Trauma Bloc Therapy

The Trauma Bloc Treatment Program

The Delray Center for Healing offers unique trauma-specific programming, designed to greatly enhance and improve the long-term benefits of trauma resolution therapy. From years of working high-acuity trauma cases, the clinical team at the Delray Center understands how debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be. Those exposed to traumatic events often re-experience the same trauma through flashbacks, nightmares, intrusive thoughts, and profound feelings of guilt. Left untreated, PTSD can severely disrupt basic, daily functioning in life

Trauma Bloc Therapy at the Delray Center

The Trauma Bloc treatment track at the Delray Center consists of 12-16 weeks of clinical programming, broken into 8 week increments. Trauma Bloc is structured similar to our Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) but includes even more individualized services. Trauma Bloc therapy is a major modification and enhancement of traditional PTSD treatment, combining Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, with exercise science and mindfulness-based techniques.

Each”trauma bloc” is a carefully planned and timed therapeutic sequence. The blocs themselves are 4-hour sequences completed once weekly. The first step in the sequence is an individual trauma therapy session utilizing EMDR and facilitated by a trained trauma therapist. This is followed by natural physiologic excitation through physical exercise, then a rapid physiologic deceleration phase. The bloc is completed with an individual meditation session, to complete the processing and “cooling off” period. Clients engage in 8-10 Trauma Bloc sessions during the course of a 12-16 week outpatient program. Clients participating in the Trauma Bloc treatment program undergo 4-6 weeks of foundational clinical work in our PHP program. This preparation phase includes physical training, individual therapy sessions, individual DBT skills sessions, and preliminary trauma therapy sessions.

The Science behind Trauma Bloc

PTSD treatment has long been hampered by gaps in our knowledge of how trauma affects the brain. But over time, our understanding of how the brain is impacted by traumatic experiences has increased, leading to new breakthroughs in how we treat both trauma and PTSD. We now know that traumatic stress can have long-term affects on certain areas of the brain, including the amygdala, the “fight or flight” center which governs how we respond emotionally to stimuli. Trauma Bloc therapy at the Delray Center is specifically designed to target the amygdala, the part of the brain that controls fear and anxiety.

Trauma Bloc therapy utilizes EMDR therapy, an emotionally intense form of therapy that helps to bring buried trauma to the surface so it can be resolved. In the case of PTSD sufferers, the emotion felt when the amygdala is activated is predominantly fear, triggering a “fight or flight” response. This excitation of the amygdala is then addressed in the physiological exercise sessions, accelerating the brain activity. The ultimate objective of the Delray Center’s Trauma Bloc program is the resolution of both long-term and short-term symptoms of PTSD.