Lifestyle medicine that eschews drugs and focuses on exercise, mindfulness and natural remedies, is gaining favor to treat a wide variety of physical and mental disorders, including trauma.
Among a wide variety of treatments to choose from, these natural healing methods are demonstrating particular success with trauma:
Nutritional Counselling
The gut brain connection, also known as the gut brain axis, has a powerful effect on every body system. Research continues to confirm that the complex set of physiological interactions between the digestive system and brain function affects a range of emotions, from happiness to anxiety.
Nutritional counselling for trauma focuses on repairing the brain’s relationship with food and restoring the microbiota in the gut that regulate mood and healthy digestions.
Yoga
The beauty of yoga is that it helps unify the body and mind with the universe. Yoga is an ancient practice that combines meditation, breathing and movement. There are many different forms of yoga practice, ranging from gentle “flow” type movement to vigorous and challenging practices that require stamina and gradual training.
Countless people have experienced healing from trauma and grief through practicing yoga.
EMDR
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing. It is an evidence-based, non-talk psychotherapy that has been used since the early 1990s to help the brain process painful memories and information. It is used to treat a wide range of issues including PTSD, depression, addictions, anxiety, performance issues, and self-sabotaging behaviors like procrastination and low self-esteem.
During EMDR, the original upsetting, traumatic event is pulled up in the conscious brain while the eyes are stimulated to move from left to right. The therapist may do this by asking a patient to follow his/her finger from left to right, or by holding pulsating tappers in both hands and listening to sounds moving from one ear to the other. This bilateral movement pulls up the unconscious memories of the event.
Sleep Disorder Therapy
Even for people who have not experienced trauma, sleep disorders can cause a host of problems, incuding depression, fatigue and nightmares. Trauma is a common trigger for many sleep disorders, and can put people into a pernicious cycle of traumatic responses made worse by the adverse effects of sleep problems.
For natural healing, behavioral interventions like EMDR and CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) can be beneficial for healing both the underlying trauma and symptoms of sleep disorder like fatigue and depression. Holistic Mental Health offers a wide variety of natural mental health treatments including lifestyle medicine. Please contact us for more information or to schedule a consultation.
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