PTSD Treatment

Is PTSD Interfering with Your Ability To Enjoy Life?

Have you experienced a painful event or events in your life that you cannot seem to move past? Do you suffer from intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, or nightmares? Do you have problems in maintaining close interpersonal relationships? Perhaps a traumatic experience has left you in a constant state of agitation or heightened state of vigilance. Even going out with friends can make you feel anxious, causing you to isolate and stay at home when you wish you could go out with them. As a result of your struggles, you may be dealing with substance abuse or other unhealthy behaviors and you may also be clinically depressed and/or anxious.

When you are dealing with PTSD, it often feels impossible to simply slow down and enjoy life. Because of past trauma, your brain becomes trapped in a stress response mode, so that you are constantly expecting something bad to happen. If you experienced sexual abuse when you were younger, for instance, intimate relationships could make you anxious and you may have difficulty in establishing an intimate relationship. Or if you experienced or witnessed a life- threatening event or military combat, you may feel that only someone who has experienced a similar experience can understand you.

These responses are normal and to be expected. Your brain has been conditioned to have startle responses and to have heightened anxiety even if the stimulus is benign. For example, a combat veteran may be triggered by the explosions of fireworks during a 4th of July celebration. This involuntary startle response is due to the brain not being able to adaptively store a traumatic event from the past. In essence, the brain has a viral “memory chip” that when triggered, causes a cascading pattern of negative thoughts, emotions and behaviors.

In the wake of trauma, it is common to develop unhealthful coping habits—such as drug or alcohol use—to help you with the psychological pain. If you want to learn real-life coping skills to help you overcome PTSD and obtain peace of mind, I encourage you to avail yourself of evidence-based treatment. PTSD is virtually impossible to overcome through sheer force of will. Professional help is needed to effectively deal with it.

About the Clinician

I am a highly trained clinician with a vast amount of clinical experience in treating PTSD.

I have successfully treated clients with careers in law enforcement, firefighting, military, health care and other professions which are inherently stressful. I specialize in treating clients with PTSD, having many years of experience in treating clients with acute or chronic PTSD symptoms. I have extensive training in Crisis Intervention, Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Problem Solving, Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Cognitive Behavior Therapy. I also use Short Term Solution Focused Therapy as well as Existentialism. I graduated with a Master of Social Work degree from Ohio State University, Clinical Track. I was also trained by the FBI and Columbus Ohio Police Department in Crisis Interventions and Crisis Management.

I have been able to help numerous clients work through and overcome PTSD. I have been counseling clients since 1994. I used to do short-term counseling in the FBI through their Employee Assistance Program. Since 2013, I have been counseling patients in inpatient crisis units as well as in private practice outpatient settings. I did my clinical internship at Ohio State University Medical Center (Harding Hospital, which is a psychiatric wing of the medical center). I learned how to deal with patients who are actively suicidal or who attempted suicide. I learned many useful crisis intervention skills which I have been able to apply in my clinical practice.

Symptoms of PTSD May Happen When Your Brain Cannot Process Memories In A Healthy Way

Everyone has painful memories. However, when a painful memory becomes all-consuming—to the point where it dominates your life and causes you to re-live the event in an intrusive way —that may be a sign you are experiencing one of the symptoms of PTSD. Because your brain was not able to process the event in a healthy way, you experience a series of harmful physiological and psychological responses whenever the memory surfaces. Intrusive thoughts and unwanted recollections are hallmarks of PTSD.

While it is possible to heal from PTSD, it is not possible to “will” your way out of how you feel. Willpower alone cannot undo the effects of PTSD. The emotions you feel are a natural, involuntary response to events that have happened to you. Thankfully, the interventions I use have been proven to alleviate PTSD and can re-structure your brain to process memories that is adaptive.

PTSD Treatment

Because few people really understand how PTSD affects a person afflicted with the disorder, it is often difficult to talk about. The benefit of therapy is that you have a chance to share your thoughts and emotions with a neutral party who will not judge you for the way you feel. If you feel like you cannot be honest about PTSD symptoms with anyone else in your life, this is a space where you can be totally yourself under the care of a trained professional.

The beginning of therapy is conversational. My focus is on getting to know you and learning about your background. I focus on establishing good rapport. I do a thorough intake assessment, gathering relevant information for treatment. We will start each session with a specific agenda for that session. You, the client, help set the agenda. If you are in crisis or have a pressing concern, addressing that issue or issues will be the agenda for that session. I am very flexible in my treatment and I can quickly adapt to whatever issue demands immediate attention. I use Client Centered Therapy, meaning that I do a lot of active listening and try to gain an understanding of your issues from your perspective.

My goal is to help you explore the root causes of your PTSD and educate you on how it works and affects you. I like to ask a lot of open-ended questions so you can think through your problems yourself and hear yourself talk. In this way, you are a key participant in your own therapy because you will gain new insights and solutions.

One of my most effective interventions is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. The purpose of EMDR is to eliminate or reduce the emotional impact of your traumatic memories so that they do not affect you as negatively as before. The fundamental objective of EMDR is to help you put the past in the past by re-processing extremely negative and triggering emotions.

I also use Crisis Intervention and Trauma Focused- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as adjuncts to EMDR in therapy. Crisis Intervention is focused on ensuring your safety in the here and now, especially if you are dealing with suicidal ideations. The goal of CBT is to help you identify and overcome negative thought patterns and re-frame them so that they are not so destructive. Through CBT, you will recognize how your thoughts affect your feelings as well as how your feelings dictate your behavior. By getting your thoughts under control, you will be able to experience positive change in other area of your life.

Why should I come to you, and how will you be able to help me?

I believe I have the training, education, and experience to help you work through PTSD. I have a 92-percent client retention rate, which means that most of all my clients report successful results from therapy with me. I am accustomed to helping clients who are in crisis and I have worked a lot in suicide prevention, so I am not afraid to treat difficult issues.

I am not sure whether therapy can actually help me with PTSD

Obviously, I cannot guarantee that therapy will help ameliorate your PTSD. I can guarantee, however, that I will give my best effort. My record of success speaks for itself. I am confident that if you give therapy your best effort by being an active participant in sessions, doing your therapy lessons and remain committed to getting better, the chances are excellent that your treatment will be successful.

I am worried that PTSD treatment will cost too much money and take too long

While time and finances are important, it is also important to consider the consequences of living with PTSD and the cost it is having on your personal and professional life. Making a temporary investment in time and money can save you from making larger investments in your mental and physical health in the future.

To get started, you can call me at 614-307-6698 or email me. My office hours are between 9 AM to 5 PM on weekdays and 9 AM to 1 PM on Saturdays. For now, because of COVID-19, all my appointments are via telehealth. I have been trained on the effective of use of EMDR via telehealth and have had excellent results.

IMPORTANT NOTE: While I work with patients who are in crises, I am not an emergency contact. I work strictly as an outpatient therapist. I am not an acute crisis facility. If you are feeling suicidal and need to speak to someone immediately, I encourage you to call the suicide hotline at 800-273-8255 or head to the nearest hospital or mental health clinic.