Parker Counseling and Education Services

Trauma Resolution
Emotional trauma is defined as any distressing experience that causes emotional shock and may have long-lasting psychological effects. Trauma resolution is accomplished when the painful memory or event no longer triggers anxious reactions or distorted thoughts. At Parker Counseling Service, all therapists are trained to assist clients in identifying past traumatic experiences that may contribute to present dysfunction. The goal of treatment is to assist the client in desensitizing and processing painful experiences in order to integrate the event into their life story. This is accomplished through individual talk and experiential therapies (including hypnotherapy and EMDR) as well as experiential groups such as Psychodrama, Anger and Forgiveness, and GET.

Types of Trauma
Professionals frequently refer to two types of trauma's, "Large T" and "Small t" events.

Many persons easily associate with "Large T" trauma events such as natural disasters, combat, and accidents, leading to PTSD.

"Small t" events are more common experiences that can make us feel as failures, humiliated, unsafe, unloved, or without control or hope. For children, they can include being bullied, excluded, or even falling off a bicycle or ski's. Events that seem unimportant to us as adults can be devastating to children and have long lasting effects, that without therapy may go uncovered well into adult life and patterns.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
While most people associate PTSD with War Veterans, Firefighters, Police, and Emergency Medical Technicians, there are many other sources and people suffering from PTSD. In many cases, the persons suffering do not realize their symptoms as PTSD, or may not realize that there are now effective treatments that can dramatically reduce their nightmares, anger, reactivity, and emotional pain they may have tried to bury themselves for years. Many clients who have suffered for years are amazed at the success rates that newer treatments such as EMDR and Hypnotherapy can provide either separately in combination with other treatments.

Research has shown that three 90 minute sessions of EMDR treatment eliminates PTSD symptoms in 80-100% of civilians with a single trauma experience. When civilians have experienced multiple traumas, more treatment may be needed. A randomized study to evaluate EMDR with combat veterans reported that after 12 sessions, 78% of the veterans in the study no longer had PTSD.

Department of Veterans Affairs & Department of Defense, Washington, DC (2004) -  VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Post-Traumatic Stress.
EMDR was one of four therapies given the highest level of evidence and recommended for treatment of PTSD.