Our Therapy

Trauma is often thrown around as a term to describe experiences that are uncomfortable or unpleasant. In the world of clinical psychology we refer to these as "aversive events" because they have a negative impact on the person, which is based on their interpretation and context. These events can accumulate to become overwhelming, but are not technically considered trauma. Aversive experiences can be treated with a variety of different pscyhological techniques, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, and others. 

Trauma is defined as an experience that was life-threatening or which was expected to cause severe damage and in which the person felt helpless. This might be something the client directly experienced or something they witnessed. Of course, anyone would expect to have lingering symptoms from such an event - or series of events, in the case of something like war or ongoing abuse.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is not always the response to traumatic experience. Some people seem to go through trauma without meeting the full criteria for PTSD, while others find themselves unable to function. 

Dr. Bonnie has been treating PTSD and trauma reactions since the mid--1990's. By now, she has developed a full repertoire of treatments to help you through this...and she continues to learn more techniques because trauma is sneaky and shows up differently in different people.