Trauma Therapy
Do You Ever Feel Stuck In Life, But You’re Not Sure Why?
Are negative beliefs about yourself holding you back?
Do you feel guilty or ashamed of who you are?
Have you ever wondered if your emotional pain is because of trauma?
Maybe you feel anxious, rattled, and hypervigilant, like something bad is always about to happen. Or perhaps you feel depressed, hopeless, and lethargic—you have no motivation to improve your situation or go after what you want in life. Negative messages like I’m a terrible person or I’m unlovable may run through your head. As a result, you may find yourself considering therapy.
You Might Not Even Realize You Experienced Trauma
After all, not all forms of trauma are obvious. Maybe you’ve asked yourself if there’s trauma in your past, but every time, you rationalize your way out of admitting it. You might tell yourself that your experience “wasn’t that bad” and other people “have it worse.” If your trauma stems from your childhood and happened a long time ago, you might feel conflicted about whether or not to seek therapy.
The truth is that any experience that negatively impacts your quality of life is traumatic. Trauma overwhelms your nervous system and takes away your ability to feel safe. With the help of a knowledgeable and compassionate therapist, you can work through the emotional impact of trauma and get back to a place of safety and serenity.
It's Normal To Downplay Or Deny The Effects Of Trauma
Many people diminish the impact of trauma or deny that anything traumatic happened at all. In many ways, denial is a coping mechanism for dealing with trauma. It’s comforting to think that nothing bad happened and easier to bury negative experiences than address them.
Sometimes we ourselves downplay the effects of trauma—other times it’s the people around us. This is especially common if a family member or close friend is the one who traumatized us. Our loved ones may excuse that person’s behavior and tell us that we’re just “exaggerating” what they did. It’s hard for them to admit when someone they love is toxic or abusive.
Many People Aren’t Aware Of How Many Experiences Can Be Traumatic
In some cases, people deny that anything traumatic happened because they aren’t aware of how wide-ranging trauma can be. Trauma isn’t just relegated to people in combat zones. It can happen to people who’ve been bullied, lost a loved one, gone through a divorce, or grown up with demanding or hyper-critical parents. Some jobs, such as first responder or emergency room staff, can also be traumatizing.
No matter what your experience is or how bad you think it was, therapy is an opportunity to safely and honestly process your trauma with someone who supports you and wants the best for you.
Therapy Can Help You Work Through Trauma And Experience-Life Changing Relief
When traumatic things happen to us and our minds and bodies become overwhelmed, we need another human being to help us process what happened. After all, we are social creatures. Healing takes place in the context of relationships. A therapeutic relationship is a chance to reprocess trauma using interventions that are proven to alleviate its effects.
Above all, therapy gives you a safe space to say what you’ve never said to anyone else before. With me, you can be vulnerable without any fear of judgment. I’m here to help you work through the fear and shame associated with trauma and move into a brighter and healthier future.
What To Expect In Trauma Therapy Sessions
Therapy usually starts by identifying the root causes of your symptoms and the target memories that are distressing to you. From there, I’ll give you relaxation skills and emotional regulation techniques so that you can stay calm and grounded as you work through the pain of the past.
The long-term goal of counseling is to completely resolve trauma’s impact on your functioning. After all, I don’t want you to be in therapy forever. I want you to gain the skills to regulate your symptoms outside of sessions and prevent trauma from affecting your present and future.
Tailoring Your Approach To Trauma Therapy
One of the main approaches I use with trauma survivors is called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). Instead of having you talk through your trauma, EMDR uses a series of very gentle stimulation exercises (such as tapping or eye movements) to help you eliminate the emotional pain of trauma. This way, you can remember what happened without feeling upset or dysregulated.
I also utilize Brainspotting, which is a similar, body-based approach to trauma treatment. The goal of Brainspotting is to process and release experiences that are stored too deep within the body for the conscious mind to access.
In the end, life can be completely different if you reprocess the effects of trauma. I’ve helped many people who felt stuck and hopeless move through their trauma and experience life-changing relief. My hope is that I can help you accomplish the same thing.
You May Have Some Concerns About Trauma Therapy…
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My approach to trauma therapy is very quantifiable and less ambiguous than a lot of others. This is because I use healing methods that get to the root of trauma instead of just addressing symptoms. EMDR and Brainspotting are far more powerful than talk therapy, since they seek to resolve the emotional and physical effects of trauma that the conscious mind can’t reach. There is a wealth of evidence-based studies that prove the efficacy of these approaches. ¹ ²
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That’s why I aim to go at a pace that’s right for you. Although it will be necessary to gather some basic information about your trauma history, you get to decide how much of your story you want to share. What’s more, approaches like EMDR and Brainspotting do not require that you go into detail about your experience. They help you process trauma on a bodily level, not a verbal one.
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The time therapy takes varies from person to person. That said, after we have developed a treatment plan and finished your first few reprocessing sessions, I can generally give you an estimate of how many sessions it will take to complete trauma therapy. Since my approach is very methodical and much more efficient than most cognitive-based therapies, counseling with me is usually not long-term.
Trauma Takes Away Your Sense Of Safety. I’m Here To Help You Get It Back.
If you want to connect with a trauma specialist and free yourself from the pain of the past, you can fill out the contact form or call me at 949-682-5731.
