Specialties

Have you experienced trauma that is continuing to negatively impact you?  Do you find you struggle with upsetting emotions, memories and anxiety that won't go away?  Often times trauma reactions include exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, numbness, dissociation, confusion, physical arousal, and blunted affect.  If you are experiencing any of these reactions or are now ready to tackle traumas of the past or present, our specially trained therapists are here to help.

Brain Body therapists are specially trained in Brainspotting to help you heal from past or present trauma experiences.  

What is Trauma?

Emotional and psychological trauma is the result of extraordinarily stressful events that shatter your sense of security, making you feel helpless in a dangerous world. Psychological trauma can leave you struggling with upsetting emotions, memories, and anxiety that won't go away.

Most responses are normal in that they affect most survivors and are socially acceptable, psychologically effective, and self-limited.

Our bodies remember trauma and abuse — quite literally. They respond to new situations with strategies learned during moments that were terrifying or life-threatening. Our bodies remember, but memory is malleable. The therapeutic practice of somatics takes these facts — and their relation to each other — seriously.

Trauma often manifests physically as well as emotionally. Some common physical signs of trauma include paleness, lethargy, fatigue, poor concentration and a racing heartbeat. The victim may have anxiety or panic attacks and be unable to cope in certain circumstances.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) defines addiction as: "Addiction is a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. People with addiction use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences.  Prevention efforts and treatment approaches for addiction are generally as successful as those for other chronic diseases."

So what does this mean for you?  At Brain Body Therapy Group, we believe the connections between the brain and body are the key to helping a client gain the skills and healing necessary for sustained recovery and long term success.  

We use a combination of both psychoeducational and process approaches.  We utilize concepts from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT informed), Motivational Interviewing, Mindfulness and brain body based approaches such as Brainspotting to help you achieve the goals you set for yourself.

We fully believe you can heal and have a life of peace and freedom from the chains addiction places on you.

Do you feel down, empty, and hopeless most of the day, almost every day? Have you lost interest in your hobbies or being with friends and family? Are you having trouble sleeping, eating, and with daily functioning? If you have felt this way for a minimum of 2 weeks, you may have depression, a serious but treatable mood disorder. Depression (major depressive disorder or clinical depression) causes severe symptoms that impact how you feel, think, and handle daily activities, such as sleeping, eating, and working. Additional symptoms associated with depression include:

• Persistent sad, anxious, or empty mood
• Feelings of hopelessness
• Irritability
• Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness
• Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities
• Decreased energy or fatigue
• Moving or talking more slowly
• Feeling restless or having trouble sitting still
• Difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions
• Difficulty sleeping, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping
• Appetite and/or weight changes
• Thoughts of death or suicide, or suicide attempts
• Aches or pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive problems without a clear physical cause and/or that do not ease even with treatment

If this sounds familiar to you, we can help. Depression is highly treatable and our clinicians are experts at utilizing a variety of treatment modalities to help begin to heal the symptoms of depression. We encourage you to take the first step in finding a therapist that can help you understand and work through the underlying causes of depression as well as develop coping strategies to deal with the symptoms.

Do you have trouble sleeping or lie awake at night worrying? Do you often feel overwhelmed? Are you having difficulties concentrating and focusing? If this sounds familiar, we can help.

Symptoms often associated with an anxiety disorder include:

• Excessive worry
• Panic attacks
• Fatigue
• Irritability or restlessness
• Lack of concentration
• Unwanted thoughts or trouble focusing
• Fear or severe anxiety
• Obsessive thoughts or compulsive behaviors

If you identify with multiple symptoms you may have an anxiety disorder.  Our clinicians utilize many treatment modalities to help heal your anxiety symptoms. Through treatment you can learn mindfulness and relaxation techniques, change thinking patterns and identify the root cause of your anxiety symptoms

If you are suffering from symptoms of anxiety we encourage you to reach out to set up an appointment.

Do you struggle to control your anger? Is your anger impacting important aspects of your life? Anger is a normal, human emotion. However, when we lose control of our anger it can become destructive and cause serious problems. This may range from problems at work, to your personal relationships, as well as impacting the overall quality of your life. Anger may make you feel out of control. If you feel this way, we encourage you to reach out to our practice. Our therapists use a variety of methods to help clients work toward improved anger management skills. The goal of anger management is to reduce both your emotional feelings and the physiological arousal that anger causes. Though you can't get rid of, or avoid, the things or the people that enrage you, we can help you can learn to control your reactions.

Relationships include romantic, family, and general interactions. Many factors come into play depending on the relationship which can cause turmoil at times. Often issues are found around trust, money, sex, and communication. These issues among others can be explored with a therapist individually or with all, or some, who are involved in the relationship. 

Relationships can be affected by events in changes in life such as:

• extended absence
• adding members to the dynamic (ex. new baby)
• marriage
• divorce
• moving
• career changes
• new season of life (ex. midlife, menopause)

Do you feel that differences with others often lead to conflict? Sometimes when differences arise a person can get defensive and go into fight mode. Fear drives us into conflict which can then lead to increased anxiety which shows up as attempt to control, judgement, or anger. For some, this is a common theme when differences show up and therapy to explore that could help a person handle conflict more easily. 

Conflict can also happen internally and you may notice that when dealing with a moral dilemma or making a decision. Therapy can allow you to gain skills of conflict resolution, lessen judgement, and open yourself up to differences that will continue to happen in your life and relationships.

Life transitions are periods of your life when many changes are occurring. This could be an addition in your family, a loss of someone, new or loss of a job, a move among many other types of changes in life. There are different ways you can choose to navigate those changes as they happen. These transitions can bring feelings of:

• sadness
• grief
• fear
• anger
• lonliness
• numbness

The stress of the transitions could lead to increased anxiety or depressive symptoms. With helpful coping skills, the impact of these emotions can be managed and you can find peace in the midst of the changes.

We have therapist here who will help you learn how to navigate these transitions and manage the stress that may come with the changes.