Trauma therapy in Manhattan, New York
You are not the worst thing that has happened to you
Do you find yourself afraid of intimacy? Find yourself getting angry at people you don't mean to? Do you struggle to maintain focus on a single thing for a long time? You might be struggling with a trauma response
You are more than your trauma
When a traumatic event occurs, it ruptures your sense of self and understanding of the world. Trauma causes time to stop flowing as usual and invites you to form an identity around and in that trauma. It can feel like you are no longer you but just a traumatized person. Trauma therapy and PTSD treatment are all about processing that trauma, integrating it into who you are, and growing beyond it. Don't let your trauma become the most important thing about you. ​​
Because trauma is so personal, it can be hard for even family and friends to understand. People can make you feel like you are overreacting or that you just need to 'toughen up.' It isn't easy to feel afraid every time you start to feel close to someone, or to feel like your body isn't yours somehow. But trauma is not your fault. Trust takes time and unlearning hypervigilance and a natural fear response is difficult. But with a trauma therapist, you can become the version of you you want to be. ​ ​
“Trauma is not what happens to you; trauma is what happens inside of you as a result of what happens to you.” —Gabor Maté
Trauma and PTSD
Trauma overwhelms the minds normal processing and interrupts the normal way sensory information is stored. This is why memories of traumatic events are often fragmented or fixed on a particular object or sound or feeling. That is, in our normal lives, we integrate, visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, proprioceptive, etc. inputs into a coherent sense of self and the world without thinking. Traumatic experiences interrupt that integration causing the event to feel permanent and the person to feel stuck in that moment.
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Traumas feel terrible and when they remain unprocessed and unintegrated, can progress into PTSD. PTSD is a far more severe and persistent condition characterized, in part, by disproportionate emotional responses to events, self-destructive behavior, and extreme difficulty with sleep and concentration. PTSD can be truly debilitating, interfering with work, preventing relationships from forming, and causing extreme stress responses.
You are not alone
Data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication revealed that in 2001-2003 roughly 4% of all adults and 5% of all adolescents met symptom criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder each year. The percentage number can be misleading: that is about 13 million people in the United States have PTSD in any given year.
As with depression and anxiety, rates of PTSD are higher among adolescents and young adults. As of 2018, rates of PTSD in college students was roughly similar to the national average (again, around 4%), but it jumped to 7.5% between 2021-2022. This jump is particularly worrisome as even subclinical levels of post-traumatic stress (PTSS) can interfere with functioning across almost all measures (e.g., academic, social, emotional, etc).
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Women have higher rates of trauma as well. Lifetime prevalences are around 6% for men and 8% for women. As women are unfortunately the target of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, the higher prevalence of trauma in women is unfortunately not surprising. Pregnancy, giving birth, and motherhood also contribute to the increase. According to one prominent study, 45% of new mothers reported birth trauma which can re-traumatize women who are survivors of sexual abuse.
Is trauma therapy in Manhattan right for you?
Trauma and PTSD manifest in people in very different ways. Often, the symptoms of PTSD are mistaken for other issues including ADHD, anxiety, or depression. Therapy for trauma might be right for you if you:
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fear of intimacy or closeness
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have intrusive thoughts or nightmares
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avoid certain people, places, or situations that remind you of the trauma
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are chronically anxious
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have low self-esteem or feelings of guilt
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are quick to irritability
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have difficulty concentrating or struggle to stay on task
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Trauma often encourages unhealthy behaviors. In order to suppress painful feelings, many people turn to substance use, risky or intense sexual experiences, binge eating or fasting, and even technology addictions. People often get very caught up attempting to resolve these issues instead of tackling the trauma at its root.
Trauma therapy and PTSD treatment in Manhattan
Therapy for trauma and therapy for PTSD are remarkably effective. A large number of systematic and meta-analytic studies attest to the efficacy of psychotherapy for PTSD and, crucially, that treatment has long-term effects. This seems to hold true for particularly affected groups as well. One recent meta-analysis found that trauma-focused therapies for new mothers “are consistently found to be effective for ameliorating PTSD symptoms” as well as “reducing PTSD symptom severity." In fact, research suggests that therapy for trauma is more effective than pharmacological treatments.
