The evolution of psychotherapy over the years has been very evident in the professional treatment of personal trauma.

Several different treatment modalities now exist to help those individuals who have experienced various types of trauma.

Included among those treatment modalities is the Internal Family Systems therapy, the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, the Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), the Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), the Written Expression Therapy and the Somatic Therapy.

Licensed Professional Counselor Alison Seltzer, who treats individuals who have been affected by trauma as the director at InnerPeaceCounseling in Altoona, is a proponent of the Internal Family Systems therapy modality.

“I use mostly the Internal Family Systems, which is a different type of therapy, but it works well for trauma,” Seltzer said. “This therapy purports that we have (different) parts of (our bodies and minds) that are affected by trauma.”

Seltzer said that Dr. Richard Schwartz, Ph.D, was the founder of the Internal Family Systems therapy model.

“Dr. Schwartz said that we have multiple parts because the brain has something called multiplicity,” Seltzer said. “Our parts include early childhood memories, and sometimes, the memories are older than early childhood and they carry feelings as well as beliefs.

“There are manager-protector parts that protect the system, and there are firefighter parts that protect the system but act after the hurt parts, either to sooth them, or to distract from them,” Seltzer added. “The hurt parts carry (various emotions like) rage, dependency, shame, fear, terror, grief, loss and loneliness. In the center of all of this, we have the self, which is the core of the person, and when it is differentiated, it acts as an active, compassionate leader that is calm, connected, and confident.”

Seltzer feels that the Internal Family Systems treatment modality is one in which the person being treated does not go through the experience of being re-traumatized, and people in treatment can eventually do IFS therapy by themselves.

“I don’t want people being dependent on me, so I teach people how to do (IFS), and they can do it themselves,” Seltzer said.

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is a specific type of cognitive-behavioral therapy that involves 12 to 16 one-hour sessions, while Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EDMR) is a very popular type of trauma therapy in which people briefly relive specific traumatic experiences while a therapist uses bilateral stimulation, which may include eye movements, tapping, or other stimuli.

In Written Expression Therapy, a person writes about the traumatic event and pays close attention to the thoughts and emotions that they had at the time of the event, and Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is an emerging therapy that has been shown to be effective in reducing some post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in veterans.

Somatic therapy involves body-based techniques to help the mind and the body process trauma.

In certain instances, antidepressant medications such as the SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Uptake Inhibitors) Paxil and Zoloft, can also be helpful in the treatment of trauma.

“Because I am not a psychiatrist, I am not really allowed to speak on medicine, except I can say that just like any other medication, (psychiatric) medication can be helpful when it works,” Seltzer said.

Next: How people recover from trauma and stay well

Staff writer John Hartsock is available at jhartsock@altoonamirror.com