Individual counseling consists of individual sessions with a member of our accredited staff. The services we provide are designed to address whatever is keeping you from leading the life you want to live.

Individual counseling is a naturally unfolding process. The counselor and client collaborate to define the goals of the counseling and the means to achieve those goals. Each counselor-client relationship is unique. Much of the change that occurs in individual counseling is a result of this unique blend.

Pain Management

Chronic pain can be made much worse by environmental and psychological factors. For many people, living with pain is a way of life. Living a full and active life however may seem impossible. It is actually possible to increase your level of functioning and quality life while reducing your sense of suffering. The key, like anything in life, is to have the right skills, support, and direction. That is a tall order in the health care arena these days. Rarely do we find ourselves faced with the opportunity to have time to talk with professionals about our state of being. There are some exceptions. Fortunately for people with pain there is a means to build a relationship with clinicians that can, if you are willing to take an active role, help you move from a patient to an active person. The road may not be an easy one, but the rewards far outweigh the challenges.

There are many options for treating pain. We experiment with new ways of thinking and being, helping to identify solutions for you and your lifestyle while using the least amount of pharmaceutical support and narcotics as possible for your situation.

Trauma

Trauma can be a single event or a series of traumatic events that are repeated over time resulting in an individual to becoming overwhelmed with painful or frightening emotions. Over the last few years, the definition of psychological trauma has been broadened to include traumatic experiences such as physical, sexual, and verbal abuse.

Trauma survivors may have experienced emotional trauma in the form of an abusive parent or loved one. This type of abusive trauma may take the form of demanding, demeaning verbal attacks, or it could be in the form of physical or sexual abuse.

Just as two people may not experience an event in the same way, no two people react to a stressful, traumatic event in the same way. While one person may find the ability to cope with a traumatic event, another may be unable to deal with the trauma by themselves in a productive manner.

What are the effects of trauma?

When a person is unable to deal with traumatic events, he or she will often feel alone and struggle with recurring feelings of worry, fear and worthlessness. People with unresolved trauma often have difficulty in relationships and in dealing with emotional challenges, such as low self-esteem resulting from the traumatic experience and feelings associated with the trauma.

People with significant traumatic experiences are haunted by memories that feel completely real and can cause them to become silent sufferers who believe that their lives are destined to repeat past events. Experiences in a person’s life can trigger a recurring experience of the original trauma, which makes healing from the original trauma an extremely important goal. Many trauma sufferers choose to deal with their feelings alone, instead of seeking appropriate professional treatment. These people may turn to substance abuse to dull the feelings associated with the trauma and the pain that comes with those feelings. It is common for trauma survivors to also have issues with drug addiction, alcohol addiction or other addictions as they attempt to cope with the original issue. Addictions and self-medicating delay recovery from the original trauma.

Leia Hughey, Ph.D. has helped many individuals work through debilitating experiences. Some techniques include EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) techniques, symbolic resolution, gestalt therapy, and the reduction or eliminations of nightmares and intrusive images through reconstructive processes with dreaming to ease Post Traumatic Stress symptoms.