trauma Archives ⋆ Chana Pfeifer

Counseling to Help Deal with Emotional Triggers

Emotional triggers can be defined as memories, thoughts, situations or experiences that cause significant distress.

Although they can be a component of trauma-related conditions such as PTSD, they also play a role in anxiety and depression. Whether associated with a traumatic experience of the past or amplified by anxiety, emotional triggers can have negative effects in your life.

The reactivity you may feel to certain events or memories can manifest in a variety of ways.

Emotional outbursts may be directed at others or turned inwards, resulting in immense discomfort. The continued cycle of triggers, distress and avoidance can be exhausting in itself, leaving little space to understand or reduce their frequency and severity.

Common reactions to emotional triggers may include fear, sadness, anger or any number of intense emotions. It may manifest in a physical sense similar to anxiety, with reactions such as a racing heart, nausea, sweating, shaking and/or shortness of breath. When triggered, it may be easy to lash out at others, provoking even more tension and emotional turmoil.

Although one’s immediate reaction to such unpleasant experiences may be to limit exposure to such stressors, avoidance can lead to additional anxiety. It’s important to understand and develop strategies that can help mitigate the stress and fear associated with such situations. Rather than letting such apprehension disrupt your daily activities, learning healthy coping mechanisms can bring immense healing.

A fresh perspective can make a difference in your perception of emotional triggers. Although some triggers may not have a clear origin, taking the time to explore them in a calm, safe environment can be the key to unlocking their mystery.

The guidance of a counselor can help you decode, process and heal from emotional triggers.

In addition to providing a comfortable space to heal from past traumas, therapy can help you develop a holistic plan for the future. Through therapy, one can begin to recognize and take control over situations and memories that trigger emotional discomfort.

Chana Pfeifer can help you begin healing from the effects of triggers and emotional stressors. Together, you can develop a robust plan to experience relief and learn strategies to cope with potential emotional triggers.

Chana offers virtual and in-person, socially-distanced counseling services with a therapeutic plan customized to your individual needs. If you are struggling with the effects of emotional triggers, don’t hesitate to contact Chana today to begin your journey of healing.

For more info. on counseling, call (516) 592-1107 or email Chana Pfeifer, LCSW today.

Social Worker Booking Information:

Accepted Insurance Plans: Aetna

Payments can be made via: Cash, Check, Zelle, Chase QuickPay, American Express, Discover, Mastercard, Visa, Health Savings Account

Mental Health Counseling for Teenagers

The teenage phase is one of the most confusing phases of one’s life. Hormones are rushing, your body is drastically changing, and your emotions are all over the place. It’s normal to go through an identity crisis of sorts and get into experimenting. Teenage years are a time when we start to define who we are, our thoughts, our likes/dislikes, the set of beliefs we have, and what we want to be later in life. This can often lead to negative body image, low self-esteem, eating disorders, anxiety and even substance abuse issues.

There’s many reasons why parents seek out mental health counseling for teenagers.

Anger Management: Anger is a natural emotion. While getting angry is normal, getting into a rage is not. If anger is expressed violently, it is a matter of concern. Anger management techniques can help your kid control their temper. Counselling can significantly help your kid’s anger problems. Therapists can also show kids practical coping skills to use when they experience anger.

Depression: Mood swings are common in teenagers but mood disorders are cautionary. These can often be indicators of underlying conditions such as depression. If your kid seems sad, easily irritated or withdrawn, ask if seeing a counselor would help.

Anxiety: Anxiety can often be a result of academic pressure, peer pressure, and so on. Although some teenagers experience extreme anxiety, these indicators should not be ignored, especially during a global pandemic.

Stress: During this stressful time of lockdown, no one is immune to it. Therapy can help teenagers (and adults alike) reduce their stress levels without losing their productivity.

Low self-esteem: It’s common to experience low self-esteem, but some can experience serious low self-esteem issues, especially driven from social media and the endless supply of triggering images. When such problems are left unaddressed, teens are can be exposed to issues such as substance abuse, body dysmorphic disorder, etc.

Trauma: Abuse, violence, near-death experiences, severe injury, or losing a loved one can have a lifelong impact on teens. These traumatic events can affect them and hold them back. Intervention in the early stages can help teens recover from the trauma in the healthiest way possible.

A licensed clinical social worker can help your teenager if they are suffering from any type of mental health issue. Contact Chana for additional information on counseling for teenagers.

Chana is seeing teenagers virtually and in-person, socially-distanced & masked.

Counseling for PTSD

Traumatic events can have a resonating and painful impact on your life, and the effects can span over months and even years following the event. Reacting to a traumatic or threatening circumstance can be a normal response. If high levels of stress are not resolved, further problems can arise. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop after exposure to actual or threatened death, serious harm, or sexual assault/violence. Even if you did not directly experience the trauma, you can develop PTSD from witnessing the event or its aftermath.

PTSD can have a highly disruptive effect on survivors’ mental health, daily functioning, and relationships.

Symptoms can be classified by a few main categories:

Re-experiencing

Flashbacks or intensely vivid memories/re-living of the event
Nightmares
Intrusive memories, thoughts, feelings
Significant emotional/physiological reactions to event-related stimuli

Heightened arousal

Insomnia
Hyper vigilance (overly aware of one’s surroundings and possible threats or danger)
Sensitive startle response, jumpy
Easy to anger

Avoidance

Avoiding memories, thoughts, feelings, people, situations that can be possible reminders of the trauma
Loss of interest in certain activities
Feeling emotionally numb

Changes in cognition

Distortion of self-perception (lowered self-esteem, excessive guilt, shame, anger)
Feeling detached or isolated from others
Gaps in memory, trouble remembering the event or memories surrounding it
Negative beliefs about others & the world

Dissociation

De-personalization (feeling detached from one’s mind or body, perceiving oneself as unreal)
De-realization (feeling isolated from others or the world, feeling as if the world is not real)

Following a trauma, it is often difficult to talk about the event including emotions and thoughts surrounding it. Years can pass and you still may feel a strong, visceral response to the memories.

These thoughts and feelings should not continue being repressed, as this can cause chronic damage to your mental, emotional, and physical well-being over time.

Some common routes of therapy to treat PTSD include talk therapy, variations of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), cognitive processing, prolonged exposure, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).

During therapy, you can work on resolving cognitive distortions and learning healthy coping skills and techniques for symptom relief. A therapist can help you re-associate negative feelings and beliefs so you can regain control of stress and fear responses. You can also address possible co-occurring issues such as anxiety, depression, or substance abuse.

Therapy can provide a grounded, secure space in which you can begin to heal from your traumatic experience(s) without feeling judgement or criticism.

A holistic approach to PTSD treatment will enhance your sense of well-being, solidify your inner fortitude and help you to regain positive self-confidence.

Tag: trauma