapid heart rate, and extreme fear.

Living with symptoms like that can be exhausting, and depression could be an issue as well as brain fog, memory problems, and difficulty concentrating. Physiologically, you might have changes in your appetite or gastrointestinal problems, as well as body aches and pains. 

If you’ve experienced trauma and are now struggling, life doesn’t have to feel this way forever. You can feel safe again, get back to who you were, and not live in survival mode anymore. Summit Counselling Services can help you resolve your trauma responses and not let your past impact your present life any longer than it has already.

Needing Support For Trauma Is Common But Not Everyone Seeks Help

Nearly 76 percent of Canadians have reported experiencing a traumatic event. Commonly reported experiences and events include having a loved one die unexpectedly, suffering from sexual abuse, and witnessing an injury, death, or violence. (1) When the event happens, maybe a quarter of people will get help to resolve their trauma, but as time goes by, the likelihood of reaching out for help drops. 

This is unfortunate as treatments like EMDR and prolonged exposure therapy have such a high success rate for trauma. Trauma is extremely treatable with therapy. For example, one study found that nearly 46 percent of people with PTSD improved within six weeks of starting treatment. (2)

Having A Challenging Trauma Response Doesn’t Make You Weak

Certain professions, such as being a first responder or hospital worker, involve regularly dealing with trauma. This makes trauma extra hard to resolve since it stems from a daily accumulation of painful experiences. We want those who work in challenging professions to understand that dealing with trauma is a universal human experience, not a sign of weakness. 

Additionally, some trauma is very challenging to resolve without treatment, and sometimes trauma is difficult to even acknowledge—as in the case of child abuse. It is common for trauma survivors to push those memories into the recesses of their minds, only for them to wonder why or how their trauma has come back to the surface years after the fact. Therapy can help you resolve your trauma, whether it happened recently or long ago. 

Therapy Provides A Safe Space To Process Your Trauma

We human beings are resilient, but sometimes after experiencing a traumatic event, we get stuck and need help processing it. At Summit Counselling Services, we have registered psychologists in every major treatment area when it comes to trauma. 

Trying to treat trauma on your own is incredibly difficult because being traumatized often puts the body into fight or flight mode. In this state, your logical brain isn’t operating objectively and rationally enough for you to think through what you’re feeling and how to process your memories. Therapy provides a space where you can feel safe enough to face your fears and work through them.

Our Sessions And Treatment Methods Can Get You Back To Living The Life You Want

In sessions, you’ll have the chance to process the event and move it from your “trauma memory” to your long-term memory, resulting in being able to think about the event without triggering anxiety. The goal of trauma treatment is to help you feel safe in your body, your environment, and in your life. You won’t have to navigate trauma symptoms every day and you can get back to feeling like you can handle what life brings. 

The first step is to help you gain the tools to manage day-to-day triggers and challenges. Then we’ll use different treatments, based on what you connect with the most, to help lower trauma sensations in your body and remove intrusive thoughts from your mind. Some of those approaches are listed below: 

Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is a unique approach to trauma and PTSD treatment. Your therapist will guide you through the process of safely visualizing what causes your trauma symptoms and replacing that mental picture with positive images of your choosing. 

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a method that involves safely thinking about your trauma while simultaneously engaging in what's called “bilateral stimulation.” These stimulation exercises—such as tapping or moving your eyes back and forth—activate both sides of the brain, which in turn decreases the negative impact that traumatic memories have on your emotions.

Trauma-informed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a way to safely engage in prolonged exposure to your triggers, which over time helps you become desensitized to them. It involves taking a step-by-step approach with increasingly challenging actions, resulting in your brain no longer reacting to trauma with negative emotions.

At Summit Counselling Services we have several therapists who have had extensive training in trauma work. We are confident that we can help you process your memories so that you can get back to living your life and move on from surviving to thriving.

You Still Might Have Concerns About Trauma Therapy…

I'm worried that I’m weak and that's why this event is staying with me.

Having a fight-or-flight survival instinct is part of being human, and we all have that response. It's supposed to activate in times of perceived threat to ourselves or others, which traumatic memories can trigger. Having these reactions doesn't make you weak, it just means you are human. Sometimes trauma stays with us and sometimes it doesn't, but having trauma when we’re young and inexperienced at regulating our emotions can result in harder-to-tackle trauma responses as adults. 

I don't know if I can talk about it. I avoid everything related to what happened.

Avoiding our trauma triggers and memories doesn’t make them go away—it usually builds up the trauma response into a hurdle that becomes harder and harder to get over. Whether you would benefit from talking about your trauma or are better suited to beginning with a holistic approach like EMDR or Accelerated Resolution Therapy, we have specialists for those methods. We will do whatever you feel most comfortable with and there is no pressure to discuss something you don’t want to. 

It wasn't a major event, so why can't I move past it?

The unique thing about trauma is that the body doesn't differentiate the severity of an event. We may feel overwhelmed, unsafe, and not know what to do, which activates our survival instincts. Sometimes we can deactivate that instinct quickly, and sometimes we can’t. Trauma therapists don't differentiate between "big" trauma or "small" trauma, as the body reacts the same way to either and requires the same attention, compassion, and care. 

Let’s Create A Trauma Treatment Approach That Works For You

Summit Counselling Services has trauma counsellors available who can address your needs with well-documented and effective methods for healing and relief. Reach out to our practice through our contact form or give us a call at 780-666-9808 for a free consultation.

Kayla also runs a Yoga for PTSD and Trauma group. Please reach out to our Admins or Kayla for more information on when the group runs.

Summit Counselling Therapists Who Specialize in Trauma:

To learn more about our team members click here.

To book online with one of our therapists, click on their name listed above. 

1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18801110/

2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21168991/

Trauma Therapy – Edmonton Psychologists

Summit Counselling Services

10328 121 St NW, Edmonton, AB T5N 1K8, Canada

Trauma Counselling in Edmonton

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Summit Counselling Services is a counselling clinic with locations in Edmonton, St. Albert and Leduc. We provide psychological services to children, adolescents, adults, seniors, couples, and families. We have a talented team of psychologists, therapists and counsellors with a wide range of specializations and training at Summit Counselling Services who would be honoured to walk beside you on your journey. At Summit, we believe in therapy your way.  Our goal is to customize your psychotherapy and counselling sessions to suit your needs best.  We believe in the differences and unique perspectives each person brings to counselling and incorporate these into our work with you.