Yvonne Williams BACP Accred MSc BA, EC London Counselling Psychotherapy, counsellor and psychotherapist, Liverpool Street (E1)

What is Trauma?

According to the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual IV the type of trauma that cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are serious enough to be life threatening. For example, EMDR is effective when working with individuals who have experienced traumatic incidents, such as, being a combat or in a war zone, earthquake, road traffic accidents, violent attack, childhood trauma, domestic violence, physical/sexual abuse, sudden death etc.

When people are traumatised, they tend to experience overwhelming emotions that the brain at times struggles to comprehend and therefore unable to process information as it usually does. Disturbing experiences can become frozen and stored in the brain in the original footage. However, this footage can be replayed back in the following experiences.

Dreams and nightmares about traumatic types of events that resemble the original trauma
Severe emotional reactions to stress that resemble the original trauma in any way.
Avoidance; avoiding places and people that have direct association with the original trauma for fear of’ reawaken bad memories.
Memory; difficulties remembering the actual events of the original traumatizing episode
Experiencing sleep disturbances.
May experience feelings of Irritability, anger and anxiety
Difficulties concentrating
Hyper vigilance

All the above interferes with individual’s ability to function on a day to day basis.

EMDR

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a treatment tool which is used within the therapuetic field when working with individuals that have experienced life threatening or disturbing event that have not been resolved.

NICE the National Institue of Clinical Excellence recommends EMDR for treatments fo Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.


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What is Trauma? According to the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual IV the type of trauma that cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are serious enough to be life threatening. For example, EMDR is effective when working with individuals who have experienced traumatic incidents, such as, being a combat or in a war zone, earthquake, road traffic accidents, violent attack, childhood trauma, domestic violence, physical/sexual abuse, sudden death etc. When people are traumatised, they tend to experience overwhelming emotions that the brain at times struggles to comprehend and therefore unable to process information as it usually does. Disturbing experiences can become frozen and stored in the brain in the original footage. However, this footage can be replayed back in the following experiences. Dreams and nightmares about traumatic types of events that resemble the original trauma Severe emotional reactions to stress that resemble the original trauma in any way. Avoidance; avoiding places and people that have direct association with the original trauma for fear of’ reawaken bad memories. Memory; difficulties remembering the actual events of the original traumatizing episode Experiencing sleep disturbances. May experience feelings of Irritability, anger and anxiety Difficulties concentrating Hyper vigilance All the above interferes with individual’s ability to function on a day to day basis. EMDR Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a treatment tool which is used within the therapuetic field when working with individuals that have experienced life threatening or disturbing event that have not been resolved. NICE the National Institue of Clinical Excellence recommends EMDR for treatments fo Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.