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licensed professional therapist midland tx

COMPLEX PTSD AND DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA

As humans, we rely on safe people, safe places, and safe things during childhood and adolescence in order for healthy brain development to take place. Many children and adult survivors of complex trauma, having experienced this loss of safety, had no agency over themselves or their environment during critical times in brain development for extended periods of time. This loss of agency during their early years stunted their growth, depriving them of the opportunity to create the lives they deserved, and has ultimately left many stripped of their sense of worth and sense of self. Without the ability to understand what has happened, young survivors grow up to be adults who live in the same constant state of hypervigilance and suffering long after the dangers and lack of safety in childhood is over.  (Cited from CPTSD Foundation).

​ Life Transitions Family Conflict Life Transitions Parenting Peer Relationships Relationship Issues School Issues Self Esteem Self-Harming Sexual Abuse Sleep or Insomnia Somatic symptoms Spirituality Stress Suicidal Ideation Teen Violence Women's IssuesADHD Addiction Recovery Anger  Asperger's Syndrome Autoimmune Issues Behavioral Issues Children Chronic Illness Chronic Impulsivity Chronic Pain Codependency Coping Skills Dissociative Disorders  Depression Domestic Violence Dua Diagnosis Early childhood trauma/developmental trauma

ISSUES WORKED WITH INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

  • ADHD

  • Addiction Recovery

  • Anger 

  • Autism Spectrum

  • Autoimmune Issues

  • Behavioral Issues

  • Children

  • Chronic Illness

  • Chronic Impulsivity

  • Chronic Pain

  • Codependency

  • Coping Skills

  • Dissociative Disorders 

  • Depression

  • Domestic Violence

  • Dual Diagnosis

  • Early childhood trauma/developmental trauma

  • Life Transitions

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  • Family Conflict

  • Life Transitions

  • Neurodiverse Conditions

  • Parenting

  • Peer Relationships

  • Relationship Issues

  • School Issues

  • Self Esteem

  • Self-Harming

  • Sexual Abuse

  • Sleep or Insomnia

  • Somatic symptoms

  • Spirituality

  • Stress

  • Suicidal Ideation

  • Teen Violence

  • Women's Issues

SOMATIC EXPERIENCING  (SE™)

SE is a short-term (for shock trauma) or long-term (for complex trauma) naturalistic approach to the resolution and healing of trauma developed by Dr. Peter Levine and is supported by research. It is based upon the observation that wild prey animals, though threatened routinely, are rarely traumatized. Animals in the wild utilize innate mechanisms to regulate and discharge the high levels of energy arousal associated with defensive survival behaviors. These mechanisms provide animals with a built in “immunity’’ to trauma that enables them to return to normal in the aftermath of highly ‘’charged’’ life threatening experiences.

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• SE employs awareness of body sensation to help people “renegotiate” and heal rather than relive or reenact trauma.

• SE’s guidance of the bodily “felt sense” allows the highly aroused survival energies to be safely experienced and gradually discharged. 

• SE may employ touch in support of the renegotiation process.

• SE “titrates” experience (breaks down into small, incremental steps), rather than evoking catharsis which can overwhelm the regulatory mechanisms of the organism.

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SPECIALTIES

HEALING TO WHOLENESS

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MORE ABOUT

CPTSD AND DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA

CPTSD can often go undiagnosed because the client themselves doesn’t relate their current reality to a single event trauma but often an underlying sense of lack of safety inside themselves. It’s a felt sense that one can’t cope with life and a sense of being overwhelmed comes easily and often. It’s like life moving two speeds faster than you can process and so you are running or jogging just to keep up. One might get angry, get depressed or have an experience of not being able to control ones emotions. It is trauma response of "too much, too fast, too soon," along with inability to self-regulate one’s own nervous system.

TREATMENT MODALITIES USED

Somatic Experiencing (SE™), Transforming Touch®, Attachment-based, Mindfulness, Narrative, Sand Tray therapy, Play therapy, Gestalt therapy, Existential, Inner Child work, and other Expressive Art Therapies

TRANSFORMING TOUCH® (TEB) 

Transforming the Experience Based Brain is an innovative biophysiological approach to healing, developed by Stephen J. Terrell, PsyD, SEP a world leading authority on developmental trauma.

 

TEB uses a set of protocols to expand on a person’s capacity to regulate and build somatic trust in the recipient's body. The protocols of TEB touch can be offered in person or online and can be adjusted without touch when appropriate or as preferred by the client. 

 

In sessions, you will receive background theory to support a deeper understanding of the issues that you bring. We also use benchmarks to keep track of how the treatment is supporting the transformations that you seek. In a typical session, we spend time checking in and talking about your themes. When appropriate and with your permission, we move into a treatment phase typically 20 – 40 mins long.

 

Remaining fully clothed, Transforming Touch® is offered to key areas of stress physiology, such as the kidney adrenals and brainstem with holds ranging from 2-5 minutes in each place. If you choose to use Transforming Presence, we travel around your physiology using attention and intention, guided by my voice.

Later sessions can include primitive reflex enhancements which support the integration of interrupted early developmental stages. Treatment typically takes place within the frame of a weekly or biweekly session.  

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ISSUES WORKED WITH INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

  • ADHD

  • Addiction Recovery

  • Anger 

  • Asperger's Syndrome

  • Autoimmune Issues

  • Behavioral Issues

  • Children

  • Chronic Illness

  • Chronic Impulsivity

  • Chronic Pain

  • Codependency

  • Coping Skills

  • Dissociative Disorders 

  • Depression

  • Domestic Violence

  • Dua Diagnosis

  • Early childhood trauma/developmental trauma

  • Life Transitions

  • Family Conflict

  • Life Transitions

  • Parenting

  • Peer Relationships

  • Relationship Issues

  • School Issues

  • Self Esteem

  • Self-Harming

  • Sexual Abuse

  • Sleep or Insomnia

  • Somatic symptoms

  • Spirituality

  • Stress

  • Suicidal Ideation

  • Teen Violence

  • Women's Issues

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