Trauma Therapy
Are You Ready To Resolve Your Trauma?
Has trauma left a negative imprint on your life that contributes to you feeling broken, isolated, and unsafe? Do you carry around shame that’s convinced you what happened was somehow your fault? Are you hoping that counseling will address symptoms related to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), complex trauma, or Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)?
Despite appearing functional from the outside, your internal battles could be affecting you in ways that are hard to describe. When you live with unresolved trauma, your nervous system becomes dysregulated, making it difficult to keep your emotions in check. At times, you may feel flat, numb, and disengaged—or, conversely, become easily distressed, angry, enraged, or tearful. You might have grown accustomed to physical discomfort in your body as well as suffer from hypervigilance, anxiety, panic attacks, memory loss, nightmares, and sleeplessness.
Forging Close Relationships Could Be Challenging
If you suffer from complex trauma, you may have difficulty maintaining healthy boundaries, which can either be too porous or too rigid. If you struggle with vulnerability and intimacy, you might not connect closely with others, which can result in unfulfilling relationships and sex that is unenjoyable or unwanted. The resulting isolation this causes could lead you to develop unhealthy coping mechanisms to address your pain, such as disordered eating, substance use, and self-harm.
Although you may have lost hope that you can feel differently, trauma therapy can help you work through these challenges and effectively process what's happened to you. With steady and focused support, we can nurture self-compassion and practice tangible coping skills that will help set you up for a journey of mental and emotional healing.
The Shame Surrounding Trauma Can Be A Double-Edged Sword
Those of us who have experienced trauma often carry a lot of shame. Shame is a normal response to boundary violation, especially when it comes from someone close to us. Amid a traumatic experience, our minds and bodies shift into survival mode. Later, in an attempt to make sense of an awful experience, it's not uncommon to experience shame and a sense of responsibility, wondering, "What did I do to make this happen to me?"
Unfortunately, when shame remains hidden in the dark corners of the mind, it can convince us that we don’t deserve to feel better than we do. As trauma survivors, our shame can prevent us from reaching out for help or admitting that we are not okay. Additionally, our cultural norms that shy away from vulnerability can contribute to remaining quiet and not telling someone about what happened to us. But the reality is we’re not alone. When we respond to trauma with curiosity and compassion, we can undo the crippling effects of shame.
Why Receiving Professional Help Is So Necessary
Anyone who has experienced trauma can benefit from having a companion they can turn to who will help ground them and restore equilibrium. When the nervous system is stuck in a fight-flight-freeze response, the guidance of another person's regulated nervous system can help us regain stability. Telling our story to a safe, competent, and empathetic trauma specialist can aid in our healing.
Despite how vulnerable it can be to tell your story of hurt or harm to an outsider, processing a traumatic experience alone is extremely difficult. Whether you have symptoms related to complex PTSD, experienced childhood trauma, or lived through a singularly traumatic event, treatment can help.
Recovery From Trauma Is Possible With Therapy
When left unprocessed, trauma can get stuck within the body, causing untold physical and emotional pain. In counseling, you can process trauma and reduce its impact on your mind and body. Trauma-informed therapy lets you set a pace that’s tolerable and allows for effective processing without the risk of re-traumatizing. We won’t move forward until you feel safe and emotionally equipped.
As a trauma-focused counselor, building a strong rapport with you throughout therapy will be key to your recovery. With any trauma work we do, establishing a sense of safety is paramount so you can reset your boundaries and restore a sense of personal agency.
What To Expect From Trauma Counseling
Our goals in trauma therapy will be twofold—reducing disruptive symptoms by expanding your coping skills and unpacking whatever core issues keep you stuck. While coping skills come first, unpacking the underlying roots of trauma is often the deeper, long-term work.
In addition to forging a safe and trusting therapeutic relationship, I will help you nurture self-compassion as you learn to release shame. As you build up your resources, both internally and externally, you can draw upon them whenever you find yourself activated or dysregulated. Because experiencing trauma often includes a loss of control or a boundary violation, therapy will focus on developing your sense of agency in the here and now.
I Offer A Blend Of Evidence-Based Modalities For Trauma Treatment
To ensure therapy sessions are specifically tailored to your needs, I include modalities shown to be effective in treating childhood trauma and complex PTSD, including Internal Family Systems (IFS), Somatic Experiencing, interpersonal neurobiology, narrative therapy, and trauma-informed mindfulness and grounding exercises. Each approach offers a healthier way to access and manage your emotions so you can gain insight and process what happened to you.
Based on the principles of Polyvagal Theory, Somatic Experiencing therapy tracks the cycles of activation and deactivation within the nervous system that have been disrupted by trauma. As you learn to attune to bodily sensations, you can better understand how emotions affect you physically and what triggers your fight-flight-freeze response.
Drawing from trauma-focused narrative therapy and interpersonal neurobiology, we can explore how carrying shame has shaped how you think and feel. Rewriting your story from an empowered perspective while being attentive to the mind-body system allows you to release any shame holding you back. IFS for trauma can help you work with and support the parts of the self and develop more curiosity and compassion for your past and present self.
Although trauma therapy is often long-term work, I have seen remarkable progress when someone is truly ready and engaged in their recovery. With help and support, you can develop safety, support, and resources while expanding your capacity for resilience. Moving beyond trauma can instill a sense of coming home to yourself.
Contact Me
But Maybe You’re Not Sure If Trauma Therapy Is Right For You…
What if trauma and PTSD treatment wasn’t helpful before?
If your previous therapy experience wasn’t what you hoped for, it might have been because the trauma and PTSD therapist you worked with wasn’t a good fit. Research has shown that the therapeutic relationship is the most important aspect of success, even more so than the modality or approach used. [1]
This is why I strive to make a close connection with my clients and ensure that we have established trust and safety before getting underway with trauma treatment. Our work will be collaborative, so finding a pacing and approach that works well for you is key.
Will bringing up details in therapy related to trauma make me feel worse?
There is a particular way we talk about trauma in counseling that is distinct from going over the horrible things that have happened again and again. Sometimes, things can feel worse before they feel better. But that’s often due to numbing, avoidance, or nervous system dysregulation. This is temporary, and the ultimate goal is to move you toward a place where you are free from the suffering and pain of unprocessed trauma.
In trauma therapy, you will be the one who sets the pace of this work. We will slow down any conversations about what happened to avoid re-traumatizing your system and ensure you have adequate resources and coping skills in place.
The cost of trauma and PTSD counseling is too expensive for me to afford.
The cost of treatment to resolve trauma and PTSD is a legitimate concern. Although it’s a huge investment of time, energy, and money, experiencing long-term transformation is often the result of consistent therapy.
I've been in your shoes and know what it's like to make a financial and personal commitment to regular trauma therapy. I also have found it to be so worth it. If the cost is truly a barrier to you getting the help you need, let's talk.
It's Possible To Resolve Trauma And Live A Fulfilling Life
When you feel ready to work on your trauma, I’m here to help. To find out more about trauma therapy with me, please call or visit my contact page to set up a free 20-minute consultation.
Recent Posts
