Treatment for Depression
Treatment for Depression: Collaboration and Emerging Techniques in the Industry
Our team at A Better Way is always researching new treatments and therapies for depression and anxiety. Our goal is to provide help to conquer your symptoms like low energy, fatigue, loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life. The first step is usually talking to a therapist to uncover traumas or create boundaries. We offer a wide range of resources, including this blog, to provide our patients and community with the support and resources necessary to improve the overall mental health of local populations.
As new modalities, therapy options, and research emerge in the mental health realm, it is important for mental health professionals to cross-collaborate in effort to provide patients across the country with the best care possible. Recently, the American Psychological Association released a publication outlining a massive shortage in mental health professionals, highlighting the need now more than ever to work together within the industry to provide excellent mental health care to all who need it.
Here at A Better Way, we aim to provide our patients with the safest, most effective means of treatment available. For this special publication, we have a guest blogger from Diana Su the Program Manager at Resiliency Rising Behavioral Health. Her goal is to share information about EMDR and other information that will provide you more insight into ways to feel better from depression, anxiety, and trauma.
What Is Trauma-Informed Care?
At Resilience Rising Behavioral Health, we believe approached patients with trauma-informed care is the priority in healing and moving forward. The purpose of trauma-informed care is to create environments that recognize and respond to the impact of trauma on individuals, promoting safety, trust, empowerment, and resilience. By understanding the prevalence and effects of trauma, service providers can deliver care that is sensitive to individuals’ needs, avoids re-traumatization, and supports healing and recovery. Trauma-informed care emphasizes creating supportive environments at all levels, from individual interactions to organizational and community-wide approaches, to foster healing, resilience, and well-being.
EMDR vs. Brainspotting
Since we believe trauma treatment is important, we offer two forms of trauma treatment: EMDR and Brainspotting. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy approach used primarily to alleviate distress associated with traumatic memories and other distressing experiences. During EMDR sessions, individuals recall traumatic memories while simultaneously focusing on bilateral stimulation, such as side-to-side eye movements, taps, or auditory tones. This process helps stimulate the brain’s information processing mechanisms, facilitating the reprocessing of traumatic memories and reducing their emotional impact. EMDR aims to help individuals process traumatic experiences more adaptively, leading to symptom reduction and improved emotional well-being. EMDR can also be used outside of trauma treatment as a means to reduce anxiety, improve confidence, and reduce psychosomatic symptoms. There can be similarities between EMDR and Brainspotting as it was developed from EMDR by David Grand.
Brainspotting Explained
BrainSpotting, the therapist and client identify “brainspots,” specific eye positions or body sensations associated with distress. By focusing on these spots, the therapist helps the client access and process underlying emotions and memories. While EMDR relies on bilateral stimulation to facilitate processing, BrainSpotting emphasizes the client’s internal experience and physiological responses. Both approaches aim to alleviate distress and promote healing, but they differ in their methods of accessing and processing traumatic material.
Our Philosophy at A Better Way
It is important for us as mental health professionals to constantly be learning and evolving in the ways we provide care. We appreciate our guest blogger for the information outlined above, and we are committed to listening to experts in the industry as research continues to emerge. We believe that this information is important for our patients and community to have access to and understand so that they may make informed decisions about their mental health care.
At all of our clinics, we aim to expand mental health care by offering treatments such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, Spravato, medication management, and more. Our clinics throughout California always offer free consultations to all new patients. This is just one element of our effort to expand mental health care access and give new patients the opportunity to learn about our services and meet our staff. If you or a loved one is experiencing a mental health crisis, it’s time to feel better.