Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster. Experiencing a traumatic event can harm a person’s sense of safety, sense of self, and ability to regulate emotions and navigate relationships. Long after the traumatic event occurs, people with trauma can often feel shame, helplessness, powerlessness, and intense fear.

Racial trauma, or race-based traumatic stress (RBTS), refers to the mental and emotional injury caused by encounters with racial bias and ethnic discrimination, racism, and hate crimes. Any individual that has experienced an emotionally painful, sudden, and uncontrollable racist encounter such as being affected by stereotypes, hurtful comments, or barriers to advancement is at risk of suffering from RBTS. In the U.S., Black, Indigenous and People of Color are most vulnerable due to living under a system of white supremacy.

Anxiety is the state of feeling anxious, distressed, and worried. It is the feelings or sensations of distress or fear. It is a worry about something with an unpleasant or unknown outcome. Some anxiety is normal and can help keep you safe and out of danger, but too much anxiety can interfere with your daily life and cause symptoms that may be disabling.

Major depressive disorder or clinical depression is characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life. Some people may use this loosely and say, “I’m feeling depressed.” But that’s not the truest form of feeling depressed. That’s called “feeling sad,” and that feeling could last for just one day or last forever. 

EMDR is a structured therapy that encourages the patient to briefly focus on the trauma memory while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation (typically eye movements), which is associated with a reduction in the vividness and emotion associated with the trauma memories. By processing the emotions associated with these memories during the therapy sessions, people can heal from the painful effects of trauma, PTSD, and other emotional problems.

Mindfulness involves the focused attention to one’s experiences in the present moment, without judgment. Mindfulness-Based Therapy helps teach clients to become more aware of what’s happening inside their bodies and in their surroundings in the present moment and learn to respond skillfully. Doing so will positively influence the feelings, cognition, neurology, and biology of the individual, leading to improvements in mental health, outlook, coping, and health.