Mental Health Professionals Give Ways To Combat PTSD After Saint Francis Shooting

After the tragic shooting on the Saint Francis campus this week, many people in the community are looking for ways to move forward.

For some, that might involve seeking professional help.

Crystal Cross with Improving Lives Counseling Services said one of the main goals of trauma therapy is to give people back the power they feel they lost after a traumatic event.

“To be able to take that power back from someone that has taken it from you, that was out of your control, it really helps to heal the brain,” said Cross.

She says for some people the brain has trouble processing what happened after a traumatic event.

That’s why mental health professionals recommend a form of therapy called EMDR.

“If they hear a loud noise, they go back to that point, and it’s like they’re there again,” Cross said. “EMDR takes those memories, or those experiences, and turns them into memories that have no control over them.”

EMDR, which is short for Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing, replicates sleeping patterns that help your brain process information and uses those to update the past thoughts with present information.

“EMDR kind of helps to reconnect the logical thinking, which uses the word adaptive, way of living, with the negative experiences and emotions someone is experiencing in everyday life,” said Cross.

Cross says while people might suppress their emotions at first, it’s important to seek help sooner than later.

“Sometimes, people like to just bury it, and ignore it, and act like it didn’t happen, and that’s okay, for a little while,” Cross said. “But it will eventually come up somewhere else.”

She says she hopes people in Tulsa know that it’s okay to ask for help in these situations.

“If you feel, dissettled, if you feel upset, if you have any kind of fear or anxiety around what has happened in Tulsa, talk to somebody about it,” said Cross. “See where it’s coming from, and investigate it.”

Cross said she wants people to know that seeking professional help after a traumatic event should not be seen as a sign of weakness, but instead, a sign of strength.