Trauma Therapy in Dallas, TX

Trauma distorts our perceptions of self and others. It casts long shadows over relationships, coloring interactions with fear, mistrust, or withdrawal.  Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can stem from direct encounters with violence, abuse, accidents, or natural disasters, where there is a threat to physical safety and/or emotional well-being. Events like car accidents, rape, abusive relationships, or difficult birth experiences can be difficult to heal from on your own. Most people have acute symptoms right after an overwhelming event from the stress of the trauma, and some continue to experience lingering impacts that are hard to move past.

Witnessing such events or hearing of a loved one experiencing this, especially as a child, can create trauma symptoms. Trauma can also result from ongoing stressors like chronic illness, family dynamics, or neglect, eroding a person's sense of stability and control over their life. Other causes include sudden losses, such as the death of a loved one or miscarriage, which can disrupt the fabric of one's existence and create an inability to cope. People who were in abusive relationships or had difficult childhoods may have complex PTSD which often develops with repeated experiences in the context of a close relationship. 

Ultimately, trauma is deeply personal and can be triggered by any event that overwhelms a person's ability to cope, leaving lasting imprints on the person.

Trauma symptoms can affect people differently and not everyone has each symptom. Common reactions to trauma and PTSD symptoms include:

• Intrusive memories: repeated, unwanted, disturbing memories of the event or visuals of the most disturbing parts.

• Nightmares: You may have repeated, disturbing nightmares of the actual event that happened or along the same theme like being chased, attacked, being unsafe or victimized, or overwhelming fear nightmares that may cause sweating, waking up in fear, and not getting needed quality sleep.

• Flashbacks: vivid, involuntary re-experiences of a traumatic event that can feel as though the event is happening again in the present moment. This can lead to physical reactions such as increased heart rate, sweating, or body trembling. Flashbacks can be triggered by reminders of the trauma, such as sights, sounds, smells, or even emotions that evoke memories of the event. Sometimes during a flashback, you may lose touch with their surroundings and become fully immersed in the memories and sensations associated with the traumatic event.

• Avoidance: avoiding memories, thoughts, or feelings associated with the trauma event or avoiding external reminders of the trauma (romantic relationships, places, smells, objects, physical areas or places). These reminders may cause trauma triggers or you may avoid these to avoid feeling unsafe and hope to not re-experience the trauma.

• Trouble remembering details of the trauma: Sometimes people describe not remembering much about their childhood if they experienced trauma or neglect as part of their family of origin. Other times victims of assault may feel like they draw a blank or can’t remember certain parts or details of the horrific events. While experiencing a trauma, there are changes in how your brain functions. Dissociation during the traumatic event may have happened where you don’t have conscious memories like you would have normal events.

• Strong negative beliefs and thoughts about yourself, other people, or the world: After trauma you may experience thinking things like “I should have known better. I can’t trust myself. I’m a terrible person. I did something to deserve this.” even if you wouldn’t normally believe this about yourself. Other times you may feel “the world is unsafe”, “I can’t trust anyone”, or have doubts or questions about your spiritual beliefs after a traumatic event. Trauma turns our world upside down and a change in your thoughts or beliefs can often happen.

• Loss of interest in activities: You may not feel enjoyment or want to engage in what you normally do in the wake of trauma.

• Feeling detached from others: It may feel like you go into a shell, feel detached from others, or don’t feel the usual experiences of love and safety in relationships after a traumatic event. This can impact the sense of support and connection with health people in your life, and impact the quality of relationships for a period of time.

• Increased irritability or anger: You may feel like you have a short fuse after a traumatic event.

• Hypervigilance: feeling on-guard or constantly scanning environments for danger to keep yourself safe

• Hyperarousal: exaggerated startle response, difficulty concentrating, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. These symptoms can make you exhausted, and make it difficult to feel at ease or calm even when you aren’t facing any present danger.

As hard and far-reaching as the impact of trauma is, our brains and bodies are resilient and able to heal from trauma. Trauma therapy provides essential support and guidance for individuals navigating the complex and overwhelming effects of trauma, empowering them to move forward with greater resilience and well-being.

Often people have difficulty accepting that their life experience caused trauma or PTSD symptoms because it doesn’t feel “as bad” as they imagine PTSD events to be like a solider in war or victim of sexual assault. Trained trauma specialists, like Michelle, can help assess the changes in life and impact of your life experiences and recommend if something like trauma therapy can be helpful. Even if you don't meet criteria for PTSD, trauma therapy can help resolve the impacts of overwhelming experiences.

Whether at our Lakewood Dallas counseling office or online therapy in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, or Virginia, we specialize in treating trauma and abuse. We offer free consultation calls to help you ask questions and feel out if we are a fit for you. Your therapist will work on helping understand your symptoms and provide you understanding and coping strategies for PTSD symptoms. You can ask questions, express doubts, and ask for expert advice on what may help with symptoms that are causing the most distress.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy) is a gold-standard evidence-based treatment for treating trauma and offered online or in-person. It is thoroughly researched and different than traditional talk therapy and can be helpful for folks that feel “stuck” talking about difficult experiences without feeling relief. Traditional talk therapy is not an effective treatment to resolve trauma symptoms. Michelle is an EMDR certified therapist and EMDRIA Approved Consultant which means she continues to invest in consultation and continuing education to provide high-quality and effective treatment to get you feeling better quickly.

Before we jump into talking about the traumatic experience, we will develop trust and understanding. Your therapist will get a good understanding of what memories or symptoms we are targeting, and help you get used to the mechanics of EMDR while gaining some positive coping strategies through EMDR Resourcing.

During sessions we jump into the reprocessing work, your therapist will ask questions to help activate the memory network connected to the trauma. The therapist will then use eye movements, or alternating handheld buzzers, taps, or sounds. We use whichever works best for you. You will quietly notice whatever comes up for short periods of time, and then your therapist will ask what you noticed. There are often changes in memories, thoughts, emotions, body sensations throughout the process. We continue this process until the distress is resolved. 

There is no homework in EMDR and we contain the distressing information at the end of sessions. Your focus is on your daily life and caring for yourself after sessions. Plan to be gentle with yourself after EMDR sessions and not go immediately into something stressful.

We are thorough in getting at the layers of experiences that need care and relief. EMDR is a past, present, and future-oriented therapy and we reduce distress in the past, present experiences of the symptoms, and strengthen your ability to cope well with future experiences that may trigger this experience. 

I understand wanting to know how long before you feel better! This varies for each person and based on the experiences we are treating. For most clients coming for recent events that they haven’t experienced before, they experience significant relief in one 90 minute session. Others experiences may take 6-12 sessions. For more complex trauma (repeated experiences throughout life, relational trauma, etc) the treatment length is longer.

I offer EMDR intensives which offer more support and allow you to work towards your goals quicker.

Not at all. Often clients come wondering if what they lived through really was "bad enough" to be considered trauma. They aren't using the words trauma because they imagine that is only reserved for "really awful" experiences. But when I assess their reactions after the overwhelming life event, they often have symptoms of PTSD. We can call this whatever the client is comfortable with- the really bad relationship, divorce, the scary birth, losing their parent, or the car accident- and still offer treatment to provide relief. 

Yes. It's an honor to work with therapists who are investing in their own healing journey. As therapists we often hold space for others while quietly carrying our own stress, vicarious trauma, divorce, trauma, or unresolved experiences. This is a hard job to have during certain moments of life. 

I have experience working with therapists through EMDR therapy in weekly sessions, and also notice therapists really benefit from EMDR Intensive format of therapy for the desensitization phase of EMDR. Intensives allows a focused, efficient way to support your healing- without having to pack it away before your next session as a therapist. Therapists in my EMDR intensives can feel reduced distress, and more ease in showing up for clients as they experience relief and healing from the themes they targeted in EMDR intensives. 

I’m an out-of-network provider and my fee’s for weekly trauma therapy is $200 per session. Pricing for EMDR intensives are separate. Many clients use their insurance’s out-of-network benefits to get reimbursed for a portion of sessions. I partner with Thrizer to check your out-of-network benefits and can submit through Thrizer or provide a monthly superbill (a detailed receipt) that you can submit to your insurance for possible reimbursement.