Difficult Roads Can Lead to Beautiful Places. Healing Trauma is Possible.
Transformation: Trauma Therapy
What is Trauma?
Ultimately, a trauma can be any experience
that was overwhelming and distressing to you. The fear or pain associated with it negatively shapes how you see yourself, others, or the world at large.
Have you been through an overwhelming, painful, or traumatic event? Having a difficult time coping?
Are Any of the Following True for You?
Feeling anxious much of the time, or easily triggered into worry or panic when something reminds you of what happened?
Is your sleep disrupted? Do you have nightmares frequently?
Do you feel depressed, empty or disconnected from your life?
Are you trying to get through, but finding your usual ways of coping aren’t helping?
Have you begun to turn to medications or alcohol/drug use to cope with the distress?
It may be a relatively recent event.
It may have happened months or years ago.
It may have been something that occurred when you were growing up.
Childhood physical and sexual abuse, neglect, or growing up in a family where one or both parents were unavailable emotionally or physically are just a few examples of early experiences that can still carry an impact well into adult life.
Adult trauma experiences can include relationship breakups, divorce / separation, experiences of assault, discovering partner infidelity, accidents, and losses. These are just some examples.
If you’ve been through an overwhelming event or period in your life, you may find yourself saying things like:
“It just keeps running through my mind all the time”
“I just don’t feel like myself anymore”
“I’m just going through the motions”
“I should be better by now”
“Even little things are overwhelming”
If any of these struggles sound familiar,
rest assured you are not alone.
After going through a painful or shocking event, many people find that although they try to get back to living as before, it just isn’t that easy.
In some cases, long after the event or period of trauma ended, you may be feeling stuck.
You may be:
Chronically hard on yourself or others.
Feeling frustrated & confused about what has happened or why you are still having a hard time even though the situation is over.
Having a lot of shame either about what happened or the fact that it still impacts you in spite of your best attempts to cope.
Well-Meaning but Unhelpful Advice
On top of all that, maybe you’ve heard common (but unhelpful) advice from others like:
“Just get over it, it’s time to move forward.”
“Time heals all wounds.”
“Everything happens for a reason, look for the silver lining.”
“It could have been worse/you should be thankful.”
Although usually well-meaning, these comments unfortunately just make you feel like you should be somewhere other than where you are with all this.
But the truth is, you are where you are—for now. And it can also be your starting point for the next chapter of healing. Don’t let shame or fear get in your way of healing anymore.
How I Can Help
I provide a safe, non-judgmental place to talk about your experiences and feelings.
Together we will assess what strategies you are currently using to manage some of the symptoms of acute trauma, such as sleep difficulties, social isolation, or anxiety. Then together we can develop ideas to help you manage these issues better in the short term.
Many clients who have gone through trauma find themselves questioning themselves, others, and the world they live in. This is a normal part of post-trauma reaction, and I can help you with it.
Healing from trauma requires more than just alleviating symptoms. These questions and issues are very important to give room to, and having a skilled, trauma-trained therapist can make all the difference in helping you to heal as fully as possible.