Beth Laing with Invictus Counseling: Overcoming OCD and PTSD

[00:00:02]Hi, it's Sue Greenwald here with Awakened Stories and I'm here today with a special guest, Beth Lang with Invictus Counseling. They'll be at the Empowered Light Holistic Expo here in Destin, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, August 1st and 2nd. Hey Beth, how are you?

[00:00:18]>> I'm doing well. I'm doing well. How are you doing?

[00:00:21]>> I'm doing really good. Doing really good. So, Invictus Counseling, can you tell us a little bit about what your the business does like how you help people and what you do?

[00:00:33]>> Absolutely. We are a group practice that specializes in treating obsessivecompulsive disorder, anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder or complex trauma. Trauma in general um is kind of those are those are our main areas of expertise. And I think right now in the field of counseling and and self-help, OCD is something that is is really going undiagnosed, undertreated. On average, it takes about 7 to 10 years for an individual with OCD in active treatment to be diagnosed with OCD.

[00:01:06]>> Oh wow.

[00:01:07]>> Um so that OCD is kind of one of the major major uh areas of specialty that that we try to focus on and and helping people with that as well as trauma um too.

[00:01:18]>> Awesome. Okay. And I' I've been to your business a few times. It's um there's several counselors that work there and uh it seems like a beautiful, very uplifting atmosphere there that you've created.

[00:01:32]>> Yeah.

[00:01:32]>> Yeah.

[00:01:33]>> Absolutely. And we've got our water fountain and then the the water trickling down. We got some spa music.

[00:01:40]And you know, I think we re what we really try to do is make sure that when when clients or or some of our of our people that are coming to us for services step through the door, they're stepping through into a different environment, a different space, so they know, oh, I'm safe here. I'm going to be taken care of here.

[00:01:59]>> Yeah. It seems very private. I mean, you have several counselors that work there, but it's very quiet. It's very like zen feeling. And it's very calming and I think it's a private, you know, very private place so people can come and go without >> worried about that, you know, their their business is going to be revealed, if you will, >> right?

[00:02:21]>> Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. We're we're kind of like tucked behind. We're not on we're kind of off of a main road, but our office isn't right on the main road. So, I think that confidentiality and that that assurance that that people will have a private space Yes. is important. Definitely.

[00:02:37]>> Yeah. Have you seen an uptick in PTSD and uh stress types of traumas coming out in people? Have you seen more um than let's say that there was in the past even five years?

[00:02:52]>> Um maybe I mean I think nationwide statistics may be a little bit different than than what we see here at our practice, right? I think there's there's a few different things. I I mean after co I would say that there were probably more people seeking help, right? We were all stuck inside and and stuck with ourselves, stuck with our family, stuck with our partners, right? And so all of those kind of internal issues became a lot more obvious um during COVID and and you know again I also think with advocacy and and people talking about mental health more and more um you might see more people seeking treatment. Does that mean that post-traumatic stress disorder is more prevalent now? Not necessarily, right?

[00:03:35]>> Um it may just have been unnoticed or or people weren't aware of what they may be struggling with. And and also that being said, you can have traumatic experiences without developing PTSD, right?

[00:03:48]>> Um so >> yeah, >> what are some of the symptoms of PTSD?

[00:03:52]Let's say I'm going about my life and um I have a lot of anxiety or whatever.

[00:03:57]What are the other symptoms? How would someone know that they have something that could be help they could be helped with?

[00:04:05]>> Absolutely. Um PTSD there is a certain event a criterion a event um that has to be experienced and that's whether it's witness danger to others um threatening threat to your life yourself. It's not something that we can like for example a lot of people um will say that they have PTSD from witnessing the 911 attacks on television. Unfortunately in the DSM5 these days they don't that does not count as a criterion a event. So that that criteria has to be met. Another thing is is that there's different types of symptoms. There's intrusion symptoms.

[00:04:43]There's emotion or affect regulation symptoms. Um as as well as issues within your daily functioning, sleep, nightmares, intrusive memories about the traumatic event or traumatic events. Um hypervigilance like you're always on guard. You're always looking for danger.

[00:05:01]Um you know, inability to experience positive emotions. So I am just constantly stressed or I am so down. And I think a really important piece to to post-traumatic stress disorder is is another um criterion which is a inappropriate blame or or maladaptive guilt. Right? There there's a sense of it's their fault or it's my fault and and that is that is a big piece of PTSD.

[00:05:28]>> Right.

[00:05:29]>> And sometimes uh you know we we think of veterans when we think of PTSD. Okay. So we think of veterans and you can certainly understand why, right?

[00:05:40]>> Absolutely.

[00:05:41]>> But the average person now is realizing maybe that they have PTSD. They might have had a traumatic incident in their childhood or adulthood and you know they haven't process it properly. Right.

[00:05:57]>> Yes. Yes.

[00:05:59]and and and that's the the [clears throat] maybe I'll I'll talk a little bit about that in a second because that's a really exciting piece to trauma treatment, but I think yeah, absolutely. I mean, PTSD as a diagnosis came about because of veterans coming back from I think it was the Vietnam War. You can fact check me. I'm I'm not quite too sure about that, but um that's how we came up with the diagnosis, right? And at that time it was called shell shock, right? and and over time through research and understanding um we've we've transitioned into other things but there are so your everyday person may struggle with PTSD and and never have been to war or maybe wasn't a part of a natural disaster or really traumatic car accident it could have just been relational in nature and that's where we start to talk about complex post-traumatic stress disorder which isn't recognized by the United States unfortunately we may get there one day but >> complex is more inter interpersonal relational in nature. So, it's um you know people that are survivors of narcissistic abuse, domestic violence, um things like that and even even workplace stressors, right?

[00:07:06]>> Yeah, it does seem like I when I talk to people, so many people have anxiety like they don't sleep well, they're like you said, either hypervigilant um sometimes they're they're people pleasers, like over-the-top people pleasers, right? Things that are not in their best interest. sometimes because they want people to like them or whatever it is, they want to keep out of trouble, whatever it might be, right?

[00:07:32]>> Yes. Yes. That's a very common one. And I think that we can kind of relate those symptoms back to the different states the nervous system is in, right? We get into that fight or flight where we're really anxious. We're like, "Oh my gosh, your heart's racing, maybe you're sweating, you're shaking." Um, and then we can transition even past that and further into the freeze or fawn response. Freeze is where we literally can't move. We're just stuck. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I'm just stuck. I don't know what to do. We shut down. Right. And then what you're talking about with the people pleasing is the fawn response.

[00:08:07]And I I most oftenimes explain this as if there was a bank robber. What are you going to do? appease to everything that bank robber wants to pro to protect yourself and everybody else in the bank.

[00:08:19]That's the fawn response, >> right? Okay. Okay. Now, tell me what you'll be doing at the empowered light expo like what is it uh you know you'll provide other than of course you've just given me good information. So, a lot of us are feeling stress like I'm not a good candidate because I am under stress right now [laughter] but it's okay. But like people feel stressed, they don't sleep, they either overeat, they undereat, you know, like there's so many behaviors that are, you know, um, you know, point to a deeper problem. All right. So, what will you be doing at the at the expo?

[00:08:57]>> At the expo, we're going to have different um, activities, different things. So, we're going to do some, you know, rock painting, some affirmation gathering, and so people can take away little lessons that they've learned um at at the tent at at the expo. Um, you know, and and I think another another piece that's important is we're we're also going to do some education around a specific intervention called eye movement desensitization reprocessing, otherwise known as EMDR. EMDR kind of to go back to what you were saying earlier is where when we experience something traumatic that that event and those emotions get stuck they get stuck in one side of the brain and that's where the reexperiencing of trauma comes from is because it's stuck it hasn't been able to process and go back to long-term memory right mimics eye movement rapid eye movement in your waking state to help process that information through so that you're no longer feel like you're in your trauma all over again. Um, so that that is something that we'll pre be presenting and and providing education on. Um, I would love I would love to do EMDR on everybody there, but I you need to be um there needs to be some more evaluation and and it's it's more of a process. So, we'll be doing more psycho education on that, but definitely some therapeutic activities um >> and things like that. Yeah. So, let's say I walk by your booth, we get talking, and we determine that I have stress, trauma, or anxiety or whatever, and I'm interested in EMDR. What's the next step?

[00:10:36]>> The next step? Well, um, if you live in if you live in Florida, you can you can absolutely kind of go to our website and and sign up. If you don't live in Florida, though, there are providers nationwide that are um that are credentialed and and certified in EMDR.

[00:10:51]So that I think if you have insurance or if you're looking for cash pay, you would start there, go through there, find an EMDR certified therapist and and that could [clears throat] really help if you were interested in that.

[00:11:02]>> Okay. And just for those that don't know, Beth's office is in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, which is right across the bridge from Dustin. And like I said, extremely private, serene. It's a place you'd like to sit and read a book. It's very comforting there. So >> yeah, we've we've got puzzles. We've got crossword puzzles. Yeah.

[00:11:24]>> Yeah. So, so I know that there's a technique called tapping where you can tap different parts of your body to release the the blocked, we'll call them memories, energy, whatever you want to call it. And >> when I first heard about tapping like 20 plus years ago, I thought was lost. [laughter] Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Right.

[00:11:50]Yeah.

[00:11:50]>> And I had I had um a woman come to my yoga studio and do, you know, a workshop on it. And I'm just going to say I was shocked at how that worked.

[00:12:03]>> Yeah. Right. It's pretty cool, isn't it?

[00:12:05]>> Fabulous. Now, so you have a different technique, but the the the philosophy is the same.

[00:12:12]>> Process the stuck energy in the body.

[00:12:16]>> Yes. Yeah. Essentially. Yeah. And and I think that we can we can call it energy, we can call it memories, we can call it a neurological thing, right? Call it what you want. But I think if you find something that works for you, it works for you. EFT is it's what you're talking about, the tapping, the emotion focused tapping.

[00:12:33]>> Um it's it's based off of a Chinese it's rooted in Chinese medicine, which is really really cool.

[00:12:39]>> Yeah.

[00:12:40]>> Yeah.

[00:12:40]>> Yeah. I know it's not the same, but it's it is like it's kind like processing it through your nervous system, I think is what you know a good way to say it, you know.

[00:12:50]>> Absolutely.

[00:12:50]>> But I was I was quite shocked at the time because I was like, uhhuh. You know, but that's you know, even with yoga, we're moving our body, the physical stuff, blah blah blah, but you're stretching things out. You're unblocking the stuck energy, no matter what it is. Even if you're doing something gentle, um it it brings up memories that you haven't processed.

[00:13:14]It's all connected, right?

[00:13:17]>> You just locked up.

[00:13:23]>> Are you serious?

[00:13:25]>> I'm I'm here. Are we back?

[00:13:27]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:28]>> Okay.

[00:13:28]>> I think you were saying absolutely. That was funny. [laughter] >> Yeah. Absolutely. And and I think that, you know, our our brain and our body is really good at survival, right? That's kind of why we've made it this far and that's why we've made it as far as we have. But I I don't think that our our brain or our body is really wired for happiness or for peace.

[00:13:50]>> And that's where yoga, meditation, those types of things really come in and help us foster that within our nervous system. Hey, we're not we're not cavemen anymore. We're not fighting lions all the time, right? We're good. We're safe.

[00:14:04]Everything's okay.

[00:14:05]>> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. We're just driving through traffic having to do the jobs of five people, support our family on um you know, a dwindling income, you know, the Yeah. You know, it is stressful in a different way.

[00:14:21]>> Yeah.

[00:14:21]>> Yeah.

[00:14:22]>> Absolutely.

[00:14:23]>> So, how did you get involved with EMDR?

[00:14:27]How did you start that?

[00:14:29]>> That's a that's Yeah. I started working at this practice and the the practice owner actually um had me go to the training and and take it and the first time I heard the MDR I was a student in my master's program and and it was something that was uh really for trauma.

[00:14:46]It was directed at trauma. Does that mean that it's it it only addresses trauma? Not at all. It addresses phobias. It addresses um anxiety and depression, stress, right? Um, it can it can address social anxiety. It can it can address a lot of different things.

[00:15:03]Um, so that's kind of how I how I got introd introduced to EMDR.

[00:15:07]>> Oh, awesome. Awesome. I love it when you know, again, your your your goal is to help your clients and the people that come to you, >> right?

[00:15:15]>> So, there's not always just one right answer for them, right?

[00:15:19]>> That's right.

[00:15:20]>> Uh, you know, everyone responds to a different healing modality, technique, words, verbiage, whatever it might be.

[00:15:28]So, I love that.

[00:15:29]>> Yeah.

[00:15:30]>> Absolutely. Yeah. And and I think that that's kind of my job as a as a clinician is to tap into the client's world and and and be in their world with them to helpate whatever it is that they're navigating through.

[00:15:44]>> Awesome. Anything else we should tell the viewers about you, what you'll do at the expo, or about your practice?

[00:15:54]You know, I I think something that makes our practice a little bit more unique is that we we are in private practice, which means that our clinicians are well taken care of. They have time, they have space, which is maybe a little bit different when you see a big organization, right? Right.

[00:16:10]>> Um so, we all work together. You know, you got people here that are that are really really caring and dedicated to this and and I think that's a little bit of what separates our practice from others.

[00:16:23]>> Awesome. Awesome. It's so beautiful.

[00:16:25]Well, thank you so much for sharing what you'll be doing, a little bit about your practice, and of course yourself. Like people people like to get to know others, like what makes them tick, like you know, why did you choose this and I choose that? People love knowing more about others.

[00:16:41]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:42]>> Yeah. Absolutely. And I think something that that is this this field is deeply personal to me. And I and I think I went into college thinking that I was going to be a sport management major and you know go work at for some some sports company and and then I took my first psychology class and I was like oh wait this is actually something that really matters. This is this may be one of the the main things that really matters to people is helping helping empower them to live their best lives.

[00:17:13]>> Yeah.

[00:17:13]>> Well, like like we were talking earlier, I think the pandemic like for some of us it was the best worst thing that ever happened to them because they they were guided to make choices in their lives that led to where they are now, which is a good place. For some though, you know, the lack of funds, the um like you said, domestic abuse, probably time to drink and do bad habits more. Like that was not a happy time for them.

[00:17:43]>> No.

[00:17:44]>> And of course, there was a lot of stress. A lot of people were in these nursing homes, hospitals. You couldn't go visit them. A lot of them did not make it. That was very stressful to many. Right.

[00:17:56]>> Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot of isolation during that time.

[00:17:59]>> Yeah. Horrible. So I think that like it kind of upped the amps on uh you know the stress level for we'll say the average person. So >> yeah definitely and and even transitioning out of co was also a difficult guil difficulty for a lot of people. I have to go back to work. I can't just work in my PJs all day.

[00:18:22][laughter] Right.

[00:18:23]>> Yeah. A lot of people will say, you know, my social anxiety, I didn't have it before, but after COVID, like going back, I was like bombarded with all of this fear and all this worry. So, yeah.

[00:18:34]Yeah, it was it was a big disruption to all of our lives. And I think that um you know, I I think that mental health and issues with stress and and regulation occurred before COVID and after COVID and will continue because we're human, right? We are human and we have human experiences and and you know that's that's why counselors and and interventions and scientists and you know even your yoga yoga studio practitioners and your spiritual healers um we're here and we're there to kind of help you along your journey.

[00:19:06]>> Yeah. I I just feel like the uh the pandemic literally changed the way our society functions, the way we interact with people. Like some people don't even want to leave leave their houses, you know, there's a lot of jokes about that, but it's real. Like nobody wants to like work outside the home anymore. And um you know, the price of everything obviously has increased, but people are actually a little bit afraid to be around physically other people, which is still lingering from that time. And it is quite shocking like people like they're afraid of germs and and you know catching something from someone else.

[00:19:44]And it's I I kind of feel like it's sad we're missing. I I think really it's about our lives are about connecting with others and now we're like we're we're all withdrawing and it's not thing.

[00:19:58]>> That is a huge thing. And and you know I'm I'm no I'm I'm no economics major.

[00:20:03]I'm I'm no public safety or public that is not my my field of expertise. What I can say is that we are pretty lonely these days.

[00:20:12]>> Yeah.

[00:20:12]>> We are we are not having those deep emotional connections with other people as much as maybe we were before or maybe not at all ever. Right. I don't I don't know. I'm not a I'm not a research on that. But what I can say is I am noticing a disconnect right in our youth, in our adults, our young adults, even our older especially our older adults, right? Loneliness is something that really affects our lonely our older adults. So, >> yeah.

[00:20:37]>> Yeah. Connection building is is a really important piece to to our lives. We're social we're social creatures. We need social connection.

[00:20:45]>> Yeah. Yeah. And I I was just thinking of children too. Even if the children are in a we'll say decent solid family.

[00:20:54]Okay. They're still on their tablets and their their phones and the TV computer, whatever it is, the games.

[00:21:02]>> They spend a like they're sucked in.

[00:21:04]They're addicted to the games or whatever it might be.

[00:21:07]>> Yeah.

[00:21:08]>> They they choose that over other kids or playing or whatever they're doing, you know.

[00:21:15]>> I think it's a little sad.

[00:21:17]>> Yeah, it is. It is. And [clears throat] I and I think that, you know, our tablets, our games, our phones, our social media, all of that is a highly rewarding experience when you're in it.

[00:21:29]It it sends dopamine to our brain constantly every two seconds, right? And which makes our which makes our brain kind of bombarded with all of this information. There's actually a huge a whole article and a video um on Harvard's website about why it's good to be bored sometimes.

[00:21:46]>> Yeah.

[00:21:46]>> Yeah. Boredom allows things to come up and so Yeah. Yeah. Even our kids that were at those crucial social developmental periods during COVID are experiencing some long-term lasting effects from that.

[00:21:58]>> Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. That's why like sitting in nature like you know in the old days people would sit on their porches at night. They'd have dinner and they'd go out and sit and you know like it it start to get dark and they talk they'd actually talk face to face and we're to each other.

[00:22:17]>> Yeah. Go to any restaurant, decent restaurant and there's a family there and literally they will all have their phones out and they're all checking their phones when they're sitting across the table from a human.

[00:22:32]>> Yeah.

[00:22:32]>> Yeah.

[00:22:33]>> It is a it is a thing that exists. That is true. That is true.

[00:22:37]>> Yeah. Sad about that.

[00:22:39]>> And it's it's not so good for for our mental health. It really isn't. And that's what kind of what the research is suggest suggesting is that being on your phone a lot is really not good.

[00:22:48]>> Yeah.

[00:22:49]>> It takes you out of the present moment.

[00:22:51]>> Totally. Totally. As we're on the computer, of course, I mean, we need to do this like we're getting the world the word out to the world. But yeah, the the phone, the internet has taken such a big part of our life and I feel like we need to simplify life a little bit. But that I think we'll be I think we're going to be circling back to that very soon in the future. We're going to still use technology as a tool, but we're not going to be so maybe addicted to it.

[00:23:22]We're all going to be doing more things that we love and focus there versus what somebody else is presenting to us, right?

[00:23:31]>> Yeah. Abs. I mean, I hope so. I I definitely hope so. There's balance.

[00:23:35]There's balance in this life. And, you know, as as a clinician, I need this computer. I need this computer so that my [clears throat] services are covered for for the clients that I see. And, you know, so there there's a balance, right?

[00:23:47]And and you got to make sure that you're balancing your time, your screen time with um time outside, time outdoors, >> um time with friends, time with family, with your partner, right, with your kids.

[00:24:00]>> Yeah, agreed. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for your time. I wanted people to get to know you and what you'll be doing. And I look forward to seeing you in less than two weeks at the Empowered Light Expo. Yay.

[00:24:14]>> Yay. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:24:16]Thank you. And for those that might want to attend the expo, the website is awakenedtories.com.

[00:24:23]All information is out there. Thank you so much, Beth. I appreciate it.

[00:24:28]>> Thank you.

[00:24:28]>> Bye.

[00:24:29]>> Bye.

[00:24:30]>> Bye.