Did all this start with a palm tree?

I am a psychiatrist in Raleigh NC specializing in PTSD Care & Trauma Psychotherapy. I treat people with large or small trauma histories and my passion is working with people who have had unproductive, unhelpful, or even damaging experiences with previous trauma work.

I combine multiple modalities, such as acupuncture, hypnosis, ego-state parts work, somatic techniques, and EMDR strategies with Psychodynamic Psychiatry. I am careful with my words, my interventions and my prescribing.

 I understand the need to use the right thing at the right time in the right dose. I also understand some memories are unspeakable and have been a vocal critic about the risks of modalities that emphasize re-telling, re-living and overwhelming of someone's coping. I believe we can connect to the part of ourselves that has unmet needs and build from there.

Early in my training as a psychiatrist, I became interested in psychodynamics, which attempt to understand how we manage and mitigate internal anxiety, especially through psychological defenses. We can push down overwhelming feelings and conflicts. Sometimes to avoid pain and sometimes to survive. This can be necessary as we may not have the ability to understand our feelings, our thoughts or how to manage an out of control situation. We likely carry those survival strategies forward and apply them if the current life situation warrants it our not. This constricts our options when trying to move forward with living life and we can't just talk ourselves into just doing it.

I love starting with a concrete example of what is stuck/stagnant in a person's life, and going on a journey to meet the part of that person that won't let them move forward. It sounds a bit trippy, but if you can't move forward on something, there's likely a younger version of you holding back. Some traumatic memories show up as classic PTSD yet many work behind the scenes, trying to steer us away from potential danger, but limiting our choices and flexibility.

Flexibility (like humor) is a sign of psychological strength.

I will leave you with this. In the summer before 3rd grade I read a book about islanders preparing for a hurricane. The locals taught people to tie themselves to the flexible palm trees to withstand the storm. Nope, not a rigid hardwood tree which might snap under the intense pressure. Even in the Midwest, I understood this wasn't true storm preparedness, but some sort of message. Eventually I understood this was a metaphor about being able to bend under pressure.

So often in trauma survivors, I see the ability to endure, buckle down, work hard, be productive, push it down and keep it moving and on and on... but what if there was another way?