Understanding Trauma

Trauma is extremely common, and as Dr. Bessel van der Kolk has identified, it is how you respond to a traumatic event, that determines the impact this trauma has on your brain, and your body.  So many of us have experienced traumatic events in our lives.  Trauma can look like very different things to each of us.  What may be traumatic to one person, may not be to another.  What matters is how you perceive and process your experiences.  We know that trauma is also loss.  A loss of what we expected, what should have been, what was.  Trauma is the loss of stability; sometimes our very foundations.  

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Trauma is what happens to our minds and bodies following any past experience that was overwhelming, creating extreme stress and fear and freezing our minds into a hyperalert status;  and keeping us here.  The effects of trauma can be long lasting and can show up in physical and psychological symptoms.  The changes to the brain caused by trauma can literally leave us stuck in that "fight or flight" mode, removing the ability to lead a joyful life.

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At the Center for Loss, Grief, Hope & Healing, we treat both trauma and the grief that always accompanies the trauma.  There is a loss of so many things when we experience a traumatic event.  Our goal is to help you heal the trauma and the grief surrounding this trauma so you can engage in and enjoy your life 

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