First, are you a first responder that experiences intense stress on a daily basis?
Secondly, are you a first responder that has trouble decompressing after working in a high conflict, high stress environment?
Is your marriage challenged as a result of your work stress?
First, trauma can take many forms. Do you wake up in the middle of the night with flashbacks and negative memories of sad events? Or, do you feel like you are depressed, withdrawn, and want help overcoming social anxiety? Have you been through some really big, intense events like sexual assault or verbal abuse? Also, do you want help becoming emotionally stable and vibrant? Our team of marriage and family therapist would be happy to help your family thrive. Studies show that therapy incorporating movement, breath work and mindfulness techniques lessen responses to stress. To build self-esteem and self-confidence, we offer you more than just traditional talk counseling. You can gain skills for thinking clearly and making healthy friends through a combination of talking and creative art, walking, and yoga.
Now, how do these techniques lower the body’s response to stress?
Anxiety is your body’s evolutionary response to danger. And, it makes sense, as our Neanderthal ancestors had to be able to understand and assess which situations would help them to survive. Think, survival of the fittest here. After stressful events, yoga therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling helps first responders with PTSD be calmer. Moving into the 21st century, our ancestors had triggers like flee or freeze in dangerous situations.
Family, adult, couples, and children’s yoga therapy for Loved ones of first responders with PTSD helps families bond, reconnect, and rebuild trust
First responders work daily in situations which most of us would gracefully bow out of. A situation can be putting out fires, or chasing after someone who may or may not have a gun. Or, pulling someone out of a car that is on fire. As behavioral neuroscientist, Stephen Porges, asserts in his Polyvagal Theory, the body has three ways of interpreting and responding to stress. To add, when in a place of balance, humans operate from an anxiety free, calm space of mind. In low stress, our bodies are healthy and thriving and free from disease.
To start, call or text 860-451-9364 to begin with a phone consultation for yoga therapy for first responders with PTSD.
What happens when you have a good stress management skills and what skills you can you learn from weekly trauma therapy?
As humans, we naturally want to be around and engage with others. But, we withdraw after traumatic events. After stressful events and chronic trauma, a person may develop a variety of symptoms. These PTSD symptoms may include: withdrawal, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, decreased or increased appetite, and eating disorders. Often times, high reactivity and anger results from trauma experiences. When out of balance, our bodies can choose to react to stress either by becoming overly reactive (mobilization) or shut off (immobilization). When mobilized, we can be heated and angry, resentful and reactive. Chronic pain from ailments and illnesses can lead to anxiety. When immobilized, we can be lethargic and disoriented. Also, living with PTSD, you may feel unmotivated and even depressed. When your body is under constant stress, the ability to clearly assess situations as safe or dangerous becomes hard. You can’t use your prefrontal cortex, the part of our body which makes decisions.
Do you find the part of you that regulates impulses and things clearly just stops sometimes. Or, do you find yourself making decisions out of fear or anger?
Naturally mood stabilizing, calming yoga therapy for first responders with PTSD
In general, emotional expression and self care are negated in American society. However, as Porges states, having the ability to both express our emotions when they occur can both help us to reduce and release the impact of stressful situations as well as enable us to better perceive the emotions of others. In other words, those who can both effectively communicate and connect with their emotions are able to be empathetic to the experiences of another.
It is easy to imagine, when we do not have an appropriate and positive way of expressing our emotions, we can choose either to shut out the world around us. Or, we can continually be set off and become irritated with the slightest inconvenience. Learning positive coping skills through counseling help people respond in healthy ways to stress. For instance, yoga therapy is a lifelong trauma therapy tool for managing flashbacks.
Maybe, trauma is a stress you experienced first hand. First responder communities promote a culture of toughness. At times, bisexual and homosexual men can feel alienated. Also, more emotionally expressive men can be looked down upon. To add, emotional expression and vulnerability are frowned upon. First responder communities have higher than average levels of stress and exposure to traumatic situations. Pair these circumstances with little to no access to tools which would enable the mind, body, and spirit to work through traumatic events. This ultimately becomes the recipe for an officer to become susceptible to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Holistic yoga therapy for first responders with PTSD – why?
As reported by the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (2006) formal police academy training for new police recruits focuses on average, about 700 hours on a combined training firearms and self defense. However, only about 8 hours on tools relating to conflict resolution. They need more gentleness and mindfulness. Further, frontline workers also face other situations, such as having to work a variety of hours with little to no rest. Also, first responders are away from friends and family on holidays. Therefore, compounding their ability to regulate with continual exposure to highly stressful and traumatic situations.
Lifelong skills for calmness, balance, and clear thinking through trauma sensitive yoga therapy for first responders with PTSD
Key components to maintaining emotional health and stability relate to good sleep hygiene, food, and loving relationships. And, with working late nights and long hours, romantic relationships can suffer. Wisdom Within Counseling offers marriage therapy for distant couples as well as child and adolescent counseling. We teach holistic coping tools in trauma therapy. For instance, being able to have close friends and family members with whom we can engage with socially. After trauma, a person may drink more alcohol and develop emotional instability. The way to be able to come back to balance, or homeostasis, from being either immobilized or mobilized, is to activate the body’s parasympathetic state. Calming your breathing enables you to rest and take in your emotions slowly and confidently. From holistic tools in trauma therapy, your therapist helps you clear your thoughts and feel sensations within your mind and body.
Porges (2001) asserts that the parasympathetic system is activated when, as social beings, humans take part in activities which promote, “motion, emotion, and communication” (Porges, 2001, p. 130). What exactly is Porges alluding to? In effect, Porges is stating that, in order to calm down from highly dysregulated emotional states, we must take part in activities that allow us to vocalize how we are feeling. Also, situations that allow you to move emotions through and out of your body are great. Therapy allows you to feel your emotions! Sounds easier said than done, right?
Have you tried a lot of talk therapy sessions? Still feeling empty and frustrated?
Well, our holistic and creative counselors help you develop self-esteem and self worth through art, mindfulness and yoga, and outdoor walking therapies by the beach. While talk therapy is highly effective at helping us to talk about our circumstances, it does not also allow us to be in touch with or embody our emotions. Embodying our emotions means understanding how our thoughts link to our emotions and how these thoughts and emotions link to somatic, or physical, implications in our body. Mindfulness interventions, such as Trauma Informed Yoga, with traditional talk therapy, are highly effective when treating traumatic stress disorder. Stress, for prolonged periods of time, leads to trauma, such as domestic violence victims and military veterans.
How exactly does Trauma Informed Yoga do this?
Quite simply, Trauma Informed Yoga works on the tenants put forth by Porges. Trauma Informed Yoga is a hatha based yoga practice which incorporates movement of the body, mindfulness meditation and breathwork. Practicing these modalities enables a present moment awareness. And, yoga therapy regulates your body’s internal systems, bringing your body back into a state of balance. To add, Trauma Informed Yoga is a coping tool for first responders. Also, yoga is a positive, holistic way to help reduce the number of diagnosed PTSD cases, as well as reduce other ailments and diseases, such as heart attacks and diabetes.
Our Wisdom Within Counseling therapists understand how to modify Trauma Informed Yoga to specific first responder communities.
Further, yoga therapists offer unique language in therapy sessions, as well as offer special poses for the first responder community. In a community plagued by such high levels of stress, building a safe environment in which first responders can connect is a speciality at Wisdom Within Counseling. We help first responders express their emotions, move their bodies and rest. Each therapist offers positive coping tools for PTSD that can reduce the impact that exposure to trauma for your mind and body.
