On Wednesday, June 12, 2024, we hosted Hope Payson, LCSW, LADC, a trauma & addiction therapist, for a virtual Pathway Session over Zoom. The meeting was well-attended, and Hope allocated plenty of time for Q&A.
Hope addressed her area of specialty, which is the intersection of trauma with substance use disorder. She stated that while she works with plenty of people with PTSD, the majority of her clients have “unresolved pain” which made them especially vulnerable to self-medication and other addictive behaviors.
During the session, Hope stated upfront that while the brain is negatively impacted by trauma and addiction, the brain is ALWAYS capable of positive change. She also defined trauma, which is not an event in itself but how an individual experiences. Trauma includes both acts of commission (abuse) and commission (neglect).
Hope included visuals from her touching documentary called “Uprooting Addiction: Healing from the Ground Up”. During the film, six individuals addressed the ways they survived their trauma historically, and how recovery and learning life skills allowed them to heal. (To view Hope’s film, CLICK HERE.)
Hope described how the evidence-based therapy called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) can help people resolve their PTSD or unresolved pain. Hope is grateful for how dramatic the results can be from using EMDR combined with talk therapy. She is a EMDR professional trainer and conducts 2-day and longer training sessions throughout the country.
To view a replay of our Trauma Pathway Session with Hope, CLICK HERE.