PTSD Therapy

What Makes PTSD So Persistent?

Trauma—whether a single event or long-term exposure—can cause the brain to tag neutral situations as dangerous. This is because your threat system (the amygdala, or what we affectionately call the "walnut brain") doesn’t operate on logic. It’s not interested in what you know is safe. It’s here to protect you, whether you want it to or not.

Research shows that the amygdala becomes overactive in individuals with PTSD (Shin et al., 2006), while the part of the brain responsible for rational thought and meaning-making—the prefrontal cortex—has a harder time staying online. This is why you might understand your trauma… and still feel like you’re stuck in it.

The ShiftGrit Approach: Not Just Talking. Rewiring.

Here’s where ShiftGrit is different.

Our model is a combination of two powerful elements:

• Pattern Theory: our cognitive framework that explains how trauma-based patterns form and show up

• Reconditioning: our therapist-led, neuroscience-backed process that targets and deletes trauma-linked beliefs and responses
  
  

We don’t just talk about the trauma. We retrain the brain.

🧠 Understanding Trauma Through Pattern Theory

At ShiftGrit, we start by helping you map the repeating loops that are disrupting your life—loops of behavior, emotion, and thought that are usually driven by limiting beliefs, like:

• “I’m not safe”

• “It’s my fault”

• “I’m powerless”

• “I can’t trust anyone”
  
  

These beliefs usually stem from non-nurturing elements—disruptions in your developmental environment or high-impact traumatic events. Whether it's a history of emotional neglect, a single act of violence, or years of subtle invalidation, the result is the same: your brain learns a distorted version of the truth and keeps reacting like it’s still happening.

Pattern Theory gives us the language and structure to explain the chaos—and create a plan for change.

🧁 The Cupcake Model: Yes, Therapy Should Be This Clear

We like metaphors around here. So let’s talk about cupcakes.

• The wrapper is our safe, structured, therapist-led environment

• The cake is our standardized protocol, designed to eliminate limiting beliefs and reduce trauma reactions at the source

• The icing is what your therapist brings—skills from modalities like CBT, EMDR, DBT, ACT

• And the cherry on top? That’s you. Your courage, your insight, and your commitment to real change
  
  

This isn’t just talk therapy. This is strategic, repeatable, and effective trauma treatment that makes sense—and gets results.

🔁 Reconditioning: Exposure That Actually Works

Traditional exposure therapy for PTSD focuses on helping you tolerate traumatic memories. At ShiftGrit, we take it further. We use a five-part imaginal exposure protocol designed to create extinction of the emotional charge, not just desensitization.

This is known as counter-conditioning, and it’s supported by decades of research (Foa & Rothbaum, 1998; Resick et al., 2008). Our version blends emotional activation with new belief encoding, helping the walnut brain learn: this isn’t happening anymore.

You’ll be gently exposed to the limiting belief (e.g., “I’m powerless”)—but within a safe, structured context that teaches your brain a new response. Over time, the trauma response fades. And you start to live differently.

The Spider Story (Yes, Again)

Let’s revisit the spider story.

You tell me spiders aren’t dangerous. That most are harmless. That I’m way bigger. I agree with all of it—until a spider runs across the floor. Then my walnut brain takes over. Logic disappears. I freeze, flee, or freak out.

That’s PTSD.

It’s not about what’s true. It’s about what your threat system learned from the past.

At ShiftGrit, we help untangle that learning. Not by gaslighting your experience, but by retraining your system to respond to the present—not the past.

What Does PTSD Therapy Look Like with ShiftGrit?

We begin with an enriched intake to identify trauma patterns, non-nurturing elements, and current impacts. From there, we:

• Run patterns to teach you the how + why of your trauma response

• Educate you on the walnut brain vs. cognitive brain dynamic

• Use structured imaginal exposure to dissolve the emotional intensity of your trauma beliefs

• Create global change—so shifts show up in parenting, work, relationships, and self-worth
  
  

You’ll get clarity, language, and change. Not worksheets. Not venting. Not guesswork.

Conditions We Work With

Our PTSD protocol is effective for both single-event trauma and complex trauma, including:

• Childhood emotional/physical abuse

• Car accidents and medical trauma

• Sexual assault and relational betrayal

• Combat-related trauma

• Domestic violence

• Religious or institutional trauma

• Developmental trauma (CPTSD symptoms)
  
  

If you're unsure whether your experience “counts,” we’ll help you make sense of it—without labels, judgment, or pressure.

PTSD Therapy Calgary – Real Healing Starts Here

You don’t have to relive it to release it. And you don’t have to figure this out alone.

At ShiftGrit, we offer in-person PTSD therapy in Calgary and virtual sessions across Alberta. Whether you're carrying something recent or something that’s followed you for decades, we're here to help you finally put it down.

👉 Book a consultation or reach out to our Calgary team today.

You’re not broken. You’re just patterned.
Let’s shift that.

📍 Serving Calgary & Alberta