Whenever anyone has been thrown into a traumatic experience in their life, the aftershocks from such a sudden event can undoubtedly have a long-lasting negative effect on a person. The most common types of events that have been known to cause post-traumatic stress for a person are:

• Acts of war like bombings, assassinations, military takeovers
• Natural disasters like floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, wildfires etc.
• Car or plane crashes
• Terrorist attacks and mass shootings
• Sudden death of a loved one
• Surviving rape
• Surviving kidnapping
• Physical assault and battery
• Witnessing and/or surviving murder on self or someone else
• Sexual or physical abuse
• Childhood abuse, neglect, or witnessing domestic violence
• Witnessing violent or traumatic events and then having to restore matters back to normal afterwards (common among emergency workers and supportive friends & family)

Often when something very traumatic happens to a person they will experience many of these reactions and symptoms:

• Re-experiencing the traumatic event through flashbacks, nightmares, upsetting memories that seem like it’s happening all over again.
• Wanting to avoid any activity or place or thought that will remind them of the trauma
• Having difficulty falling asleep and/or staying asleep
• Feeling hypervigilant or jumpy and easily startled over the littlest sudden sound or action
• Having a tough time with concentrating on work, relationships, normal daily activities
• Feeling irritable and having sudden bursts of anger
• Having other emotions of guilt, shame, self-blame
• Turning to many types of substance abuse (drugs & alcohol) to numb or blank out the recurring thoughts, images, memories
• Feeling hopeless and helpless so much that suicide ideation becomes the only solution
• Physical reactions to these reminders like heart palpitations, rapid breathing, sweating & nausea
• Feeling alienated and isolated

Quite often when people have not been diagnosed yet by a medical practitioner, psychologist or psychiatrist as having PTSD, they may feel there’s little or no hope that they’ll ever feel better again and might even be afraid to get this diagnosis on their medical record. Many also feel worried that if other people know that they have this type of disorder that it might hurt them in their career aspirations, or that it may make them appear weak or unstable, so they quite often avoid any type of therapy or diagnosing. Choosing to ‘tough it out’ instead or use drugs & alcohol in order ‘blank out’ and try to ‘get by’.

As certified clinical hypnotherapists we don’t diagnose or judge you and any discussions we have with you are strictly confidential and if need arises we are willing to work with a medical/mental health practitioner for any additional help you may need that is not within our scope of practice. We only want to help you feel like yourself again. How do we do this?

Because your subconscious mind is very good at remembering the traumatic event through associative sensory memories of all the smells, sounds, sights, and sensations that were present at the time of your trauma, it can often cause a person to want to avoid anything similar that will bring on the traumatic memory again. Hypnotherapy will help you to:

1. Learn once again what is real and present and what is imagined, and a past memory as this is very important to help you with your daily normal functions in life.
2. Learning how to breathe again very calmly, deeply, and evenly is helpful towards encouraging your brain to know that you are safe now and there’s no more danger. Bringing you back to being CALM, Comfortable and in Control.
3. By using a hypnotic trance to bring on a progressive relaxation of your entire body and then using creative imagery to release all those negative emotions, memories, thoughts and feelings and allow you to feel as if you have locked them away somewhere safe, permitting you to let go of this heavy load you’ve been carrying around…causing you to feel lighter, refreshed, and more in the present moment once again.
4. Learn how to practice using mindfulness hypnosis towards helping to get past any emotional triggers by using deep breathing and picturing the word CALM being invisibly drawn in the middle of your forehead.
5. Helping to establish while in hypnosis that ‘feelings are not facts’ so that you can learn how to access the correct logic, reason, will power, a voice, decision making and superior judgement so that you can pull yourself out of those old associations that are linked within the subconscious mind about the trauma so that you can feel more balanced and clear once again.

By using hypnotherapy as a solution for getting relief from past trauma in your life you will find it quite helpful, easy for you to do, and even relaxing too. By using hypnosis techniques designed to help you to reframe your awareness away from the trauma towards comfort, safety, calmness and hope we can help you to regain your life back to being yourself again. If you are desiring to make this change in your life make an appointment today.