Trauma Therapy

Trauma and traumatic stress leaves a long-lasting impact. It is not just about the past - unprocessed pain lives in our present and seeps through. You may have built a scaffolding and found a way to function  - humans are incredibly resilient. These adaptations work - until they don’t.  And if you are reading these lines, something may be nudging you to see if there is a different way to navigate life. Whether the past trauma results from a single major event or from a myriad of "paper cuts", it is impacting how you show up in the world and in your relationships. To put it very simply, trauma and traumatic stress is something that happened to us "too much, too fast, and without adequate support". 

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I use Emotionally Focused Therapy and Somatic Therapy (Sensorimotor psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing) to help you find a way to live and feel more fully.

 

I know, a lot of people shy away from F-word (feelings!) and B-word (body!) - doesn't it feel annoying when your therapist asks you "where you feel it in your body"?

But to overcome traumatic overwhelm, insights alone and reliance on just understanding why you do what you do is not enough. Real trauma recovery also involves gently exploring sensations, emotions, images, behaviors, and the meanings you had to create to get through life. I promise we will go at your pace.

 

It is a bottom-up approach, which means we don’t just talk about stress and trauma (I imagine you have read all about it) - we work with the nervous system itself. Therapy helps you slow down, feel safer, and respond differently. It does not mean "never feel stressed again". It means "I can navigate a storm and not drown", it means "I can reach for help when needed". Resilience does not mean "always calm", it means - appropriate, flexible response when needed, as much as needed, and our ability to come back to balance. It means increased capacity. It means ability to notice when something shifts. It means ability to tolerate discomfort AND joy without feeling paralyzed or exploding.  

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You can build an anchor - a beacon of safety which will help you withstand life storms. Because those storms are a part of life, we can't eliminate it but we can learn to move through them, with proper support.