We are a primary trauma and mental health treatment in Los Angeles. We are one of the few programs in Los Angeles County that offer expertise and focus on trauma treatment. Trauma can manifest itself in many different kinds of symptoms. It can show itself as addiction, hypertension, nightmares, fatigue, depression, anxiety and so many other different ways. We have a wide variety of trauma informed therapies to help someone improve their mental health. Many of these treatments help people to develop their inner resources, forging new neuronal pathways that increase their natural resiliency. In this blog, we’ll go over some symptoms that mental health treatment can help with, as well as how we go about doing so.
Trauma and Beyond ® Mental Health Treatment in Los Angeles
Depression is a symptom that many people have. In our modern day life, more people than ever suffer from depression. The word “depression” gets used quite a bit, but people aren’t always certain exactly what it means. At the Trauma and Beyond Center ®, we treat those who feel sorrowful and sad constantly, often dealing with feeling alone, lost and isolated on a consistent basis. Beyond simply having a negative sense of one’s self (a sign of depression) depression can also be having a negative sense of the surrounding world and even the future.
At Trauma and Beyond Center ® we can help you to break out of this depressive cycle that may be interfering with enjoying life events that used to be pleasurable. Our team works with you to develop a sense of agency, which can break the depressive cycle that you may feel trapped in. In time, that sense of hopelessness can dissipate, leaving you prepared to go into the world on your own terms.
Overcoming Negative Responses
So many of the symptoms that plague our lives are a response to traumas from the past. For many of us, our nervous system gets thrown out of balance. This can cause us to develop protective strategies that, no longer protect us. That includes drinking alcohol to excess, using drugs and other substances, disassociating, and trying to numb our feelings, avoiding social situations or reminders of past trauma, overworking, overeating and many other unhealthy behaviors. Those don’t really help, they just make things worse. We can work with you to help you find healthier ways to deal with the discomfort and dysregulation caused by trauma.
Sometimes, people find more direct ways to harm themselves as a response to trauma. Self-harm is a genuine problem, causing wounds to show others that they’re in pain. Too often, this is thought of simply as an “attention-grabbing tactic,” while it usually isn’t that. Instead, by causing themselves physical pain, a person is working to alleviate psychic pain. As we said in the last paragraph, numbing is how many people cope. Numbing can be a result of the chemicals the body releases when a person harms themselves. Instead, we work with you to develop positive ways to release your pain.
Methods of Treatment
Here at the Trauma and Beyond Center ®, we have a variety of ways to help you to improve and strengthen your mental health. We work with the whole person, mind, body and emotions. This can be through somatic approaches: the Traumatic Resiliency Method, Somatic Experiencing, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, NARM and others are approaches that work both top down and bottom up. Additionally,expressive therapies, using images, words, pictures, poems or even songs can be effective in healing trauma. For many a gradual approach, which helps you to stay safe without talking about the trauma directly, is the best approach. Others need to talk about their trauma but even then, our goal is to help you at a pace that will not be retraumatizing. A certified trauma professional from our facility will sit down with you to figure out the best way forward.
A Personalized Plan
Trauma experiences can be unique to each person and we don’t all respond in the same way to traumatic events. Lifetime experiences affect a person’s response system and our ability to deal with trauma. At Trauma and Beyond ® we believe that each client needs an individualized program that takes into account each person unique history and experiences.
What is a traumatic event for one person may not be for another. Indeed, each person’s trauma (which causes their symptoms) is unique in its own way. That means that it must be treated in a unique fashion. At Trauma and Beyond Center Psychological Center ® we put together a plan just for you. Your treatment will be exactly that: your treatment. We draw from a wide variety of trauma informed modalites putting together a plan individualized for you.
When you’re suffering with depression, anxiety and other symptoms or abusing drugs and alcohol to help cope, it’s natural to feel like there’s no way to overcome this distress. Maybe you’ve tried in the past and given up, or perhaps you just don’t think there’s any point in trying. However, there is hope. There is a way to overcome trauma and live the life that you want to live. Please call us for a complementary phone consultation. Simply call the Trauma and Beyond Center ® at (818) 651-0725. There, you’ll talk to one of our compassionate and caring team members.
