Trauma and PTSD

Traumatic events, such as fire, earthquake, bombing, and hurricane, occur daily. Such devastatingcircumstances often cause an acute reaction of fear and terror for individuals who experience them. War, rape, and physical assault or abuse, whether of a child or an adult, produce equally frightening results, known as post-traumatic stress. It occurs when traumatized individuals cannot safely assign to the past what has happened in their life. The experience of trauma undermines one's expectations of safety and security in the world.

Six months ago, Hanna Lottritz planned on having a fun day out with friends at a music festival. She blacked out before midnight, and woke up in the hospital—to find that she had been in an alcohol-induced coma for two days. Lottritz, who turned 21 earlier this month, wrote a poignant blog  sharing her story.

During a negative life event, the amygdala, the part of the brain that monitors the “fight or flight” system, holds on to the negative event which continues to repeat itself over and over. This is called a “the pain of a thought” and occurs at the cellular level. Energy therapies reduce or neutralize that “pain” so that the negative event can be forgotten, and life can become less stressful and produce peace of mind in an individual.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy has been declared an effective form of trauma treatment by a wide range of organizations. In the United States these include the American Psychiatric Association, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.