Trauma is a part of life. Most of us think of trauma as a single event, like a car accident or a sexual assault, or perhaps a series of events, like domestic violence or combat experiences. But trauma can also come from enduring experiences in stressful environments or overwhelming situations that push you past your ability to stay present, feel safe, or make sense of the experience. Some examples include growing up with an emotionally unstable caregiver, long-term bullying, or emotional or physical neglect. Trauma is individualized; just because someone else went through a similar experience and didn’t walk away with trauma doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you for having trauma.

Symptoms of trauma can include:

• Confusion, inability to stay present, or frequent feelings of overwhelm

• Over-reactions (or under-reactions) to situations that “should” feel safe

• Flashbacks (reliving past events)

• Memories of traumatic events that cause distress 

• Negative view of others (ex: “Everyone is hostile toward me”)

• Negative sense of self (ex: “I’m worthless, not good enough, a bad person”)

• Nightmares

• Depression or anxiety that is disproportionate to your circumstances (ex: feeling unhappy despite “having it all”)

• Difficulty trusting others or finding or maintaining healthy relationships

Trauma-informed therapy goes beyond just treating symptoms; we will go deeper, to process the experiences that caused the trauma. By targeting the source of the trauma, we can reduce distress and desensitize painful past experiences, which promotes healing, growth, and neural integration. Trauma-informed therapy will help you reset your nervous system so your body can feel safe again.

Trauma therapy takes place in a safe space, with a mixture of exploration of the past, present, and future, as well as psychoeducation and holistic, evidence-based modalities. Click here to learn more about EMDR and ART, two of our trauma-informed modalities.

Working through trauma is a highly personal process, requiring more time, care, and sensitivity. Because of this, we offer extended therapy sessions, giving you more than 45-50 minutes of time with your therapist. Click here to learn more about therapy intensives.

We can utilize various modalities and techniques to process trauma. We will create a treatment plan and an approach that will fit your unique history, how your symptoms present, what your goals are, and what your current situation looks like. Some of our modalities include trauma-informed talk therapy informed by IFS (Internal Family Systems) and DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), mindfulness-based therapy, ART (Accelerated Resolution Therapy), and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). 

Absolutely. We will always assess your readiness before proceeding with trauma therapy, and we will never force you to talk about traumas that don’t feel safe to explore yet. Not all trauma therapy involves reliving the experience or telling the story of what happened to you; we have plenty of other ways to help you feel better.

The answer to this question is highly individualized, and depends on the nature of the trauma, severity of symptoms, presence of resiliency factors, and many other variables. If you are eager for fast relief or an accelerated process that will give you results sooner, please explore our options for therapy intensives.

Call us, or use the contact form today, to get a free consult scheduled. Once we get an idea of your needs, we will schedule your first session ASAP. You don’t have to wait a week to get a consult call with this group. We offer same-week appointments, and our focus is always on getting you the help you need as fast and effectively as possible.