Trauma can have a devastating and lasting effect on the quality of a person's life. We provide psychological assessment and treatment services for adults, children, and teens who have symptoms resulting from a traumatic life event or an accumulation of disturbing experiences in which the individual finds it difficult to cope and function.
Typical traumatic events include motor vehicle accidents (MVA), workplace accidents, sexual abuse and rape, criminal victimization, childhood abuse of many forms, sudden loss, torture, and war.
Motor Vehicle Accidents (MVA)
Many victims of automobile accidents suffer at the result of the accidents. They might find it difficult to manage their thoughts, feelings, mood, and behaviour following a collision. They may often experience shook-up, agitated, anxious, depressed, numb, or in a generalized state of uneasiness. Many victims also report problems with memory, attention, and concentration, and complain that they are forgetful or internally preoccupied, fearful, and phobic. Most often, they avoid or withdraw from people, and stop doing many activities they once enjoyed before the accident. Many victims also report disturbing images, dreams, nightmares, and flashbacks of the events and report having trouble sleeping. In these situations, they need a comprehensive and holistic therapy to help them through this difficult time. The holistic treatment options include not only physical rehabilitation but also the psychological, social and emotional support.
The Automobile Insurance Providers pay for the treatment by law. You do not need a referral from your doctor, physiotherapist, or chiropractor. All you have to do is call our office and we will obtain the approval to see you.
Acute Stress and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Acute stress and posttraumatic stress disorders develop in response to a traumatic life event or cumulative events and include the following predominant symptoms:
- Recurrent distressing or upsetting thoughts, perceptions, visions, images, and dreams of the event
- Flashbacks or nightmares of what previously happened
- Fearfulness, terror, or unsettling affect
- Persistent feelings of being unsafe or in danger
- Feeling or acting as if the traumatic event is still occurring or is recurring
- Hyperarousal (e.g., increased restlessness, agitation, sleep disturbance, exaggerated startle response)
- Persistent anxiety and panic feelings
- Avoidance of situations that remind one of the trauma
- Recurrent anger, mood swings, and irritability.
Read more about acute stress reaction at:
Complex Trauma or Disorder of Extreme Stress
Complex cumulative trauma, also known as complex PTSD or disorder of extreme stress, is a severely pronounced condition that can develop in response to repeated or chronic traumatic events such as prolonged physical and/or sexual abuse in childhood. It is usually associated with both posttraumatic stress disorder and clinical depression as well as concurrent difficulties in regulating emotions, mood, self-experience, relationship and family disturbance, and the ability to work and function. Common symptoms include:
- Inability to regulate emotions
- Impulsiveness, exaggerated fear, and not feeling safe
- Altered states of consciousness and perception
- Memory loss, amnesia, or not being able to remember childhood events
- Transient dissociative episodes and depersonalization
- Disturbances in self-perception and identity
- Depression, anxiety, and panic attacks
- Disturbances in interpersonal relationships
- Somatic complaints and preoccupations(e.g., unexplained physical or medical symptoms)
- Phobias and hypochondriasis
- Extreme sensitivity to noise or anything that induces fear or feelings of unsafety
- Loss of personal meaning, chronic despair, apathy, or hopelessness.