Support for PTSD and Trauma in Arlington, Virginia
Life inevitably brings challenges, and at times, those challenges can feel overwhelming. While stress is a normal part of life, certain experiences can leave a deeper impact—one that doesn’t simply fade with time.
So how do you know if you’re dealing with temporary stress or something more lasting, like trauma? Although the symptoms can overlap, understanding the difference is an essential first step toward healing.
Unresolved trauma can significantly affect both your emotional and physical well-being. Often, its effects surface gradually, showing up in unexpected ways that disrupt your daily life, relationships, and sense of peace.
If you’re in Arlington, Virginia, and suspect you may be struggling with trauma or PTSD, know that you’re not alone—and support is available. In this post, we’ll explore what trauma is, how it shows up, and how you can begin the path to recovery.
What Exactly IS Trauma?
While the term trauma was once primarily associated with soldiers returning from war, our understanding of it has evolved significantly. Today, trauma refers to any emotional or psychological injury resulting from a deeply distressing or overwhelming experience.
Trauma occurs when your usual coping mechanisms are overwhelmed, leaving you with an intense sense of fear, helplessness, or vulnerability. While it often stems from events that threaten your safety or well-being, trauma can also arise from situations that make you feel isolated, powerless, or deeply shaken—even if the experience doesn’t seem “severe” on the surface.
Ultimately, it’s not just the event itself that defines trauma, but how you experienced and internalized it.
What Situations Count as ‘Traumatic’?
Traumatic events are typically characterized by intense fear, helplessness, horror, or a threat to one’s physical or emotional well-being. These experiences can be sudden and short-lived, or they may unfold over time, as seen in cases of prolonged abuse or neglect.
Single-Event Trauma:
These are often unexpected, acute incidents that can either be directly experienced or witnessed:
Car accident
Severe injury
A violent attack
Sexual assault
Natural disasters (e.g., floods, wildfires, tornadoes)
Witnessing a shooting or stabbing
Sudden death of a loved one
Severe illness or hospitalization
Chronic or Ongoing Trauma:
Unlike single events, these experiences are persistent and often leave little opportunity to process or recover emotionally:
Domestic violence or abuse
Childhood abuse or neglect
Witnessing ongoing abuse of a parent or caregiver
Living in a war zone
Chronic illness
Exposure to community or neighborhood violence
Long-term poverty, starvation, or homelessness
Everyone processes trauma differently, and no two experiences are exactly alike. What matters most is how the experience impacted you.
How Do I Know If I Have Trauma?
While all of us react to stress and pain in different ways, there are a few signs you may be suffering from trauma, or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
If you’ve experienced something you believe is traumatic and you’re wondering to yourself, do I have trauma? Keep these signs and symptoms in your back pocket so you can get professional help as soon as you see them arise:
Emotional / Psychological Symptoms Of Trauma:
Anxiety or fear
Guilt or shame
Shock or denial
Confusion
Difficulty concentrating on daily tasks
Anger or irritability
Mood swings
Withdrawal from others
Isolation
Feeling sad, hopeless, or depressed
A general of feeling of numbness or disconnect from the world
Physical Symptoms of Trauma:
Nightmares
Flashbacks
Insomnia
Muscle tension
Being easily frightened or startled
Feeling on edge
Fast paced heartbeat
Unexplained aches and pains
While many symptoms of trauma gradually decrease overtime, this isn’t the case for everyone. As you begin to process the traumatic event you may find your symptoms become even worse and you feel overwhelmed in your ability to cope with them. If you feel as though you simply can't move on from a traumatic event, you may be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. This is when finding PTSD counseling is imperative.
Trauma and PTSD Therapy in Arlington, Virginia:
If you’re a resident of Arlington, or you live in surrounding cities, we’ve got you covered. There are a few different methods used to help guide you in working through your trauma, as well as decreasing your symptoms of PTSD. There are a few methods used when seeking therapy for your trauma:
EMDR Therapy: Otherwise known as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, this form of therapy was designed to help people heal from the emotional damage caused by a traumatic event simply using their own bodies. Research believes rapid eye movement is linked to a brain process uncovered during REM sleep - enabling a person to free themselves from the hold in which painful memories have on them. As your therapist begins to talk to you about your trauma, they’ll direct you in a series of eye tracking movements. Doing so enables your brain to reprocess and work through traumatic events.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: This is one of the most commonly used techniques in therapy and has been successful in helping patients with a variety of mental illnesses. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) uses talking to help a therapist identify any negative thinking patterns and irrational thoughts linked to a traumatic event. When those unhelpful, toxic thoughts arise, CBT aims to confront them and redirect them into a more positive light. Not only does CBT help rewire the way your brain perceives your trauma, you’ll learn valuable coping skills and stress management tips to carry with you for the rest of your life.
Let Us Help You Let Go Of Your Trauma:
Healing from trauma takes time. Especially if this trauma has been chronic, or repressed for years. Unresolved trauma can quickly take a toll on your mental health resulting in anger, mood swings, irritability and depression as well as your physical health manifesting as insomnia, nightmares or flashbacks.
If you feel as though time has passed since your traumatic event, yet your symptoms are unrelenting - or even getting worse, PTSD counseling should be your next step.
Your trauma has already stolen enough from your life, let us help you let go of your trauma so you can begin your healing process here.
If you recognized the symptoms of trauma listed above then it’s time to take action. As an EMDR therapist, I can guide you as you invest in yourself and your mental health. In order to get started in Individual Counseling follow these steps.
Reach out to speak with an online therapist in Arlington, VA
Schedule your first appointment here
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