• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Mindful Psychology Associates

Licensed Clinical Psychologists in Evanston, Illinois

  • Home
  • Therapy Services
    • College Student Mental Health
    • Telehealth, Teletherapy
    • Group Therapy
      • Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO-DBT)
      • Mood and Anxiety Group
    • Eating Disorders
    • Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy
    • Trauma
    • LGBTQIA+ Community
    • Substance Use Disorders
    • Adolescent Therapy
    • Professional Consultation
  • Evanston Therapists
    • Dr. Jennifer Contarino Panning, Evanston Psychologist
    • Dr. Jena Catania, Evanston Staff Therapist
    • Dr. Michelle Gebhardt, Evanston Psychologist
    • Dr. Amanda (Snell) Stagg, Evanston Psychologist, Coordinator of Training
    • Dr. Ethan Stark, Evanston Therapist
    • Briyanna Bullock, Evanston Staff Therapist
    • Dr. Brittany Findlan, Evanston Staff Therapist
    • Amy Bailey, Evanston Counselor
    • Alayni Frizzell, Evanston Counselor
    • Maureen Murray, Evanston Counselor
    • Amara Tanweer, Evanston Therapist
    • Dr. Michelle Gesing Psy.D., Evanston Psychologist
  • Programs
    • Speaking
    • Training
    • Community Outreach
  • For Professionals
    • Corporate Mental Wellness
    • Professional Referrals
    • Careers in Psychotherapy
  • About
    • For Patients
    • FAQ
    • Location
    • Diversity and Inclusion
    • Media
    • Evanston Psychologist Office Gallery
    • Privacy Policy
  • Blog/News
  • Contact

Trauma

trauma treatment

What is Trauma?

Individuals can experience and define trauma differently. An experience which may be traumatic for one person may or may not be experienced similarly by another. Trauma can be thought of any experience that overwhelms one’s capacity to cope.

While everyone’s experience is unique, there are some common symptoms or experiences individuals may have after going through or witnessing something traumatic such as: intrusive thoughts, nightmares, flashbacks and intense or prolonged emotional or physiological distress, especially after coming into contact with reminders of the traumatic experience. Individuals may also actively try to avoid things or places that remind them of the experience or thoughts and feelings associated with it.

Past experiences often help to shape and form our present moment experiences. When one’s history has contained painful, terrifying, hurtful, unsafe, and/or threatening experiences, these memories can continue to impact your present experience in a variety of ways including difficulty in school, work, or relationships. It is also common for people who have experienced trauma to also have other mental health or medical concerns. Trauma-focused therapy works with one’s relationship to these experiences in order to reduce their impact on an individual’s present and future experience.

Getting Help Healing Trauma

At Mindful Psychology Associates, our therapists are committed to helping you understand how your experiences impact your functioning and day-to-day experiences. We will work together to build a supportive space where you can begin to validate your experience and explore how to support the impact your past experiences are having on the present. After you have worked to build a space in therapy where you feel seen and heard, your therapist will work with you to develop tools to help support the impact of these experiences and develop a plan to help move you towards your goals.

Some of our therapists have additional specialized training or certification in somatic-based approaches to healing from trauma:

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is one method of trauma-focused therapy. The World Health Organization and the American Psychiatric Association consider it to be a top-tier trauma intervention. During EMDR a client brings to mind painful memories and the therapist facilitates processing these memories through bilateral stimulation of the client’s brain. This is done through eye movements, alternating tones, and/or physical stimulation on alternating sides of the body. While it is not fully known as to why this process facilitates an adaptive change to painful past experience, studies have consistently demonstrated clinically significant reduction in distress among clients with trauma. (See “What is EMDR?,” 2020.)

Somatic Experiencing® (SE)®
Somatic Experiencing® (SE) is body-mind oriented approach to healing trauma and other stress disorders which focuses on increasing resiliency. It focuses on the underlying dysregulation in one’s nervous system that causes or maintains symptoms and offers this framework by assessing where a person might be “stuck” in the fight, flight, or freeze responses.

The therapist guides the individual gently through SE tools and exercises to resolve these physiological states toward completing self-protective motor responses and discharging bound-up energy in order to address the root cause of trauma symptoms. SE gently guides individuals to increase their tolerance for difficult body sensations and emotions with the aim of accessing the body memories, not necessarily the “story.” So, trauma-focused SE work means you do not have to verbally process your trauma story if you are not ready or wish not to. (See “What is Somatic Experiencing®?,” 2020.)

Before Footer

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Get in Touch

phone   GENERAL INQUIRIES
Please use our CONTACT FORM.

phone   SCHEDULE YOUR FIRST SESSION
SCHEDULING INQUIRIES FORM.

phone   OR, call us at 847-864-0600.

Footer

Local therapist friends! Come join us this Friday Local therapist friends! Come join us this Friday morning in our Evanston office for networking and as we welcome Rachel Moore who will he discussing how meditation can make divorce less terrible. Free but please RSVP! #mindfulpsychologyevanston #mindfulpsychologyassociates
8 more MPA staff completed the Basic Accelerated R 8 more MPA staff completed the Basic Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) training this week! ART is a phenomenal brief treatment model for trauma, phobias, sleeping issues, self esteem and more!  Congrats to Michelle, Michelle, Amanda, Alayni, Briyanna, Amy, Jena, and Brittany and special thanks to our trainer Trisha Jarnigan and MPA founder Jennifer Panning for assisting! Please contact us if you are interested in scheduling an ART session or learning more about this!  #mindfulpsychologyevanston #mindfulpsychologyassociates #evanston #acceleratedresolutiontherapy #traumarecovery #psychologistsofinstagram #chicagotherapy #eyemovements
In person event! Join @familyactionnetwork as the In person event!  Join @familyactionnetwork as they welcome author and therapist @nedratawwab who will be discussing her new book about family drama.  This should be an informative and heartfelt evening, as always free and open to the public! 7pm, March 13 at Evanston Township High School. Hope to see you there! Mindful Psychology Associates is a proud sponsor of FAN.  #mindfulpsychologyevanston #mindfulpsychologyassociates #familyactionnetwork #evanston #familydrama
It’s National Eating Disorder Awareness Week! Th It’s National Eating Disorder Awareness Week! Thank you @equiphealth and @projectheal for this helpful graphic describing how eating disorders can be so difficult to treat and why many don’t get help until symptoms have progressed. At Mindful Psychology Associates, we have several eating disorder specialists who are experienced in treating the whole spectrum of eating disorders and disordered eating, and we work collaboratively with physicians, dieticians, and psychiatrists who are also trained to work within a collaborative treatment team. Help is available!  Reposted using @withregram  #mindfulpsychologyassociates #mindfulpsychologyevanston #eatingdisorderawareness #eatingdisorderawarenessweek #eatingdisorderhelp #psychologistsofinstagram
Load More... Follow on Instagram
  • Home
  • About
  • Location
  • Sitemap
  • Contact

Copyright © 2023 Mindful Psychology Associates, Evanston, IL | Evanston Psychologists | Evanston Therapists | website by Grotto Communications