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The Ability to T H R I V E is within you!

The brain changes according to

the trauma we experience. The brain also has the capacity to change according to the

treatment received for PTSD.

 

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The amygdala, deep inside the temporal lobe [in the brain], picks up on potential threats in the environment. This is normally very adaptive, but in PTSD sufferers, the amygdala is hyperactive. “The amygdala is the first responder to potentially threatening external stimuli,” Shin says. “It can trigger the fight or flight [or freeze] survival response.” ~ Gail Bambrick

The study of neurobiology has grown exponentially in recent years, as has the study of what happens in the brains of persons with PTSD.

Brain Change Therapy!

Neurobiology tells us that our bodies cannot stay in a constant state of alarm. When the body’s demand for the stress hormone norepinephrine (typical in high arousal states) is not met, chronic stress results in a decrease in norepinephrine—a state that is associated with the behavioral changes in learned helplessness. (Petty, Kramer, Wilson, & Chae, 1993). We, as humans, simply cannot LIVE in a forever high-alert state. The hyperarousal becomes another unpleasant state--depression. Brain change therapy includes retraining the brain from hyperarousal to a calmer state. This can be accomplished with hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy consists of multiple hypnotic inductions.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder arises out of exposure to extreme traumatic events that involve actual or threatened death or serious injury and elicit a sense of horror in a person. There are two types. Type I is someone who experienced a specific event, and Type II is someone who has been exposed to chronic, ongoing or numerous traumas. Some distressing symptoms you might be experiencing are:

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  • Intrusive memories of trauma

  • Dreams about the trauma

  • Behaviors that re-enact the trauma

  • Avoidance of reminders of the trauma

  • Intense distress at reminders of trauma

  • Feelings of unreality regarding the      trauma

  • Memory problems related to the  trauma

  • A sense of foreshortened future

  • Sleep problems

  • Irritability

  • A constant state of alert-alarm state

  • Hypervigilence for danger

  • Exaggerated started response

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Amygdala (in red)

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