Trauma & PTSD Therapy in Wilmington, NC
Our counseling office in Wilmington, NC offers trauma therapy to help you process your pain and move forward in life. At Evolution Wellness, our therapists understand that confronting trauma and vocalizing difficult feelings isn’t easy. However, we also know that you’ll start feeling better once you do.
As such, our counselors are fully trained to equip you with strategies for managing your PTSD or trauma symptoms. At Evolution Wellness, our trauma therapists are committed to helping you process your pain and improve your sense of self-esteem and safety. Please contact us to find your path to healing.
I Love It Here! Such Great People
I love it here! Such great people. They make you feel at ease the second you walk in the door. The instructors are so patience and helpful!!!
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Request an Appointment for Trauma Therapy
Our therapy and PTSD counselors make it their mission to do everything they can to help you process your pain. If you’re struggling to overcome trauma or dealing with other negative symptoms related to a traumatic experience, we can help.
With our trusted trauma therapy in Wilmington, NC, you can begin your journey to healing and finally move forward to lead a happier and more fulfilling life! Request an appointment today.
What is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a trauma and stress-related anxiety disorder. It often develops after exposure to a difficult, dangerous, or troubling event. Furthermore, people who are likely to suffer from PTSD include members of the military, rescue workers, and survivors of shootings, bombings, violence, and sexual assault. However, anyone can develop PTSD after a traumatizing event.
Trauma looks different to each individual. And it is possible to experience PTSD after more “everyday” experiences. For example, an “everyday” trauma may look like partner betrayal, car accidents, significant loss, natural disasters, and other incidents. Additionally, even friends and family of people with PTSD can develop the disorder from witnessing their pain.
Why do Some People Develop
PTSD & Others Don’t?
PTSD is caused by a complex mix of stressful experiences. This includes the amount and severity of trauma you’ve gone through in your life. Likewise, a family history of anxiety and depression can further the chances of developing PTSD. Additionally, some inherited features of your personality (often called temperament) can impact this. And, the way your brain regulates chemicals can affect the development of PTSD. This happens because PTSD and trauma responses are impacted by the hormones the body releases in response to stress.
Therefore, it’s really hard to say why some people develop PTSD, while others seem to quickly recover from trauma. Most importantly, though, is recognizing your own responses to trauma and responding appropriately.
PTSD & Acute Stress Disorder
When symptoms develop immediately after exposure and persist for up to a month, the condition may be called acute stress disorder. However, PTSD is diagnosed when the stress symptoms following exposure have persisted for over a month.
Furthermore, delayed expression of PTSD can occur if symptoms arise six months or more following the onset of trauma. If you would like to speak to someone about PTSD or acute stress disorder, please contact our trauma therapists today.
Common Symptoms of PTSD to Know
Each individual has a unique experience with PTSD. Additionally, every person has different symptoms. But, some of the most common symptoms of PTSD include:
- Intrusive thoughts – Having intrusive thoughts and memories about the traumatic event. For example, you may be grocery shopping and suddenly find yourself obsessing about a trauma so much that it becomes difficult to control your thoughts.
- Reliving the event – You may feel like the event is happening again or imagine the event over and over. This may happen due to a specific trigger or with no apparent cause.
- Frequent nightmares – These nightmares could be about the traumatic event itself or about an entirely different subject.
- Fear and anxiety – Often feeling an escalated sense of fear and anxiety, especially about a potential lack of safety and security. For instance, you may find yourself checking and rechecking locks or driving extremely slowly. Likewise, you may begin sitting in a certain position in a restaurant, planning escape routes, or other similar behaviors.
- Emotional disconnection – Emotional numbness and avoiding places, people, and activities that remind you of the trauma.
Our Trauma Therapy & PTSD Treatment Approaches
How can you turn your trauma into your power? And what would it feel like to stand in your power and allow it to heal you? Most importantly, are you ready to stop allowing traumatic events to trigger you over and over? If so, you can ground yourself with a safety net to support you. Evolution Wellness uses the following treatment approaches:
Our Treatment Approaches
- Cognitive Processing Therapy
- Prolonged Exposure Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
We can help you create that safety net in PTSD treatment. As a result, you will start to feel expansive and brave, rather than constricted with fear. At our Wilmington trauma counseling office we want to help you transform.
How EMDR Therapy Can Help You Heal from Trauma
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of psychotherapy that helps people heal from PTSD and other trauma-related disorders. EMDR is an eight-phase treatment that utilizes the power of rapid eye movement.
In fact, EMDR significantly accelerates patients’ intellectual and emotional processing of past trauma. In our opinion, the coolest thing about EMDR is how quickly you start to feel better.
On the other hand, traditional talk therapy approaches for trauma can take months or even years to effect change. However, clients who use EMDR often feel better within as few as three sessions when processing a single traumatic event. But, if you’re asking yourself, “What does eye movement have to do with anything?” you’re not alone.
Therefore, the process may feel a little strange at first, but we know the results are well worth feeling a little silly during EMDR treatment.
Begin Trauma Therapy and PTSD Treatment Today!
Reliving trauma and experiencing symptoms of PTSD can hold you back from living life wholeheartedly. Working with a trauma therapist at our Wilmington, NC-based counseling practice can help you move forward and heal. If you are ready to take the steps toward healing from trauma and PTSD, first reach out to our office at (910) 202-4326.
Then, schedule sessions with one of our experienced trauma therapists.
