Trauma & PTSD Therapy - Manhattan, NYC - Highline Psychotherapy
Is Trauma or PTSD Keeping You Stuck In Life?
Does your nervous system feel overly reactive? Do you feel that your brain becomes hijacked by fear, aggression, or other primitive, animalistic-like states? Would you describe yourself as chronically hypervigilant? Or perhaps alternating between extreme stress and dissociation?
If so, you may be suffering from trauma or PTSD. In this state, life can begin to feel impossible. Any sense of agency is eroded, and you feel like you’re just along for the ride - an unpleasant ride. You startle easily, overwhelm is common, rumination is a close companion, and the worst-case scenario is constantly playing through your head. Life feels like a burden, and more than that, it is dangerous and unsafe.
(H3) Not All PTSD & Trauma Looks The Same
PTSD & Trauma come from many different places. More technically, PTSD & Trauma develop in terms of how you respond to a stressful or dangerous situation, rather than from the situation itself. These situations can be acute, such as combat, car accidents, or assault. Or, they can be contextual, such as an unstable childhood home or abusive relationship.
Within this, everyone has their own individual experience of PTSD & Trauma. Some react more anxiously, with an overactive fight-flight response. Others develop more depressive states, experiencing chronic freeze or shutdown. It is even possible to toggle between the two, cycling horribly between extreme stress and debilitating lethargy.
But if you’re here, then a part of you knows that life doesn’t have to be this way. A skilled therapist proficient in PTSD therapy can help you heal from trauma, re-regulate your nervous system, and move forward in life.
PTSD & Trauma Are Very Common
It is estimated that during any given year, approximately 5% of the US population has a diagnosis of PTSD (1). That is only counting those with a formal diagnosis - not those suffering from trauma who have not been diagnosed.
Trauma isn’t just about a catastrophic event. People can often be hesitant to describe what they’re experiencing as trauma because it doesn’t feel significant enough. This is understandable, but unfortunately can reinforce the negative coping patterns developed in response to the dangerous or stressful situation. The first step in treating anything is in properly identifying it. There is no scale for what counts as trauma and what doesn’t. PTSD & Trauma are about your response to events, not the event itself.
My Trauma Feels Stronger Than Me
While it often feels that these symptoms are too large to tackle, there are a number of tools and techniques that are highly targeted at helping you work through them. It is possible to leave a space of chronic defensiveness and fear and to live from safety, wellbeing, and livelihood.
At Highline Psychotherapy, we work with you to understand the source of the PTSD & Trauma, and then treat it at every level: the psychological, physiological, neurological, and experiential. We understand that the PTSD & Trauma responses are not voluntary, and it is not enough to just think through them. As a team, we have years of experience working directly with the nervous system, in concert with the psyche, to sustainably guide you from merely surviving in a perpetual “threat-detection mode,” into living and hopefully thriving from place of inner strength, regulation, and resource.
PTSD & Trauma Therapy Can Help Regulate A Dysregulated Nervous System
If you are struggling with PTSD and Trauma, it probably feels like your nervous system has a mind of its own. You may have large reactions to small stressors, or constantly feel unsafe even though you know intellectually that everything is okay. In the aftermath of an outsized reaction, you can look back and rationally question what happened. But in the moment, it’s as if you were kicked out of “the driver's seat.”
In order to heal from PTSD and Trauma, we need to work with the whole of you, not just your thoughts. This is where Highline Psychotherapy’s integrative approach comes in, where we can work directly with your central and autonomic nervous systems, in addition to your psychological experience and challenges. It is possible to reclaim “the driver's seat.”
Integrative Modalities
Each client is treated as an individual at Highline Psychotherapy. We recognize there is no “one size fits all” approach. You work directly with your therapist to develop a treatment plan. Your therapist works to understand your specific experience of PTSD & Trauma, and then will custom tailor their approach to your needs. For some clients, this just looks like classic psychotherapy. For others, additional modalities are included as powerful adjuncts to the talk therapy.
CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)
We recognize that humans are not reducible purely to thoughts and behavior. However, thoughts and behavior are a major component of who we are, and if they become maladaptive, our quality of life can be seriously impacted. CBT for PTSD & Trauma can help identify the relationship between your thoughts (cognition) and behavior, and work towards finding healthier patterns.
Biofeedback
Biofeedback for PTSD & Trauma allows you to work directly with your autonomic nervous system (think: sympathetic and parasympathetic). If you are chronically hypervigilant, then it is likely not enough to just recognize that your thoughts are anxious ones. You may need to work directly with your nervous system to guide yourself out of a fight-flight state and into a state of calm coherence.
Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback is a form of Biofeedback, except instead of working on your autonomic nervous system, it works on your central nervous system, or brain. Neurofeedback for PTSD & Trauma can help rewire neural pathways that have become “stuck” in a threat-detection/threat-mitigation mode.
Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)
Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy for Trauma and PTSD can be a powerful way to process traumatic experiences. Besides impacting the brain in an anti-depressive, anti-anxiety, and anti-suicidal way, the anesthetic quality of Ketamine can help you safely engage with past traumatic experiences for the purpose of processing them. This makes Ketamine for PTSD and Trauma a very powerful tool, when used wisely and cautiously.
I’m not sure I want the additional modalities. Can I just do talk therapy at Highline Psychotherapy?
Yes. Your treatment plan is made together with your therapist. If there is anything you are uncomfortable with, it will not be included in your treatment plan. Fully informed consent is of the utmost priority.
I don’t have enough time or money for therapy. I am barely squeezing everything in as it is. How can I fit this in?
If you are suffering from PTSD and Trauma, that is likely impacting your executive function capabilities, making time and money more scarce. Beginning therapy for PTSD & Trauma will ideally free up more time in your life and allow you to function better professionally. The net impact of fitting therapy for PTSD & Trauma into your life should actually be more time and money.
I’m worried trauma therapy will last forever.
At Highline Psychotherapy, we do not believe in the “forever therapy model.” Therapy should be a targeted, goal oriented process. The adjunctive modalities listed above often help to sustainably quicken the process by working with the totality of your experience, not just the psychological side of it.
A Proven Track Record
The team at Highline Psychotherapy has a proven track record in working with diverse populations on healing trauma and PTSD. With a combined experience that includes military service, elite athletics, and varied professional backgrounds, we skillfully integrate top level clinical care with real world understandings.
Reclaim Your Life From Trauma & PTSD
If you are struggling with Trauma and PTSD, there is help. We have a dedicated, empathetic team highly trained in the cutting edge of Trauma and PTSD Therapy. There is hope, and there is a way. It is our honor and our purpose to play a role in your journey.
(1) https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/common/common_adults.asp