EMDR Trauma Therapy & PTSD Treatment

You‘re anxious, on edge, or have moments of intense fear.

You feel sad and have lost interest in things you used to enjoy.

You get mad easily and feel irritable.

Unwanted memories and nightmares make it hard to relax and sleep.

Trusting others is hard, and your relationships are suffering.

You are tired of feeling this way. You are ready to try something different.

Previous therapies haven't worked, and you're yearning to rediscover yourself after experiencing trauma. Whether it's neglect, abuse, bullying, domestic violence, grief, accidents, medical procedures, or health battles, you're tired of feeling disconnected, numb, and overwhelmed. Concentrating on daily life is a struggle, you avoid people and are plagued by physical ailments.

Trauma Therapy CAN Help

I know it’s hard to believe right now, but you CAN feel better. People often enter our counselling office unsure of what to expect. They just know they’re tired of feeling the way they do.

Maybe you don’t even think it’s worth talking about the actual trauma. You just want to feel a little less anxious. Even just reducing your self-hatred by 10% would make things more bearable. But you don’t believe counselling can truly help you be happy again.

If you’re having a difficult time believing counselling can truly help, our therapists will hold hope for you. We know that trauma therapy works. Why? Because we’ve seen countless other people enter our counseling office not sure what the point of coming even was only to leave feeling good about life again. Now, we’re not saying it’s going to be easy. In fact, you’ll probably want to quit many times. But if you stick with it, a good trauma therapist can help you work through the past, find new ways of coping, and move forward again with purpose.

Our founder, Kimberly, often says that trauma is her favourite thing to treat through therapy because she knows people will get better. Trauma work is some of the most intense work a therapist can do, but it’s also some of the most rewarding. Because there are multiple methods out there that we know help people get better

We believe you deserve trauma therapy that really truly works.

Trauma is one of those things where you want to see a therapist who specializes in treating trauma. Trauma therapy typically involves a little bit more than just talking about how your week went. So, trauma therapy might begin with relationship building with a few sessions of just talking about what’s currently stressing you and some coping skills. But then, your therapist will pull from one of the proven methods of treating trauma and PTSD that we’ve been trained in. Why? Because we believe you deserve healing. We don’t want to just put a bandaid on the pain you are experiencing. We want to help you find true freedom from what happened to you.

Williamson & Associates Counselling has therapists who are trained in evidence-based trauma therapies such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Somatic Experiencing (SE) and Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY).  We will work with you to find the treatment that will take you from fear to confidence; from dread to hope and from broken to whole.

You deserve to find relief from your PTSD symptoms like difficulty sleeping, intrusive memories, self-doubt, feeling depressed and anxious. Regardless of where you are in the healing process, as a Central Alberta area counselling center, healing starts here.

Was what happened to me even a traumatic event?

This is a really, really common question when someone is starting therapy. It’s easy to convince yourself “it could have been worse.” Whatever you’ve been through, you may find yourself thinking of all the things that you haven’t experienced and try to convince yourself that your experience doesn’t even count as trauma.

A serious car accident. Seeing someone you love die unexpectedly. A debilitating injury. A natural disaster. A rape. A sexual assault. Domestic violence. A trauma is any event that overwhelms a person’s ability to cope. If something bad happened where your normal coping mechanisms didn’t work, you’ve been through a traumatic experience.

Now there are many different types of traumatic experiences. Maybe you experienced an acute traumatic event that happened once and was really intense. Or, maybe your trauma history included complex trauma such as abuse that happens over and over again. There are shared trauma such as 9-11 or Covid-19 that happens to many people at once. Or vicarious trauma where you’re traumatized (i.e. overwhelmed beyond your normal ability to cope) by hearing about and working with others who have experienced trauma. All of these count as trauma.

When you’ve been through something overwhelming (i.e. a traumatic experience), you may recover on your own after a few weeks or months. On the other hand, you may have PTSD symptoms (nightmares, anxiety, depression, avoiding things, fear) that seem to hold you back. In this case, counseling can help you find yourself again.

Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Signs that you might be developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) include feeling jumpy, avoiding things that remind you of traumatic events in your past, difficulty sleeping/nightmares, having moments where it feels like you are reliving the trauma, difficulty concentrating, withdrawing from others or feeling depressed. You don’t have to live with these symptoms of PTSD. Trauma treatment can help you recover from PTSD symptoms.

Symptoms of PTSD fall into four categories and may look different depending on your unique personality, support system, and traumatic experience. When you book an initial assessment with a trauma counselor in our clinic, we’ll take a closer look at your symptoms and see if you qualify for a PTSD diagnosis. The four ways trauma can impact a person causing PTSD includes:

Intrusive, Unwanted, Negative Thoughts

Intrusive thoughts can take many forms: involuntary memories, nightmares, and flashbacks are commonly experienced by those with PTSD. These intrusive thoughts and memories of your trauma often come up at the worst possible times.  You want to move forward with your life but it feels like this negative memory is holding you back.

Avoiding Situations

As human beings, it’s normal for us to want to avoid things that don’t feel good.  For this reason, people that have experienced a really stressful event may find themselves avoiding anything that reminds them of that bad memory. You may initially feel better when you push away memories of the assault/rape/accident/fire/injury.  You may even feel normal for a moment.  However, avoiding maintains PTSD. So as time goes on, you’ll find yourself avoiding more and more situations, people, things and thoughts.

Distorted Ideas & Negative Self Talk

It is common for those with PTSD to have distorted thoughts and beliefs about themselves or others, ongoing fear, anger, guilt, or shame. These thoughts can look like, “I am a bad person,” “I can’t trust anyone,” or “I should have died, not her.” As a result of these cognitive distortions, you may have less interest in activities you once enjoyed and also begin to feel detached or estranged from loved ones.

Risky or Out-of-Character Behavior

Reactive behavior associated with PTSD can include having angry outbursts, becoming easily irritable, behaving recklessly or in a self-destructive way, being easily startled, or having problems concentrating or sleeping.

Many people who experience a traumatic event may experience symptoms like these in the days following the event. However, people with PTSD will experience these symptoms for months and even years. It’s also common for someone with PTSD to have what we call co-occurring problems.  This may mean that you use substances such as alcohol or drugs to feel better.  You may feel depressed or anxious.

What to expect in PTSD Treatment

Similar to a mountain range, there are several peaks and valleys in PTSD treatment, but you CAN make it to the other side!

At Williamson & Associates Counselling, our trauma therapists offer several different types of very effective, evidence-based treatments for PTSD.  These are treatments that have been tested and research has found helped others find relief.  You don’t have to stay stuck for years.  Trauma treatment is effective and most people feel significant relief from their PTSD symptoms in a matter of months.  Our trauma therapists are caring, skilled and are able to individualize your treatment to meet your needs, values, and preferences.

PTSD treatment starts with you getting to know your therapist and building trust.  Then, you will learn grounding techniques and other ways of coping with your anxiety.  You may work on improving your sleep and addressing nightmares.  Then…the hard work begins.  The exact type of trauma treatment you’re going through with your therapist (ex: EMDR, Accelerated Resolution Trauma Therapy (ART), Somatic Experiencing, Expressive Art Therapy, Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga) will determine exactly how your trauma is addressed.  You can expect this to be difficult and have moments where therapy isn’t fun.  However, you can also count on your therapist being empathetic and caring.

Your therapist will be right by your side helping every step of the way.  Counselling doesn’t have to take years to work. In fact, our clients often feel significantly better after just a couple of months. We want to help you find healing and quickly. That is why we use trauma treatments that work. Williamson & Associates Counselling trauma therapists have the experience helping other trauma survivors, done the research, sat through countless trainings, read books, consulted with other therapists to learn what helps someone recover fully and quickly from PTSD.

It may be impossible to erase the traumatic experience(s) from your past, but it is very possible for you to find healing and emotional peace. You are ready to be you again, so we will choose treatments that work for PTSD and then tailor them to your specific situation.

Considering PTSD Treatment

Trauma impacts everyone differently. Sometimes a difficult situation may overwhelm your ability to cope.  You may find yourself having moments where it feels like you are reliving your trauma, thinking about the stressful situation often, experiencing nightmares, feeling on edge or jumpy, over-reacting or constantly worrying.

Whether the stressful situation you experienced was rape, sexual assaults, accidents, a serious injury, domestic violence, a natural disaster, the sudden death of a loved one, or combat during military service, we want to help you find relief. Healing starts here.

Williamson & Associates Counseling has experienced trauma therapists who specialize in treating PTSD.  All of our trauma therapists are trained and experienced using at least one evidence-based PTSD treatment such as Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR), Accelerated Resolution Trauma Therapy (ART), Somatic Experiencing (SE), Expressive Art Trauma Therapy, Sandtray Therapy and Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY). That’s a lot of different acronyms, but the bottom line is this: we offer effective treatment so you can find emotional freedom and healing. You don’t have to face this journey alone. People do recover and learn to live a meaningful, peaceful life even after unimaginable trauma. Please reach out and let a trauma therapist help you begin counselling right away so you can get back to living.

If you are considering counselling for PTSD and live in the province of Alberta, we can help. Please fill out the secure intake form today to get matched with a trauma therapist who can help you move forward.