PTSD Treatment
Understanding Trauma’s Role and Our Treatment Approach
Learn more about PTSD, its relationship with trauma, and Khiron Clinics’ novel approach to treating it. If you are struggling with persistent fear, flashbacks, or difficulty functioning in daily life, you may be suffering from PTSD. We are here to help.
At Khiron clinics, we see mental health issues as manifestations of unresolved trauma that leads to a dysregulated nervous system.
Understanding the Complex Nature of Trauma and PTSD
Although many believe that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition primarily caused by catastrophic disasters or combat experiences, it is important to understand that trauma is much more common and varied than this. Trauma can stem from any experience that causes overwhelming stress, leading to a physical response where we ‘freeze,’ feeling unable to overcome the situation. This ‘frozen’ material can often be stored from childhood and triggered later in life by new stressors such as bereavement, a break-up, a car accident, or redundancy.
“Trauma is perhaps the most avoided, ignored, belittled, denied, misunderstood, and untreated cause of human suffering.”
Dr Peter Levine
“Trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you.”
Gabor Maté
Trauma has long been misunderstood as we have struggled to define and explain its complex effects on the body and mind. Many think of trauma as a distressing and memorable event, an unforgettable moment etched into our brains. However, trauma is not just an event or experience; it is how the body responds to a single event or multiple experiences. Because trauma is rooted in the body’s unconscious response, it is not actually necessary to remember the traumatic event for it to have an impact.
At Khiron Clinics we recognise that trauma is rooted in the unfinished biological response to a previously stressful, or threatening incident that leaves a residual disturbance in the body. As a result, the body struggles to reset and does not return to a state of balance. This means that the body’s response system becomes hyper-sensitive to future threats. Over time, this heightened sensitivity can overwhelm the body, changing our ability to handle stress. This can lead to an imbalance in how the body functions, affecting overall health. This is what we refer to as dysregulation.
“Traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies: The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort.”
Dr Bessel Van Der Kolk
What is PTSD?
Over the years PTSD has had many other names, including shell shock after World War I and combat fatigue after World War II. However, PTSD doesn’t just occur in war veterans. It is a psychiatric disorder that can happen to anyone of any nationality, culture, age or ethnicity. PTSD can even affect those who have been indirectly exposed to something traumatic. For example, PTSD can occur in a family member who learns of the violent death of someone else in the family.
PTSD can cause intense, distressing thoughts and feelings that relate to a person’s experiences of trauma well after the event is over. One may have flashbacks or nightmares, feel depressed, extremely angry, scared, or numb, and may feel disconnected from the world and their loved ones.
Trauma activates the primitive part of your brain that is all about survival and instincts. This affects the brain’s memory system, causing memories of the event to be stored in fragmented and disorganised ways. Emotions and physical sensations associated with the trauma can also become stuck in our bodies, leading to symptoms like hypervigilance, flashbacks, and emotional numbness. Trauma can affect how we feel, think, and relate to others, even long after the event has occurred, as the body continues to react as if we are still in danger.
To understand more about the nervous system’s role in trauma, explore our founder Benjamin Fry’s book, The Invisible Lion, here.
The Unfinished Response to Threat
When we face imminent threat or stress, the body is readied for fight or flight. A host of hormones are released and our physiology temporarily changes – pupils dilate, blood flow is directed to large muscle groups and heart rate increases. Adrenaline and energy are pulsing through our bodies so we can respond quickly and powerfully. However, in some situations, we can neither fight, nor flee, and instead, we freeze. This is unconscious, and also acts as a protective response – pain is often reduced, the body is able to conserve energy and potentially hide, and many people may dissociate, often described as ‘checking out’ or ‘leaving their bodies’. While this may be protective at the time, the energy generated for action becomes frozen in the body, with the threat response remaining ‘unfinished’. Post-traumatic stress is the energy trapped in the body from this unfinished response.
Effects of PTSD
Trauma can change how we perceive and interpret the world in many ways. This alteration can cause neutral, harmless sensory stimulation to be interpreted as painful or threatening by the brain. People may find themselves actively avoiding any situation or person which has a connection to the trauma in order to keep themselves feeling safe. The link to the traumatic experience might not be immediately obvious; it could be a smell, sound, feeling or internal emotion that the brain recognises as related to the trauma in some way. This is a signal to respond to as if we are again in the same deeply overwhelming situation.
People with PTSD can feel as though they are losing their way in the world. Their bodies continue to live in an internal environment of the trauma. We are all biologically and neurologically programmed to deal with emergencies, but PTSD causes frozen memory to be stored at a sensory level, in the body.
At Khiron Clinics we look at symptoms as memories; procedural memories which have impacted and affected the body and generated an imbalance which in turn causes maladaptive behaviors and manifestations.
What Causes Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
PTSD can occur when we experience something stressful once, or over a period of time, that overloads our capacity to cope. It is effectively something or someone that was incredibly stressful to our nervous system.
- Physical Abuse
- Emotional Abuse
- Sexual Abuse
- Emotional or Physical Neglect
- Domestic Violence
- Assault
- Mugging or Robbery
- Witnessing Violence
- Death of a Loved One
- Relationship Breakdown
- Severe Illness or Injury
- Surgical Procedures
- Loss of Employment
- Workplace Harassment
- School Bullying
- Natural Disasters
- Car, Plane, and Boat Accidents
- Combat Trauma
- Kidnapping or Hostage Situations
- Refugee Experiences
- Terrorism
When it comes to the causes of trauma, and the reactivation of the trauma response through triggers, perceived threat plays a crucial role. We create and recreate danger in our minds, and the perception of danger can trigger the same biological stress response, making the list of potential causes of trauma endless.
Treatment for PTSD at Khiron Clinics
Our innovative treatment programmes are delivered by clinicians who are informed, trained and supervised by some of the world’s top trauma experts including Dr Bessel Van Der Kolk, Dr Janina Fisher, Dr Stephen Porges, Deb Dana, Dr Dick Schwartz, Licia Sky and Linda Thai.
At Khiron Clinics, our approach to treatment is unique, offering a combination of proven and effective therapies informed by cutting-edge knowledge of the nervous system. Using these approaches, Khiron Clinics effectively treats a range of conditions that can be difficult to target through traditional psychiatry and psychotherapy.
Traditional therapy often uses a ‘top-down’ (cognitive) approach, focusing on thoughts influencing emotions and behaviours. At Khiron Clinics, we integrate this with a ‘bottom-up’ (somatic) approach, addressing trauma through physiological responses and bodily awareness.
This approach enhances self-awareness, regulates the nervous system, and promotes lasting healing.
Our Therapeutic Approach
- Bodily Awareness: Addressing trauma through understanding physiological responses and safety mechanisms like fight, flight, or freeze reactions.
- Self-Awareness and Nervous System Regulation: Enhancing self-awareness and learning to regulate the nervous system.
- Healing in Relationships: Recognising that trauma often stems from early relationships, we emphasise the importance of building feelings of safety with others, practising effective communication, recognising triggers, and developing coping mechanisms.
We work with you to understand your symptoms and help find the issues at the root of your experience, which are usually linked to unresolved trauma. Through finding the source of the issue, we are better equipped to help you on your path to recovery.
Our Recovery Roadmap
The Three-Phase Approach to Trauma Treatment
Stabilisation
This phase focuses on understanding and getting to know oneself, reducing symptoms, learning about trauma and how to self-regulate so you can stay in connection with others and the present moment.
Trauma Processing
This phase starts by fostering safety and security in the body and mind, allowing individuals to recognise triggers, manage emotions, and make mindful choices. With therapist guidance, they learn to release stuck trauma and emotions by discharging incomplete defensive responses, while also rebuilding compromised life skills such as setting boundaries and building new connections in safe relationships.
Integration
This phase is where we support clients to take their newfound regulation, self-awareness and knowledge out into the real world so that they can apply the skills that they have developed in treatment in their daily life.
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Next Steps
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