How EMDR Therapy Phoenix Can Help with the Four Trauma Responses
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Why Does Knowing What a Trauma Response is Matter?
There may be days or weeks when you feel like you are on the edge of your seat, and not in a good way. Feeling like at any moment your heart will pound out of your chest or moments where you wish your very being could crawl out of the skin your in and escape. You may feel like screaming at the slightest annoyance or frustration or feel your shoulders tighten at a sound, smell, or sight. These happen to you weekly, if not daily, and it is exhausting. I’m here to tell you that you are not alone. I’m also here to tell you that knowing what a trauma response is, could get you the help you didn’t even know you were searching for. You may have experienced a big trauma or several big traumas in your life, or you may have just had a fair share of bumps along the way. In either case - your nervous system is reacting to the dysregulating event(s). It makes sense that you might crave regulation, normalcy, balance, safety, security, and control because your nervous system is craving it too.
What Is A Trauma Response?
There may be no surprise, but a trauma response is much like it sounds. It is a response that someone has because of past trauma. If you're wondering what the responses are or how EMDR therapy in Phoenix or Tampa can help, read on! This seems pretty straightforward, but it's important to remember that trauma responses can come in many shapes and sizes. When trauma happens, or we perceive something as traumatic, our brains and bodies go into survival mode, known as fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. Often, these responses can feel like they come out of nowhere, but in reality, they come back to the past trauma and how that person could survive at the moment.
From working with clients, I know that struggling with past trauma is absolutely exhausting. From waking up in the middle of the night at the slightest noise or having trouble falling back to sleep after an all-too-real feeling nightmare. Feeling completely “zoned out” and numb to feeling like you want to crawl out of your skin when you hear a noise, smell a particular scent, or are reminded of the past. If these examples register with you, you might be struggling with a trauma response from a trigger. And I'm here to say that this is in no way, shape, or form your fault. Trauma is an event or several events that unfortunately happen to people; you didn't choose it and did nothing wrong.
Text reads: Fight looks like Jaw or muscles tighten. Feelings of intense anger or frustration. Aggression towards self or others. Fight Sounds Like "It's all your fault. I can't believe this!" Flight looks like Anxiety restlessness, feeling on edge or a lot of movement. Feeling the need to leave or get out of the situation even if there is no threat. Flight sounds like "I've got to get out of here." and "I can't handle this right now." Freeze looks like Feeling panicked, overwhelmed, numb or "zoned" out, feeling stuck or full of dread. Freeze sounds like "I can't do anything." Fawn looks like Being a yes-person. Feeling the need to be overly pleasing, helpful, or in agreement with the other person. Fawn sounds like "Maybe I was in the wrong. How can I help them more when they are angry with me?" Schedule a free consultation to find out how EMDR Therapy Phoenix can help you move out of trauma responses.
Trauma responses can look different for different people and when it’s happening up close and personal, none of it feels straightforward. Typically what happens is there is some kind of trigger; this can be in the form of a smell, sound, sight, or even just a similar body sensation. It can be something that you are explicitly aware of as a trigger or something that flies underneath the radar. This means that even if you are not actively aware of a trigger, it can still be triggering. A trauma response happens in response to that trigger and can look different for every person. It might be feeling your jaw clenching, your shoulders tightening, and holding your breath, freezing in place, waiting for the threat to pass. It could be a rush of adrenaline, a feeling of intense rage at a stressor that “should” seem small. It could be feeling jittery and anxious for no apparent reason and looking for any way out of the current experience. It even can look like overextending yourself and people-pleasing to the point that you are no longer considering your own needs.
I've heard time and time again clients and people around me saying, "But nothing traumatic has happened to me! I don't deserve to feel this way. There's no reason I should have this reaction." But the bottom line is this, at some point, you may not have felt safe, heard, enough, capable, or deserving in a way that felt very real. Whether it was a real threat to your life or whether your five-year-old self felt there was a threat to your life, your body, and brain still react similarly. The same stress hormones are still released, and healing needs to happen.
How EMDR Therapy Phoenix Can Help
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EMDR Therapy is focused on 8 phases that help the body and brain to process a past traumatic memory so it can organize the information in a way that makes sense and no longer feels disorientating. This allows the memory to feel like "just another memory" rather than one that causes strong overwhelm, and upset. You can read more on the phases of EMDR Therapy here. At the beginning of this process, we focus on finding grounding techniques, resources, and coping skills that work for you and help you to feel like you have a sense of solid ground underneath your feet. We do this because experiencing trauma dysregulates the nervous system, so the first step is starting to regulate the body and mind so they can come out of that survival mode and start living in the present. After we have some foundation, we begin to work through to find what we call the target memories that are tied to different themes. For example, a big piece for many clients is “I’m not good enough.” We then look at what memories are tied to this belief and start reprocessing them using bilateral stimulation (tapping, eye movements, or auditory tones) to help the right and left parts of the brain to engage and reprocess the memory that keeps the body in a trauma response. As the memory continues to be reprocessed, most people find that they have shifted in the way they think about the memory or that it becomes another memory like any other and don’t feel a charge to it when they think about it, this allows their bodies and minds to move out of trauma response mode and into living their actual lives.
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Tips and Take Aways From an EMDR Therapist in Phoenix, AZ
Ground yourself in the present moment whenever you can. Especially when you are not actively triggered or dealing with a trauma response. This can look like focusing on a scent that you enjoy, putting your feet in the grass, and putting focused attention onto your breathe.
Practice tuning into your body, at least once a day, notice what emotions come up, and what body sensations are present, and ask your body what it needs - and listen. If you need rest, is there a way you can find time to rest during the day? If you need movement, can you take a walk?
The more you practice it, the more accessible it will be to you when dealing with a trauma response. If you need a way to get started with some guided meditations and resources - click here.
If you're looking to start your healing journey, I invite you to reach out for a free 15-minute consultation to see if EMDR therapy in Phoenix may be the right fit for what you are looking for.
My specialties include EMDR Therapy Phoenix, Online EMDR therapy, EMDR Therapy Tampa, Sexual Abuse Therapy and Anxiety Therapy,
