You've survived your traumatic experience(s); you are safe now, and yet this trauma cloud still hangs over you. It’s showing up in your life in big ways and small. Maybe it’s impacting your most important relationships, your work, your sleep, and your focus. In essence, your ability to be present in the moment. Your freedom to be able to enjoy the now. 

Trauma impacts us in so many seen and unseen ways, internal and external. One of the most challenging aspects of trauma I have noticed is the simultaneous difficulty of managing your emotional responses and the impact it has on our sense of self. Impacted self-esteem, guilt, and shame all start to pile up. Instead of meeting yourself with compassion, a critical voice plays in your head. You desire so much to be present, to fully live and experience life but you know these unresolved traumatic pieces are holding you back. 

Trauma can create cycles of reactivity, hyper-vigilance, dissociation, and fear. It pulls you out of the present moment and leaves you feeling stuck. Therapy can help you find a way to tolerate and learn how to regulate your emotions and bodily sensations that become triggered during a trauma response. 

How?

First, we must find a way to give you some relief from all of the dysregulation you have been experiencing. We will help you learn how to connect the way you think, the way you feel, and your bodily sensations. Through this increased cognitive, emotional, and physical awareness, you will begin to learn how to regulate your emotions and increase attunement into your body, and ultimately, learn to feel comfortable and safe within your body. 

Next, we will do the work of processing the traumatic material. There are many different techniques and therapy models on how to process trauma and I am trained in several. Together we can discover what type of techniques will be best suited for you. 

And then there is the important step of trauma integration. What do I mean by integration? Well, when you have processed the traumatic pieces of your experience, they do not leave you— it is still part of your history, it is still part of your story, and who you are now. So we must find a way to weave in the narrative of what has happened in a way that leaves you feeling secure and whole. You will uncover new meanings and will have grown from your experiences. You will be able to regulate yourself, through internal coping skills and also through the secure connection you have with loved ones (safe vulnerable connections are trauma kryptonite!). You will have a strong foundation of safety that helps you move forward and navigate this world and all the new experiences that have yet to come. You can feel present in your daily life and experience fully all the precious moments— the good, the bad, and everything in between, fully experiencing it all. 

I know confronting trauma is a process that can feel scary and overwhelming. This is why therapy is here to support you through, why I am here to help walk alongside you.

Remember, you do not have to walk this path alone. If you are ready to start this journey together, please reach out.