Our diagnostic system for trauma generally assumes that traumatic events are relatively rare, tend to be fairly catastrophic and yet actually traumatize relatively few persons, who usually will exhibit symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress (PTSD). Few mental health practitioners see much connection of other psychiatric disorders with trauma. Thus, conditions such as anxiety, depression, panic disorder, the eating disorders and dissociative disorders continue to be diagnosed and treated as discrete conditions without possible roots in trauma, which roots may connect to other, seemingly unrelated symptoms, such as shyness, sense of isolation, phobias or an inability to make commitments.

In fact, traumatic events have proved to be quite frequent and do not have to be particularly traumatic in themselves to traumatize a considerable number of individuals. Significantly, only 20% to 30% of trauma victims actually display the classic symptoms of PTSD; most persons tend to display other psychiatric symptoms not usually perceived to be connected with trauma. In many cases denial or dissociation drive the condition underground where it is stored as fragmented bits of sensation, muscular impulse or feeling walled off from consciousness until a trigger event brings them full-blown to the surface. Meantime, they may surface indirectly as less-than-functional behavioral or attitudinal traits.

Ultimately, trauma is shown to be more a function of a person?s susceptibility than the nature of the trigger event. Certain aspects of a person?s experience tend either to predispose that person to trauma or provide resilience to it. Further, trauma tends to be a multi-level matrix of symptomology: there are early symptoms such as hyperarousal, anxiety, phobia, depression, and later symptoms such as addiction, chronic pain and fibromyalgia or asthma. In addition, trauma symptoms run along a continuum of severity from relatively mild (e.g., depression) to severe (multiple personality disorder), further designated as childhood or adult onset. Lastly, trauma affects the person at all levels of being: biochemical, neurophysiological and psychological, manifesting in cognitive function, emotional problems and behavioral disorders.

Once we see trauma as an umbrella syndrome with multiple levels of expression along a continuum of severity with several layers of symptomatic expression, we realize that a truly effective remediation must involve many levels as well. The Enhancement Institute has developed a multi-modality approach offered in an intensive outpatient format that easily can be adapted to many forms of clinical practice. This approach uses specific combinations of, bioenergetics, cognitive-behavioral therapy, cranial electrical stimulation, EFT, neurotherapy, ocular light therapy and tai chi to restore good functionality cognitively, emotionally and behaviorally. Putting them together effectively requires proper evaluation and assessment, but once done, fairly rapid results can occur.