Trauma/ PTSD Treatment

What is PTSD?

It is believed that PTSD affects nearly four percent of the U.S. adult population. While it is usually linked with veterans who’ve experienced combat, PTSD occurs in all people regardless of age, race, nationality, or culture. In fact, women are twice as likely to experience PTSD than men.

What are the Symptoms of PTSD?

People with PTSD often experience intense thoughts and feelings related to their traumatic experiences. These can last for a long time after the initial event. Many people with PTSD also relive the event through unwanted memories, flashbacks, and nightmares.

People with PTSD often feel intense emotions such as fear, anger, sadness, and detachment from friends, family, and community members. They often avoid people and situations that remind them of the traumatic event. Ordinary sounds or incidents, such as a door banging or accidental touch in a crowd, may cause a strong and uncontrollable reaction.

Most people will experience trauma in their lifetime, whether it’s a car accident, abuse or neglect, the sudden death of a loved one, a violent criminal act, exposure to the violence of war, or a natural disaster.

While many people can recover from trauma over time with the love and support of family and friends and bounce back with resiliency, others may discover the effects of lasting trauma, which can cause a person to live with deep emotional pain, fear, confusion, or posttraumatic stress far after the event has passed.

In these circumstances, the support, guidance, and assistance of a therapist are fundamental to healing from trauma.

What are the symptoms of untreated Trauma?

According to the four types of symptoms listed in the DSM-5

Avoidance Symptoms

• Avoiding specific locations, sights, situations, and sounds that serve as reminders of the event
• Anxiety, depression, numbness, or guilt

Re-experiencing Symptoms

• Intrusive thoughts, nightmares, or flashbacks

Hyperarousal Symptoms

• Anger, irritability, and hypervigilance
• Aggressive, reckless behavior, including self-harm
• Sleep disturbances

Negative Mood and Cognition Symptoms

• Loss of interest in activities that were once considered enjoyable
• Difficulty remembering details of the distressing event
• Change in habits or behavior since the trauma

Research has proven psychotherapy to be the most effective form of trauma treatment. Most commonly, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) are used in treating trauma.

Schedule an EMDR session today

How Can Treatment Help?

There are a variety of treatments that can be used to treat PTSD. However, three specific techniques are consistently gaining research-based evidence of their effectiveness in successfully treating PTSD.

• Cognitive Processing Therapy – This modality focuses on how a person perceives a traumatic event and processes it. A therapist can help their client work through stuck points, which are certain thoughts related to the trauma that prevents the person from recovering.
• EMDR – EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. This technique uses bilateral sensory input such as side-to-side eye movements, to stimulate the brain to process difficult thoughts, memories, and emotions.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – CBT is a form of talk therapy that focuses on how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are related to one another. The goal of a CBT therapist is to help a client return to a place of hope with a greater sense of being in control of their thoughts and behaviors.
• Medication Management– At MBC, our Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners can help prescribe medications that can help manage symptoms during your course of treatment.

If you or a loved one suffer from PTSD and would like to explore treatment options, please contact us today to find out if individual therapy, medication management, or group therapy can help you. At MBC, we have seen amazing transformation through therapy and want to offer the help you need to enjoy life again.

Schedule an EMDR Assessment Today

If you have experienced domestic or intimate partner violence, you deserve support that feels safe. We offer confidential, trauma-informed individual therapy for survivors, in person in Chicago and by telehealth across Illinois, to help you process what happened, rebuild a sense of safety, set boundaries and regain confidence at your own pace.

All of our therapists are trained in trauma care, including Baheia A. Derweesh, Ed.D., LCPC, who works with survivors of domestic violence and also offers therapy in Arabic. We accept most major insurance plans, and self-pay rates vary by provider.

If you are in danger or need immediate help, call 911 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788. Support is free, confidential and available 24/7.

We are accepting new patients. Most major insurance plans accepted.

Lakeview: 3209 N Lakewood Ave  |  Loop: 30 N Michigan Ave, Suite 424  |  Telehealth: anywhere in Illinois, 7 days a week

Questions? Call or text (872) 274-4344 or email info@mindbodycoopchicago.com. We get back to you within one business day.