Trauma & Addiction
Trauma
Trauma in the experienced in many ways, you can be experience by witnessing the event or experiencing the events. Trauma can come from one-time single event (Big T) or an on-going situation (Little T).
Examples of trauma can be as follows:
Acts of war
Death of someone close to you
Divorce / Separation
Victim of violent crime
School shootings
Physical or emotional assault
Rape
Severe injury or illness
Natural disasters
Traffic accident
People may experience on going traumatic events causing physical and psychological harm.
Bullying at school
Domestic violence
Ongoing childhood abuse or neglect
Social, religious, political persecution
Living as a refugee / detainee
There are physical symptoms of trauma, which are a natural human responses, people can need help to cope with what’s happened.
Racing heartbeatDizziness
Difficulty concentrating
Nausea problems eating
Sweating
Hypervigilance
Psychological symptoms can include:
Feeling disoriented and confused
Difficulty speaking about the event
Can’t describe what you’re feeling
Emotionally withdrawn
Angry outburst
Denial
Fatigue or lethargy
Concepts borrowed from: Dr. Peter Levine & Dr Bessel Van der Kolk
At Jirvana workshops, we work to help you heal your trauma, lessen the impact they have on your life, change your beliefs systems about yourself and what happened to you, gain your power back. Jirvana can be a start to a new life, full of possibility, creativity, and growth. We offer individuals and couples weekends and weekly groups, where people are given space to do the work they need to and create something new for themselves. I also offer EMDR therapy in my private practice.
Addiction
One of the focal points of Jirvana and my practice is the disease of addiction. Addictions come in many shapes and sizes. For over 33 years I have been dealing with the disease of addiction, the first 21 years in recovery from my own addictions, the last decade as a therapist, helping others face and work to heal from their addictions.
At Jirvana workshops and in my private practice, I can help with recovery from addictions. My focus is on addictions like drugs and alcohol, sex addiction, and codependency. I work with adolescence, young adults and adults. Both the addict themselves and the families.
Often times, when we look under addiction what we find is that we need to deal with unresolved trauma. Often times we find addictions are covering up feelings that were afraid to face, and things that we have to deal with that have been a denial about. We are often coming out of very toxic situations with friends and family.
Jirvana workshops, and my private practice is designed to help individuals and their families works through the difficult issues they need to address in-order to step into a life of recovery and freedom from the bondage of addiction.