Tree of Life Counseling Services, LLC

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My therapeutic focus is helping clients struggling with Post Traumatic Stress.

Stress responses are part of our natural fight, flight, or freeze instincts. When distress from a disturbing event remains, the upsetting images, thoughts, and emotions may create an overwhelming feeling of being back in that moment, or of being “frozen in time.” EMDR therapy helps the brain process these memories, and allows normal healing to resume. The experience is still remembered, but the fight, flight, or freeze response from the original event is resolved.

What is resourcing in psychology?

Resourcing is the practice of inviting our mind/body to attune to sensations of safety or goodness, however small they may be. The process of attending to a felt sense of “safety” begins the process of teaching our nervous system that it can experience stress, and then come back to a state of calm.

Our brains have a natural way to recover from traumatic memories and events. This process involves communication between the amygdala (the alarm signal for stressful events), the hippocampus (which assists with learning, including memories about safety and danger), and the prefrontal cortex (which analyzes and controls behavior and emotion). While many times traumatic experiences can be managed and resolved spontaneously, they may not be processed without help. (https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/)

Trauma Informed Care

Trauma-informed care shifts the focus from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” A trauma-informed approach to care acknowledges that health care organizations and care teams need to have a complete picture of a patient’s life situation — past and present — in order to provide effective health care services with a healing orientation. Adopting trauma-informed practices can potentially improve patient engagement, treatment adherence, and health outcomes, as well as provider and staff wellness. It can also help reduce avoidable care and excess costs for both the health care and social service sectors.

Trauma-informed care seeks to:

  • Realize the widespread impact of trauma and understand paths for recovery.
  • Recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma in patients, families, and staff.
  • Integrate knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and
  • Actively avoid re-traumatization.

(Adapted from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s “Trauma-Informed Approach.”)

I take insurances including Medicaid and TriWest (VA) and I offer a fee assessment scale as well.

bruce@tolcs.services

(970) 825-6597

3225 Templeton Gap Road Unit 103

Colorado Springs, CO 80907

Monday
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Tuesday
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Wednesday
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Thursday
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Friday
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Saturday
Closed
Sunday
Closed