Trauma Therapy in New York

If you struggle with trauma, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Mind Connections wants to support you and pair you with the best trauma therapist NYC has to offer! As we know, trauma causes people immense distress and difficulty in life.

When you suffer from PTSD, the nightmares, flashbacks, and other symptoms can be specifically daunting. Our trauma specialists at Mind Connections in NYC are here to help you. Call us FREE for 15 minutes or book online to receive trauma therapy or PTSD treatment in New York. 

Trauma vs PTSD

What is Trauma?

Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, crime, or natural disaster. As a result, you may feel very stressed, frightened, distressed, or out of control. 

What is PTSD

You may be thinking, “Do I have PTSD?” PTSD is a type of anxiety caused by a traumatic event you witness, directly experience, learn about, or are exposed to repeatedly. Where trauma is the emotional response to a terrible event, PTSD is a far more severe disorder surrounding the event. Untreated trauma can progress into PTSD.

CPTSD vs PTSD

Are you looking for a trauma informed therapist? Are you looking for the most helpful complex ptsd therapist NYC has to offer? To clarify, complex PTSD or CPTSD is a type of PTSD caused by a series of repetitive scarring experiences happening to someone. In light of this definition, people with long-term abuse usually face complex trauma. This abuse can be emotional, physical, or sexual. CPTSD can also appear in victims of long-term bullying or harassment. 

PTSD Symptoms

Generally speaking, signs of ptsd may vary from person to person. Overall, there are 4 types of symptoms that ptsd causes:

• First, intrusive memories (flashbacks, reliving traumatic events, & nightmares)
• Second, avoidance (of thinking, talking about the traumatic event, places, people, or activities)
• Third, negative changes in thinking and mood (negative thoughts; feeling hopeless, numb, or detached; loss of interest; difficulty with relationships)
• Fourth, changes in physical and emotional reactions (easily startled; hypervigilant, anger, guilt, shame, sleep difficulty; destructive behaviors of drinking, & using drugs)

The 4 Trauma Responses

Ordinarily, when people experience PTSD, it affects them in many areas of their lives. One way trauma affects people is through their responses to triggers. Specifically, PTSD causes people to react to others in four main ways:

Fight and Flight

• When people who struggle with trauma feel threatened, they can react by either fighting or taking flight. These first two trauma responses that PTSD causes are often coupled with each other. A fight response causes people to get defensive and aggressive. Oftentimes, they will act on feelings of anger in order to protect themselves. Correspondingly, the flight response is not as direct as the latter.
• To clarify, the fight response causes people to avoid conflict. Additionally, people with flight responses have anxiety over conflict and will often try to distract themselves from the problems at hand.

Freeze

• The third trauma response is freeze. Notably, when people with this trauma response get triggered they find it hard to react. Many times, they dissociate from the situation and are often indecisive.

Fawn

The fourth trauma response often shows up as people-pleasing others. In attempts to stop something bad from happening, the fawner will often try and subside the situation/aggressor by doing something that makes them happy. Fawners will do whatever it takes to lessen the negative effects of a situation.