You may be wondering…
Could my traumatic childhood be affecting my marriage?
Is that traumatic relationship I had as a teen affecting my ability to feel close to others?
Does the violence I witnessed or experienced, cause me to always feel jumpy and easily startled years later?
Do other people have lots of nightmares, or is it just me?
I am always so irritable, angry and edgy – is it being caused by the past?
The answer to all these questions is yes, it’s absolutely possible that traumatic experiences, even in the distant past could be causing changes in your behavior and moods many years later.
Fortunately, there is an answer, and it is easier and works more quickly than you might think. I offer cutting edge trauma treatment developed by the Stanford Early Life Stress Research Program where I worked for five years as a Clinical Research Coordinator doing this specialized treatment.
I offer a unique combination of Stanford Cue-Centered Treatment (a type of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy [TF-CBT] combined with narrative, psychodynamic, art therapies and psychoeducation) and Jungian Sandplay Therapy (which addresses pre-verbal trauma) for trauma. The total length of treatment is about 15-20 session.
I also offer Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy, a treatment known to rapidly desensitize traumatic memories. My teacher, Dr. EC Hurley, is a well known psychologist and retired Army Colonel specializing in the treatment of complex PTSD many veterans experience. To see testimonials about the effectiveness of EMDR, click here. To learn more about what EMDR is, and how it works, click here. The neurobiological mechanisms are discussed in this paper by Harvard Professor, Robert Stickgold, MD, PhD, 2002.
Wouldn’t it be great to feel better?
EMDR
How trauma affects children
Trauma can be absolutely devastating and have long lasting effects throughout a person’s life. Many people mistakenly believe that trauma will not affect children, and that children will not remember trauma, but this is incorrect. The brain actually goes into an alarm mode during a trauma, analyzing every part of the situation, and memories of the trauma are deeply embedded. When trauma occurs in very young children, whose brains are not yet fully formed, the trauma memories are stored differently, often without words, in the limbic system of the brain. A young child may not have words to talk about the trauma because of their developmental stage – their cerebral cortex/executive functioning/language centers of the brain are not matured.
Children who have gone through multiple childhood traumas at young ages actually have differences in the sizes of their internal brain structures. These kids tend to act more instinctively and impulsively and have less ability to stop, and reasonably assess their situation before acting.
Worse, without treatment kids will often turn to drugs/alcohol as teens to cope with the emotional pain of childhood trauma. Untreated childhood trauma has terrible outcomes for adult physical and mental health. Please see my article, “An ACE Up Your Sleeve” to learn more about what happens to children who experience Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs).
If your child has experienced a recent trauma, read this article to learn how to help them cope. Please schedule a consultation to learn some tools you can use to help your child.
My former Stanford supervisor, Victor Carrion, MD, Child/Adolescent Psychiatrist discusses how to talk to children about traumatic events. In this video he is discussing the Japanese tsunami, however, these principles apply to many situations.
How trauma affects children
Trauma can be absolutely devastating and have long lasting effects throughout a person’s life. Many people mistakenly believe that trauma will not affect children, and that children will not remember trauma, but this is incorrect. The brain actually goes into an alarm mode during a trauma, analyzing every part of the situation, and memories of the trauma are deeply embedded. When trauma occurs in very young children, whose brains are not yet fully formed, the trauma memories are stored differently, often without words, in the limbic system of the brain. A young child may not have words to talk about the trauma because of their developmental stage – their cerebral cortex/executive functioning/language centers of the brain are not matured.
Children who have gone through multiple childhood traumas at young ages actually have differences in the sizes of their internal brain structures. These kids tend to act more instinctively and impulsively and have less ability to stop, and reasonably assess their situation before acting.
Worse, without treatment kids will often turn to drugs/alcohol as teens to cope with the emotional pain of childhood trauma. Untreated childhood trauma has terrible outcomes for adult physical and mental health. Please see my article, “An ACE Up Your Sleeve” to learn more about what happens to children who experience Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs).
If your child has experienced a recent trauma, read this article to learn how to help them cope. Please schedule a consultation to learn some tools you can use to help your child.
My former Stanford supervisor, Victor Carrion, MD, Child/Adolescent Psychiatrist discusses how to talk to children about traumatic events. In this video he is discussing the Japanese tsunami, however, these principles apply to many situations.