Break the chains of painful memories and unlock the way forward with a trained therapist.
TRAUMA THERAPY IN ARKANSAS USING THE FLASH TECHNIQUE & IFS
Explore the Flash Technique and Internal Family Systems Theory for reducing the distress of painful thoughts and memories associated with trauma
TRAUMA CAN BE HARD TO TALK ABOUT, EVEN IN THERAPY.
There might be things you want to bring up in therapy but the idea of even recalling the events, memories, or thoughts activates you. Your heart races. Your palms sweat. The mere thought of bringing it up with your therapist makes you feel like you’re right back in that moment when the hurt happened. The pain is too great to discuss.
And so you just… don’t.
The thoughts and memories continue to haunt you, but you’re overwhelmed any time you try to dig deep into them. You want to work on them. You want to take back the power but it’s hard to even start.
You may have even tried therapy before but somehow it just wasn’t working - even if you tried EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing).
Talking about trauma can be additionally hard for men and AMAB folks, who are often raised to be “strong and stoic.” You might worry that talking about stressful events or even admitting to things like experiencing sexual assault would make you “weak.”
But speaking up and talking about these things takes strength and is often the first step toward finally doing something about them.
THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES TO EMDR.
While EMDR has been demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of trauma, including PTSD and Complex PTSD (CPTSD), some people have bad experiences with it that makes it difficult to think about continuing with therapy. This may sometimes be because EMDR is just not a good fit for that person or the therapist they were working with may have not been a good fit. Trauma work can involve doing a lot of groundwork up front to make sure that you feel safe and supported enough to do the hard work. Trauma work can be hard if you don’t have that sense of trust and safety.
THE FLASH TECHNIQUE
Developed by Dr. Philip Manfield, the Flash Technique is a method for reducing the distress associated with traumatic and painful memories and thoughts. Originally developed as part of the preparation phase of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), it has been found to be useful on its own. It is now recognized as an evidence-based therapeutic tool outside of EMDR.
While the Flash Technique has similarities to EMDR, the key difference is that you don’t talk about the distressing memories or thoughts related to your trauma.
Instead, you talk about a “positively engaging focus.” In everyday words, that means you talk about something you like talking about! This may be a trip you took, a favorite movie, hobbies, or even singing your favorite song. You only think about the hard stuff you want to work on briefly, just enough to connect with it mentally without getting hijacked by it.
The Flash Technique doesn’t make your memories go away, but it offers a way to lower the distress you feel when you think of your traumas so that they’re just that - memories rather than something you relive over and over.
INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS
Have you ever said something like, “Part of me thinks I should do this, but another part says I shouldn’t.” That’s basically the idea with Internal Family Systems Theory.
Called IFS for short and created by Dr. Richard Schwartz, author of “No Bad Parts,” IFS is based on the concept that we all have different parts of us that take on different roles to protect us. These parts often get established when we experience different kinds of trauma. These protector parts may pull us into different reactions and behaviors based on the things we’ve experienced. They’re like internal guardians who show up when you’re in distress.
Some of these protectors might be helpful, such as a part that tells you to get back up and try again when you’ve experienced a setback.
Other guardians might be unhelpful, like a part that tells you to give up, says “what’s the point,” or even tells you to cope with your problems with things like staying up all night, excessive distraction with video games, or using drugs or alcohol. Those parts think they’re helping you avoid your problems, even though they’re really getting in the way. They’re like a friend who tries to be helpful yet typically gives bad advice.
IFS helps you interact with these parts, understand how they came to be, and convince them to step back so that you can begin living your life in new ways.
IS TRAUMA COUNSELING RIGHT FOR YOU?
You might think that counseling for trauma is only for people who have experienced extreme events such as combat or natural disasters, but there are many different kinds of trauma. Some are brief but intense events. Others may be things that happened over a period of a few months or a couple of years. Other kinds of trauma may be subtle things that happened through much of your life or childhood.
Trauma is basically anything you experience that causes intense physical or psychological distress and makes you doubt whether or not you’ll be okay. They can be acute, chronic, or complex.
ACUTE
Acute traumas are the ones you might think of when you think about trauma. These include things like:
Car accidents
Major injuries
Life-threatening medical situations
Loss of a loved one
Sexual assault
Animal attacks
Witnessing traumatic events
CHRONIC
Chronic trauma happens over a period of time and can include:
Childhood abuse, including mental or emotional even without physical abuse
Chronic illness
Toxic relationships
Military combat
Homelessness
Religious trauma
COMPLEX
Complex trauma often involves multiple traumas overlapping or traumas compounded by other problems like poverty or racial inequality. A couple of examples include:
Abuse combined with homelessness.
Financial instability worsened by depression and substance use.
Treatment generally involves the support of a specialist.
SYMPTOMS OF TRAUMA
You may not realize that trauma trains your mind and body to react to stress in ways that can continue long after the traumatic events are over. You might think of a combat veteran experiencing a flashback after hearing a car backfire, but this is just one example of how trauma can affect you. You might be experiencing other things that you didn’t realize were a result of your experiences such as:
Feeling constantly on edge, like you have to monitor everything
Nightmares about the events
Avoidance of situations that trigger memories of the events
Sounds and smells reminding you of the events, even if not a “flashback”
Emotional detachment or numbness
Mood swings
Guilt
Insomnia
Anxiety
SPECIAL NOTE TO SUPPORTERS AND CAREGIVERS
I want to speak from personal experience to those of you who may be reading this as you support someone going through a traumatic experience such as adapting to a disability, recovering from an injury, going through substance use and recovery, or dealing with PTSD.
There may have been times you seriously questioned if life was going to be okay. You may have been living constantly on edge, wondering when the next emergency was going to happen - wondering if the person you loved and supported was going to survive.
Or you may have been wondering if your relationship was going to survive the tough times. You might have even wondered if you were going to be able to make it if you were financially dependent on the other person, such as a parent or a partner who provided most of the family income.
You might be noticing some of the signs of trauma I listed above. That’s because what you’ve experienced may have been traumatic to you as well in your own ways.
I know this because I experienced this, myself, when someone I cared about was going through their own intense medical problems. We experienced medical stress, financial stress, and often wondered if life would ever be okay again. Later, I came to recognize signs of trauma in my own day to day life.
You have your own struggles. It’s not selfish, and it doesn’t mean you’re ignoring how hard it is for the person you’re supporting.
It just means you deserve support as well.