Trauma/PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological disorder that develops in response to a shocking, frightening, or traumatic event. This event can include being exposed to a life threatening event, serious injury, and/or sexual violation. Examples of such events include exposure to military combat, sexual assault, natural disasters, and motor vehicle accidents.

It is common and expected for most people to experience fear and anxiety during and immediately following a traumatic event, and most people tend to naturally recover from these reactions as time goes on. However, when a person continues to experience persistent trauma and stress-related symptoms for more than six months, a diagnosis of PTSD should be considered.

These symptoms include re-experiencing the traumatic memory in an unwanted and disturbing way, avoiding thoughts, feelings and situations that remind the individual of the event, experiencing intense negative moods or having negative thoughts associated with (e.g. thinking it’s your fault or feeling depressed), as well as feeling overly aroused since the event (e.g. feeling hypervigilant).

PTSD symptoms can develop immediately following trauma or have a delayed onset (i.e. more than six months after the trauma occurs) and is most likely to run a chronic course. Unfortunately, it is quite common for individuals with PTSD to develop a co-occurring psychiatric condition, such as Major Depressive Disorder, an Anxiety Disorder, and quite commonly individuals with PTSD can develop a substance abuse problem.

Given the potential for PTSD to develop a chronic course with added suffering from co-occurring psychiatric disorders, it is important for individuals experiencing symptoms of PTSD to reach out for help as soon as possible.

Gomez Counseling utilizes a multifaceted approach in assisting individuals with their Anxiety & PTSD Disorder such as psycho-education, acceptance and commitment therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, somatic therapy approaches, EMDR, and Hypnotherapy. This is a diverse process designed to address many different aspects that clients experience due to Anxiety & Trauma.