How Do I Select A Therapist For Cptsd
The most important thing is to feeling like you like and can learn to trust your therapist. Trust your gut or instinct.
A good trauma therapist will have a great understanding of trauma, be trained in a few trauma modalities, hold firm boundaries, engage in self-care outside of their work, hold hope for healing, are strength-based, and flexible to adapt treatment to your needs.
Schedule a consultation and see how you feel speaking to the therapist.
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What is your first reaction?
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Do you feel like you can talk more with this person?
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Do you like this person?
Find someone with training and experience with trauma, PTSD, and specifically PTSD.
Look for a therapist who focuses on the following areas:
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Interpersonal neurobiology
Tip : Reach Out To Others For Support
PTSD can make you feel disconnected from others. You may be tempted to withdraw from social activities and your loved ones. But it’s important to stay connected to life and the people who care about you. You don’t have to talk about the trauma if you don’t want to, but the caring support and companionship of others is vital to your recovery. Reach out to someone you can connect with for an uninterrupted period of time, someone who will listen when you want to talk without judging, criticizing, or continually getting distracted. That person may be your significant other, a family member, a friend, or a professional therapist. Or you could try:
Volunteering your time or reaching out to a friend in need. This is not only a great way to connect to others, but can also help you reclaim your sense of control.
Joining a PTSD support group. This can help you feel less isolated and alone and also provide invaluable information on how to cope with symptoms and work towards recovery.
Emotional And Psychological Trauma
If you’ve experienced an extremely stressful eventor series of eventsthat’s left you feeling helpless and emotionally out of control, you may have been traumatized. Psychological trauma often has its roots in childhood, but any event that shatters your sense of safety can leave you feeling traumatized, whether it’s an accident, injury, the sudden death of a loved one, bullying, domestic abuse, or a deeply humiliating experience. Whether the trauma happened years ago or yesterday, you can get over the pain, feel safe again, and move on with your life.
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Signs And Symptoms Of Ptsd
PTSD develops differently from person to person because everyone’s nervous system and tolerance for stress is a little different. While you’re most likely to develop symptoms of PTSD in the hours or days following a traumatic event, it can sometimes take weeks, months, or even years before they appear. Sometimes symptoms appear seemingly out of the blue. At other times, they are triggered by something that reminds you of the original traumatic event, such as a noise, an image, certain words, or a smell.
While everyone experiences PTSD differently, there are four main types of symptoms.
How Ptsd Affects The Nervous System
Post-traumatic stress disorder is often spoken of in terms of its behavioral and psychological symptoms. But such symptoms are often interwoven with physiological changes in how the nervous system functions.
Its natural for stressful events to activate the bodys sympathetic nervous system, with its fight or flight or freeze responses. Once the danger has passed, there should be a return to a more regulated mindset. This means the person will return to a more neutral and relaxed rest and digest mode of the parasympathetic nervous system .
A normally regulated nervous system can process the stressful situation and then return to baseline functioning when the threat has passed. However, the nervous system works differently for someone who has experienced traumabecause traumatic events can damage its self-regulating capacity.
When this happens, the nervous system becomes dysregulated. It may, for instance, get stuck in its sympathetic fight or flight mode. In such a case, the person is perpetually overstimulated, experiencing anxiety, restlessness, anger, panic, and/or hyperactivity. They are unable to find and maintain a sense of calm, ease, and relaxation.
For other people, the nervous system may get stuck in a frozen or off moderesulting in fatigue, lethargy, or depression.
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Lack Of Emotional Regulation
In C-PTSD, problems with emotional regulation mirror the nervous system dysregulation discussed above.
Symptoms in this category have to do with the individual succumbing to uncontrollable emotional outbursts. The person suffering from C-PTSD feels overwhelmed emotions or out of control. This may result in explosive anger, heavy sadness, anxiety, panic, or hyperactivity.
They dont know how to skillfully navigate these challenging emotions. And they have trouble calming down, relaxing, and letting the emotional waves settle.
Learn How To Manage Flashbacks
- Use your breathing to steady you by breathing slowly in and out while counting to five.
- Carry an object that reminds you of the present.
- Tell yourself you are safe.
- Comfort yourself by doing something like curling up in a blanket, cuddling a pet, listening to soothing music or watching a favourite film.
- Keep a diary to help you work out the triggers.
- Practice grounding techniques that help you focus on your experience now, such as breathing slowly, listening to sounds around you, walking barefoot, wrapping yourself in a blanket and feeling it around you, touching something or sniffing something with a strong smell.
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Tools For Coping With Complex Ptsd
Treatment for C-PTSD can take time. Therefore, it is important to learn how to skillfully manage the symptoms of the disorder, along the way. Some tips for supporting the healing process include:
- Ask for and receive supportfrom friends, family members, or support groups.
- Practice mindfulness: MBSR or Unified Mindfulness or Effortless Mindfulness are great resources.
- Keep a journalof symptoms, emotional responses, and insights to share with a therapist.
- Read inspiring self-help books or memoirs of others who have recovered from C-PTSD.
How To Treat It
When you realize that you have complex PTSD, it can be a very daunting realization. It can feel like there is no hope and that you will never recover. However, this is not the case. There are many ways to treat complex PTSD and with the right help, you can recover and live a happy life.
There are many different types of treatment available for complex PTSD. These include:
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Therapy For Cptsd In Seattle Washington
I am a Seattle therapist specializing in CPTSD and complex trauma. Because of licensing, I can only work with clients residing in Washington State.
My goal as a trauma therapist is for clients to better understand themselves, all parts of them, meet challenges and failures with compassion, feel more connected to themselves, understand what it is they really want, crave, and desire in life and relationships, practice patience, and gain deep insight into ways to interrupt unhelpful modes of survival that once served them.
Healing work can be exhausting, overwhelming, terrifying, but on the other side can be freedom, more choice, joy, and liberation.
Schedule a 10-minute consultation to see if we might be a good fit. If not, I also maintain a CPTSD Therapist referral list.
Resources & Therapist Referrals for Washington State CTPSD therapists can be found here.
Find A Creative Outlet
Creative outlets such as art therapy for PTSD and music therapy for PTSD can have a positive effect on symptoms. Other hobbies such as creative writing or crafting can provide relief from anxiety and irritability. Some experts suggest that creative tasks like quilting or art projects may be useful for people who dont find the relief they need from commonplace psychological therapies.
Fortunately, research shows that creative therapies can be effective for PTSD. In a study with veterans, a music intervention was found to significantly reduce symptoms of depression and severity of PTSD.
Other creative hobbies for veterans with PTSD might include:
- Learning to play an instrument
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What Can Trigger Complex Ptsd
The symptoms of Complex PTSD can usually be attributed to ongoing events in your life that cause you to be constantly exposed to uncomfortable and traumatic scenarios. It could be being sexually abused as a child, sex trafficking or being tortured in a prisoner of war scenerio. The trauma that you experience is repeated frequently unlike typical symptoms ofPTSD. So you constantly have to relive and deal with the trauma. It can be more difficult to break out of this continuous cycle.
Here Are 12 Things To Know About Cptsd And How You May Recognize It In Yourself:
- Im so stupid
- Its all my fault
- Im no good at anything
- I cant stand to be with myself
- No one cares what I have to say.
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Triggers Of Complex Ptsd
People who have PTSD or complex PTSD can react to different life situations as if they are reliving their trauma.
The particular situation that triggers a person can be random and varies depending on their specific trauma history. A person can be triggered by situations, images, smells, conversations with others, and more.
This triggering can manifest as a fight-or-flight response triggered by the amygdala, responsible for processing emotions in the brain.
When this happens, a persons brain can perceive that they are in danger, even if they are not. This is known as an amygdala hijack and can also result in things like flashbacks, nightmares, or being easily startled.
People with PTSD or complex PTSD may exhibit certain behaviors in an attempt to manage their symptoms.
Examples of such behaviors include:
- misusing alcohol or drugs
- avoiding unpleasant situations by becoming people-pleasers
- lashing out at minor criticisms
These behaviors can develop as a way to deal with or try to forget about the original trauma and the resulting symptoms in the present.
Friends and family of people with complex PTSD should be aware that these behaviors may represent coping mechanisms and attempts to gain control over emotions.
To recover from PTSD or complex PTSD, a person can seek treatment and learn to replace these behaviors with ones focused on healing and self-care.
Often, people with complex PTSD have experienced prolonged trauma such as ongoing physical, emotional, or sexual abuse.
Build A Support Network
Having a PTSD support network can also be beneficial for coping with this mental health condition. Having friends, family members, or a coworker who knows about your PTSD and is available to talk can be important for recovery. A PTSD network can be available to listen and offer solutions during difficult times.
Social support has been found to be especially critical for people who have been exposed to multiple traumatic events. One study found that the risk of PTSD was 17 times greater in women who had been subjected to both child abuse and rape, but the severity of PTSD was lower in those who had more social support. Social support can therefore alleviate some of the symptoms associated with trauma.
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How To Help Someone Who Is Self
After realizing that someone is self-harming, what can you do? Should you accuse them of hurting themselves and try to make them feel ashamed?
Absolutely not.
Self-harm is the visible incarnation of deep pain that the person is having problems dealing with or expressing. If you accuse them of being weak or try to force them to quit, you will only drive them deeper and take their self-injuries underground.
If youve noticed suspicious injuries on someone you care about or they admit to you they are doing it, here are some recommendations that might help.
Be supportive. Although their actions make no sense to you, be supportive and tell them you care and are there for them.
Avoid judging them. If you judge your friend or loved ones behaviors, you can drive them away or cause them to shut down altogether.
Do some research of your own. Being genuinely interested in understanding what drives self-harm and the reasons why people do it may help you. Remember, you are dealing with a highly stressful situation. Understanding the where, why, and how of self-injury can help your understanding of what you are dealing with and show your friend or loved one you are interested in helping them.
Try to be accepting. Self-harming is very isolating for those who do it. Accepting and obviously caring for the person who self-injures can make all the difference.
There is no reason at all for telling your friend or loved one that what they are doing is right because self-injury is harmful.
Problems With Work Or School
When you are dealing with the symptoms of complex PTSD, it can be hard to focus or concentrate. This might lead to problems at work or school. Its not uncommon for people with complex PTSD to have a hard time keeping a job or completing their education. In fact, many people with complex PTSD end up unemployed or underemployed.
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Causes And Risk Factors
Any kind of trauma sustained over the long term can lead to CPTSD. However, CPTSD is particularly common among those who experienced ongoing trauma during their developmental years i.e., during childhood.
CPTSD may develop from trauma inflicted by those who were meant to care for or protect you. This could include family members, close family friends, teachers, coaches, or religious leaders.
Here are some examples of what can cause CPTSD:
- repeated physical or emotional abuse
- living in a politically unstable or war-torn area
- ongoing childhood neglect or abandonment
- long-term sexual abuse, such as human trafficking
- regular exposure to danger, as encountered by military personnel, police, or first responders
- family enmeshment or parentification
Researchers are still trying to figure out why some people develop CPTSD while others do not. So far, your likelihood depends on a few risk factors:
- family history of depression or anxiety
- genetic factors, like lower stress tolerance
- absence of a support network or safe connections
In order to be diagnosed with CPTSD , youll need to have some classic symptoms of PTSD, such as:
- flashbacks or nightmares
- hyperarousal, or being on high alert
- avoidance of certain people, places, or scenarios
- dissociation or feeling detached from yourself
- somatic symptoms, like headache or upset stomach
The other CPTSD symptoms can be grouped into three main categories: negative self-cognition, emotional dysregulation, and interpersonal hardship.
Director Of Professional Relations / Therapist
Tamlyn has always found joy in helping people improve their lives. After earning her bachelors degree in psychobiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and working for nearly a decade in the fitness industry as a personal trainer, she decided to focus her career on mental health and wellness. Tamlyn completed her masters degree at Touro University and is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist. She has experience working with individuals, couples, families, and groups. Tamlyn previously worked at a co-ed sub-acute detox facility as well as an inpatient treatment hospital that specialized in assisting patients who struggle with co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders. She comes to SoCal Mental Health with a strong desire to change lives and help clients become the best version of themselves.
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What Are The Symptoms Of C
C-PTSD symptoms are the same as those of PTSD plus 3 extra groups of symptoms:
These extra symptoms are similar to symptoms of borderline personality disorder .