The Journey Back from PTSD

/ Mind Therapy Clinic/
The Journey Back from PTSD

So, how do you know you if you have PTSD? What are the signs?

Symptoms usually start soon after the traumatic event, but less often they may first appear months or years later – often triggered by another traumatic episode. Symptoms may come and go over time; however, if the symptoms last longer than four weeks, and interfere with your work or home life, you might be experiencing PTSD.

While it has become apparent that supportive talk therapy by itself is not very helpful for PTSD, specific trauma-focused therapies that address the way trauma is stored in the mind/body are effective. There are treatment methods that research has shown to be effective for treating trauma:

  • Cognitive Behavior Therapy

  • Prolonged Exposure Therapy

  • EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

  • Somatic Psychotherapy

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Did I Experience a Trauma? Could I Have PTSD?

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Did I Experience a Trauma? Could I Have PTSD?

In PTSD, a trauma is defined as “exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence”. The trauma can be something that happened to you as a child or as an adult, something that happened once or many times over the years, or even something that you witnessed or learned about it happening to a close family member or friend. Even though we often describe things like a divorce, a bad argument with a friend or parent, a difficult move, or a toxic work environment as ‘traumatic’, these major stressors are not experiences that would lead to a diagnosis of PTSD. When we think about “Big T” traumas, we mean events like childhood physical or sexual abuse, an actual or threatened assault, unwanted sexual contact or abuse, exposure to war or combat, severe motor vehicle accidents, natural or man-made disasters, or sudden/catastrophic medical events.

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Welcome Christine Valdez, PhD, PTSD/Trauma Treatment Expert

/ Mind Therapy Clinic/
Welcome Christine Valdez, PhD, PTSD/Trauma Treatment Expert

Mind Therapy Clinic welcomes Christine Valdez, Clinical Psychologist and PTSD expert to the team. Dr. Valdez is a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise in empirically supported treatments for trauma-related issues, including post-traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety. She specializes in individual and group therapy for adults who have experienced interpersonal trauma.

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How do people with PTSD come back to normal? - Trauma Series by David Campell, MD

/ Mind Therapy Clinic/
How do people with PTSD come back to normal? - Trauma Series by David Campell, MD

So, how do you know you if you have it? What are the signs?

Symptoms usually start soon after the traumatic event, but less often they may first appear months or years later – often triggered by another traumatic episode. Symptoms may come and go over time; however, if the symptoms last longer than four weeks, and interfere with your work or home life, you might be experiencing PTSD.

While it has become apparent that supportive talk therapy by itself is not very helpful for PTSD, specific trauma-focused therapies that address the way trauma is stored in the mind/body are effective.  There are treatment methods that research has shown to be effective for treating trauma: 

  • Cognitive Behavior Therapy 
  • Prolonged Exposure Therapy 
  • EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
  • Somatic Psychotherapy
Read More

Who gets PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and why? - Trauma Series by David Campell, MD

/ Mind Therapy Clinic/
Who gets PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and why? - Trauma Series by David Campell, MD

Since announcing Trauma Services as a specialty at Mind Therapy Clinic, we’ve been receiving a lot of questions about therapy as it relates to trauma. Most commonly people want to know what is PTSD, and who gets it and why?

With so many traumatic experiences in today’s news – from police shootings, racial tensions, war, car crashes, crosswalk and bicycle accidents, physical and sexual assaults, gun violence, natural disasters, racial and economic fallouts, etc. - it makes sense that there is a heightened awareness and interest in the need to fully understand the impact of these events and treatments for those who are affected.  Media often presents PTSD with a military focus, but recent research has revealed that civilian PTSD is 13 times more common. In fact, an estimated one out of every nine women develops PTSD (more than twice as likely as men).*  So, what is considered PTSD and who should receive treatment? 

Let’s start with how does someone become traumatized?

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