Trauma Therapy
Could Trauma Informed Therapy Help You Feel Less Stuck In Your Life?
Has a traumatic event left you with symptoms that make it a struggle to live the life you wish to?
Are uncomfortable memories and flashbacks distracting and holding you back from your daily activities?
Have your relationships suffered due to trauma, leaving you wondering if you can truly trust people in your life, including your loved ones?
Trauma can occur in childhood, within your relationships, or from unexpected causes, all of which can be difficult to live with, but therapy can provide relief.
Difficult Experiences Can Create An Overall Negative Outlook
If you’ve gone through something very difficult, you may likely see the world and yourself through limiting beliefs and have negative thoughts and emotions such as hopelessness, despair, and sadness. You may struggle to find connections in your life or to maintain healthy relationships, especially if you had dysfunctional role models in childhood that you learned how to interact with others from.
You could have anxiety or depression and experience difficulty eating, sleeping, and taking care of yourself. You might also put everyone’s needs before your own or not even know what your needs or wants are for life anymore.
Right now, you might be feeling stuck and lost. Therapy can provide an objective third party to finally address the painful experiences that have been a part of your life so you can thrive and live life on your terms.
Reach Out
Trauma Is Very Common
When trauma occurs in childhood, it can leave us with scars that are difficult to resolve without a support system or without seeking therapy in adulthood. Sometimes trauma can result from the unexpected, like the loss of a loved one, an illness, an accident, or something like a natural disaster.
Trauma is a very common experience, and studies have shown that 61 percent of men and 51 percent of women have gone through at least one traumatic event in their lives. This would place mental trauma as one of the most common psychological health conditions.*
We don’t wake up one day and decide to have problems, as they come from somewhere, and fall on a spectrum of their impact on our lives. Childhood trauma can be a major contributor, as attachment issues develop from our relationships with our caretakers. If our needs are not met or we were mistreated in some way, we will see the evidence of that later on in life, whether that's through difficulty connecting with others, trusting others, or feeling safe and secure.
Reaching Out For Help Is Important For Processing Traumatic Experiences
Therapy is incredibly helpful for people who have experienced trauma and other painful experiences, as it can provide support, objective insight, and the help needed to identify what someone wants for their lives and their future. Additionally, finding a specialist trained in evidence-based treatments to help reprocess trauma can be the catalyst for changing the way the brain handles painful memories.
Treatments like Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) focus on memories and trauma triggers so they no longer have such a stronghold over your nervous system responses. This treatment at my practice can help free you from your symptoms and provide much-needed relief, perspective, and hope for your future.
Therapy Can Help Release Your Mind And Body From Trauma Symptoms
When you reach out for therapy at my practice, I provide unbiased help and expert guidance so you can understand what you’ve been through and ultimately heal. We can explore your relationships – with yourself and others – as well as how you currently cope with stress and what your coping mechanisms are. Therapy involves addressing your painful memories, and while this may be scary at first, I can share countless success stories with you about how not only trauma therapy but also EMDR is making a huge difference in people’s lives.
What Is Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing Therapy?
EMDR originated as a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) treatment but has become a helpful intervention for all forms of trauma therapy as well as anxiety and depression. Not only does this method work to reduce reactions to triggers, but it also addresses the trauma that is stuck in your subconscious and your body, processing it instead of just talking about it and going in circles.
The program has eight phases, each of equal importance, but what really makes this treatment method so impactful requires understanding some of what happens on a neurological level. EMDR involves “bilateral stimulation”—activating both sides of your brain with methods like rapid eye movements, auditory cues, or physically tapping your body.
This stimulation occurs while you reflect on memories that cause trauma symptoms. This process reduces symptom severity and allows you to reprogram more positive experiences with those that previously caused pain. This method works in both virtual and in-person environments.
Therapy Can Provide A Full Understanding Of You And Your Experiences
In addition to EMDR, I also incorporate something called Internal Family Systems (IFS) for trauma therapy. This involves looking at how your personality is composed of “parts” that formed during certain ages or formative experiences. For example, the ten year old version of yourself is still in there, ready and waiting to come out and fight your battles. Understanding this can help you gain perspective about your life and how you react to triggers.
I incorporate somatic therapy as well and can teach you a variety of tools for self-regulation that can become part of your mental health journey and healing from trauma. These involve breathing exercises, journaling, mindfulness methods, and understanding how to set healthy boundaries to improve mood and motivation.
Seeking help for your symptoms and painful experiences requires great strength and courage, indicating your capability to regain control of your life. Feeling overwhelmed and afraid is a normal response for someone who has been through trauma, and you are not alone in this. Many people have faced similar challenges and have found ways to cope and thrive, and I can’t wait to help that happen for you, too.
You Might Still Have Concerns About Trauma Therapy…
What will talking about my trauma in therapy do? It can’t change anything that has already happened.
When faced with a painful experience that we maybe can’t believe has happened to us, it can leave us feeling down about ourselves. It can lead to feelings of shame, low self-esteem, and a sense of negativity that filters into every facet of our lives. You have a choice, though, in continuing to live like this, or to try counseling or therapy to help you reclaim your enthusiasm for life, confidence, and peace of mind beyond trauma. EMDR is a powerful form of trauma treatment that is proven to help, and with my help, you can move on from this difficult time in your life.**
I am worried therapy will take a really long time to make a difference in my life.
The time it takes to get therapeutic help and follow through with sessions can vary from person to person. You will start your journey at my practice by gaining skills right away to help you with symptom relief, and EMDR is expected to take about eight to ten weeks, give or take. Once we begin, it's important to focus on your progress—not perfection. There may be some bumps in the road. But as your therapist, I have witnessed this before, and I have helped others get through their trauma processing just the same as you can.
I am worried that talking about my experiences will only make things worse.
It is hard to talk about past trauma, as it can be hard to open up to a counselor or therapist about what you’ve been through. I am trained in trauma therapy and specialize in EMDR among other modalities. My profession involves getting to know people like you without judgment because I have seen and heard all types of stories. My goal is to use my knowledge and expertise to provide you with the evidence-based relief that therapy allows. It can be difficult at first to leave your safety zone and fully acknowledge your experiences, but this process has worked for others, and you are just as capable of receiving the benefits as anyone else.
Let's Discuss How Trauma Therapy Can Help You Live Fully
At my practice, you can better understand, process, and heal from your painful experiences so you can live life to the fullest. Call 626-684-4906 or use my contact page to book a free, 15-minute consultation to learn how therapy can help.
*https://nhttac.acf.hhs.gov/soar/eguide/observe/trauma_related_responses
**https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3951033/