PTSD and Psychological Trauma: Professional Psychological Support
After a severe or threatening event, the experience doesn't always end when the event itself does. Intrusive memories, anxiety, sleep problems, avoidance, emotional numbness, irritability, and constant vigilance can persist and significantly affect everyday life.
A consultation with a medical psychologist can help assess your psychological state, understand which effects of the traumatic experience are still present now, and define an individual strategy for support. If medical diagnosis or treatment is needed, a consultation with the relevant physician is recommended.
After What Kinds of Events Help May Be Needed
A threat to life or to your serious physical safety
An accident, a disaster, a severe injury, or a sudden medical event
Violence, assault, stalking, or another experience of threat
Combat and other extreme events
The sudden loss of someone close, or traumatic circumstances surrounding a loss
A prolonged period in a dangerous, degrading, or controlling environment
Witnessing a severe event that happened to someone else
Professional work involving repeated contact with traumatic events
Not every severe event leads to PTSD. People's reactions vary, and a diagnosis is only made after a professional assessment.
What Symptoms Can Persist After Trauma
Intrusive Re-experiencing
Unwanted memories, vivid images, nightmares, a sense that the event is happening again, strong emotional or bodily reactions to reminders.
Avoidance
Trying not to talk about what happened, avoiding people, places, situations, thoughts, or feelings that remind you of the event.
Constant Vigilance
Difficulty relaxing, irritability, heightened reactions to sounds and surprises, problems with sleep and concentration.
Changes in Emotional State
Detachment, emotional numbness, feelings of guilt or shame, loss of interest, reduced trust, a sense of estrangement.
Impact on Everyday Life
Reduced ability to function, difficulties in relationships, avoiding ordinary activities, using alcohol or other substances to ease the state.
It's Important to Understand
PTSD or a Normal Reaction to a Severe Event?
In the first days and weeks after a severe event, strong emotional and physiological reactions can be a natural part of adapting. Not every instance of anxiety, insomnia, or recurring memories means PTSD.
Seeking a professional assessment becomes especially important if symptoms persist, intensify, interfere with work, relationships, and daily life, if a person starts significantly restricting themselves due to avoidance, or tries to regulate their state with alcohol, medication, or other substances.
What Happens at the First Consultation
We discuss your current concerns and how they're affecting your life
We gently gather the history of your condition — without needing to recount the whole traumatic event in detail right away
We assess symptoms, emotional state, sleep, anxiety, avoidance, level of functioning, and resources
We discuss any previous psychological or medical support
We assess safety factors and signs of conditions requiring medical care
We define an individual strategy for further psychological work
If needed, we recommend a consultation with a psychiatrist, a neurologist, or another relevant specialist
How the Psychological Work Can Be Structured
Working with psychological trauma isn't about requiring you to relive the whole event in detail all over again. The pace and format are determined by the person's condition, safety, resources, and the nature of the experience.
Stabilization and Self-Regulation
Skills for managing intense arousal, anxiety, bodily tension, sleep problems, and reactions to triggers.
Working With Avoidance and Triggers
Gradually regaining control over situations that have come to feel dangerous.
Processing the Traumatic Experience
Where indicated, trauma-focused approaches aimed at processing memories and emotional reactions.
Restoring Everyday Life
Returning to relationships, work, interests, plans, and a sense of safety.
EMDR and Other Methods
Depending on the person's condition and goals, various methods of medical psychology can be used, within the bounds of professional competence. The method is chosen to fit the specific clinical and psychological situation, not because it's trending.
International clinical guidelines list individual trauma-focused psychotherapeutic approaches, including EMDR, as methods with evidence-based support for PTSD.
If Trauma Is Combined With Anxiety, Depressive Symptoms, or Addiction
In real practice, the effects of trauma can combine with anxiety, low mood, sleep problems, chronic pain, or the use of alcohol or other psychoactive substances. In these cases, it's important not to treat each symptom in isolation.
With a complex, combined picture, an individual route of care is built: psychological work, and, if needed, consultations with doctors and other relevant specialists.
When a Doctor or Emergency Care Is Needed
A psychological consultation does not replace medical or emergency care. If there is marked deterioration in someone's condition, psychotic symptoms, seriously disorganized behavior, a threat to harm themselves or others, suicidal thoughts with intent or a plan, or other acute conditions, urgent medical care must be sought.
If symptoms require medical diagnosis or medication, Natalia recommends a consultation with a psychiatrist or another relevant physician.
If Previous Support Hasn't Given the Results You Hoped For
Sometimes a person has already seen several specialists and tried different methods, but the symptoms persist or keep coming back.
In that case, you can get a second expert opinion within a medical psychologist's area of competence — assessing the psychological picture, the previous support you've received, and the factors sustaining the symptoms.
Get a Second Expert OpinionPersonal and VIP Support for Complex Cases
When psychological trauma is combined with other psychological or medical issues, when several specialists are needed, or when treatment spans several institutions, a personal support format can be helpful — with coordination across specialists and institutions in Russia and abroad.
More About Personal Support
Natalia Zentsova
More than 20 years of professional practice. Works with complex cases, psychological trauma and PTSD, addiction, codependency, and crisis states, and also provides second expert opinions and personal support.
More About MeFrequently Asked Questions
Do I need to describe the trauma in detail at the first meeting?
Can I tell on my own whether I have PTSD?
Do you work with the effects of trauma online?
Do you use EMDR?
How many consultations will I need?
Can I come in if I started using alcohol or other substances after the trauma?
Can a traumatic event be completely forgotten?
If What You've Been Through Keeps Affecting Your Life
You don't need to determine on your own whether your condition is PTSD. You can start with a professional assessment: going through the symptoms, their impact on your life, and defining a suitable next step.
Book a Consultation