Newspaper Article
In wake of Christmas fire and Sandy Hook, CT therapists united to heal traumatized responders
John Breunig
Stamford Advocate, February 20, 2021
Your Behaviour Won’t Be The Same – Dr. Andrew Huberman (Stanford Neuroscientist)
Radio Broadcast
Melissa in the Morning: Dealing with Grief during Covid – Aired on December 1, 2020 on WICC 600
What is Mental Health First Aid?
This short video explains what Mental Health First Aid is – why we need it, how it works, who it’s for. Understand how to interact with a person with mental illness, how to get mental illness help, and what to do if someone you know shows signs of depression or anxiety. For more on this interactive and innovative program, go to the Mental Health First Aid link in the sidebar.
Superhero – A Visual Poem
Mental illness touches everyone: our friends, co-workers, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters … and even our children. The statistics are staggering … 1 in 5 suffer from a mental illness, that’s 20% of our population but yet only 4% of the total healthcare budget is spent on our mental health. As a result, mental illness drains 51 billion dollars in lost productivity from the Canadian economy each year. We need to do more than just talk about it, we need to invest in programs and services that will make a difference in people’s lives. The stigma is huge and until we accept people with a mental illness we won’t be able to move forward and make a real difference. Remember mental illness affects us all so please help where you can. Let’s start with acceptance.
I Believe (Original DARE Version) – Message About Underage Drinking
“Some of us draw our inspiration from thoughts of power and positivity, others find it amongst the ruins of other people’s mistakes. Regardless of which you prefer, my hope is that you will find this brief piece uniquely honest and powerfully moving. If you are teen, tween or parent raising one, I promise that this video will hit home. Please promise me in return, that you’ll take that sentiment and do something with it. Divided and unfocused, we don’t stand a chance. But if a few more of us could come together, there would be no measure of the good that would be done. I Believe.”
– DARE Officer Timothy Shoemaker (Composer and Performer of “I Believe”)
Public Awareness Film for EMDR Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma. EMDR is a set of standardized protocols that incorporates elements from many different treatment approaches. To date, EMDR therapy has helped millions of people of all ages relieve many types of psychological stress.
Awaken Joy – Barbara Heffernan, Trauma and Anxiety Expert
How Does EMDR Work?
EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Sometimes called eye movement therapy or rapid eye movement therapy, EMDR counseling unlocks your brain’s natural processing to help cure PTSD, anxiety, depression, and trauma. You can receive EMDR therapy for anxiety, EMDR therapy for trauma, EMDR therapy for PTSD, or EMDR therapy for depression. Does EMDR work? Yes! Learn why and how EMDR helps. Barbara Heffernan, EMDR Approved Consultant, has helped hundreds of people with EMDR therapy, helped them recover from PTSD, anxiety, depression and trauma.
EMDR for Trauma
This video uses an EMDR visualization, an EMDR technique, as well as butterfly tapping (a gentle self hug), to help you transform your core negative belief into a positive cognition and more adaptive beliefs. If you feel there is “something wrong with me,” EMDR can help you identify the core trauma that caused this. Barbara Heffernan has been helping people recover from anxiety and trauma for over 15 years. She is an EMDR Approved Consultant. EMDR can help with trauma. However, with complex ptsd and complex trauma, the EMDR process is more extended, though it can still be very helpful!
Traumatic Memory Processing
This video will also explain the connection between the hippocampus and memory, and how the hippocampus is impacted by trauma and cortisol and the various other cortisol effects on the body. It will also discuss the limbic system and memory. The EMDR process provides an effective way to reprocess thoughts, traumatic memory, body memory and trauma. EMDR, first created by Francine Shapiro, stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. My explanations and beliefs are supported by trauma experts, such as Francine Shapiro, Lisa Najavits, who wrote Seeking Safety, and Daniel Amen (of Amen Clinics).
CBT Unhelpful Thinking Styles
Identify which unhelpful thinking styles are contributing to your self-sabotage. These automatic thoughts, or cognitive distortions, can create considerable pain. CBT therapy or CBT counselling helps to identify unhelpful thinking habits and uses CBT exercises and cognitive restructuring to help you change unhelpful thinking styles. Unhelpful thinking styles include labeling, emotional reasoning, catastrophizing, personalizing, mind reading and mental filter. This video will help you to challenge negative self-talk, self-sabotaging thoughts and identify unhelpful thinking patterns. This, in turn, will help you stop self-sabotaging behavior!
Firefighter PTSD (What You NEED to Know!)
Jacques Roy, Captain with Stamford Fire Department, and his wife, Dawn Roy LCSW and EMDR therapist, discuss an incident where Jacques developed PTSD symptoms. They also went on to help form a trauma recovery network, now called the Fairfield County Trauma Response Team, to help raise awareness about firefighters and ptsd, first responders and PTSD, what causes PTSD in firefighters and what causes PTSD in first responders. Firefighter PTSD is extremely common, and it is very important to know the signs and symptoms because PTSD therapy is effective. Captain Jacques Roy utilized EMDR therapy to cure his PTSD symptoms. EMDR is eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Linking to the official music video by Kevin Davison because of its power in describing the incredible courage of firefighters. The effects of PTSD are outlined, and post traumatic stress disorder treatment is discussed. Dawn Roy discusses being a spouse of a firefighter, and the signs of PTSD to be aware of.
Dawn M. Roy, LCSW 