BARBARA EDELMAN

My specialization in working with women, anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder began because of my awareness that for so many of us the roots of our symptoms are in trauma, defined as a highly stressful event that overwhelms a person's ability to cope. Yet we might not even have considered that we have experienced anything traumatic. (That seems like such a severe word!) Trauma is in the eye of the beholder. What is traumatic to a child might not be traumatic to an adult. An adult remembering her childhood, may consider her experiences to be normal, but when understanding that children are much more easily emotionally overwhelmed than adults, she may come to understand her childhood as traumatic. I've heard it said that there are traumas of commission (what happened) and traumas of omission (what didn't occur) such as neglect or missing experiences of nurturing. Traumas of omission can be just as painful and damaging and traumas of commission. It's an "eye-opener" when clients are..

Also known as: Barbara Edelman, MSW

Primary location: Saint Louis United States