Trauma Therapy

Did something terrible that happen to you that still interferes with your life today? Have you experienced a traumatic event and had difficulty letting go of it emotionally and mentally? Are you frequently reminded of a past traumatic incident? Does it affect your daily life?

Symptoms of posttraumatic stress can be deeply disturbing and interfere with how you think, feel, and behave. You may find it hard to trust other people. It may lower your self-esteem. After this traumatic event, you might be:

reliving it in dreams, flashbacks, or intrusive thoughts;
feeling anxious and afraid to do new things;
becoming disconnected, or numb and detached;
questioning whether what is happening to you is real (derealization);
feeling as though you don't really exist (depersonalization);
struggling with relationships or trust;
doubting yourself putting up with unacceptable behavior.

Your emotions might feel all over the place, sometimes being detached and sometimes getting upset over seemingly nothing. It might be hard for you to be around anything that reminds you of the trauma, which other people don’t really understand. Your body might feel strange; your sensitivity to sounds, light, and sudden movement might be heightened.

You might get sick more easily because of the constant stress of being on high alert. Your appetite and sleep might also be disrupted by the stress you’re under. It might be hard to be around a lot of other people, and you might be on guard much of the time, worrying that something bad will happen again. Unfortunately, your relationships with your loved ones might also be different now, and you might struggle to relax and enjoy their company.

A traumatic event is usually defined as any experience that threatens a person’s safety, physical integrity, or life, and results in intense fear, helplessness, or horror. It can come from many different types of terrible events, including childhood abuse and neglect, combat, intimate partner violence, rape, sexual assault, and bullying.

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Scared woman looking upward, in red wrap. Image by Nikolay Hristov

Wary African American man with glasses, bust portrait with color lighting

Trauma can also affect your mood and create anxiety.

Whether your trauma happened to you as an adult or as a child or teen, it can leave a wound and live on in your body long after the incident is done, and you've stopped thinking about it. You may get panic attacks when something reminds you of the trauma, or you may have difficulty feeling safe in public places or in intimate relationships. Your mood may suffer because you feel hopeless and helpless, as a result of the trauma.

If you suffer from posttraumatic stress, you are not alone. According to the National Center for PTSD and the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), you have a 6.8% chance of developing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during your life as an adult, or 5% chance as an adolescent. Girls and women are more likely to develop PTSD, but males are also negatively impacted by PTSD.

PTSD used to be called shellshocked when soldiers returned from combat. Over time, more sources of PTSD were recognized in civilians, so more people could receive treatment for it. As I noted above, not everyone who experiences a traumatic will develop PTSD.

Fortunately, if you are experiencing trauma-related anxiety, depression or PTSD, trauma treatment can help you restore your sense of normalcy and regain a sense of safety and stability. You can learn to manage your emotions, resolve past traumatic events, and see your trauma as something that happened to you, not who you are. Trauma therapy can help you grow from the experience and improve your life.

I offer individual and relationship therapy for adult and trauma survivors. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR therapy) is a very helpful, effective, and evidence-based trauma therapy that I’ve been doing for over 15 years. I also use Flash Technique and clinical hypnosis as ways to help you resolve the trauma that you experienced. The trauma therapy I offer you is tailored to your specific needs. I can help you find safety, calm, and confidence in facing life’s challenges.

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Trauma Therapy doesn't have to be hard and scary!

Many of the ways I provide trauma therapy do not involve reliving the traumatic incident repeatedly. You don't have to keep looking at the incidents in detail, and it doesn't have to disrupt your life and leave you wrecked in between sessions.

I believe in helping you build strengths and coping abilities before wading into the deeper waters of your traumatic past. Your PTSD, depression, or anxiety all served a purpose at some point in your life, hard as it may be to believe that. I don't want to leave you defenseless when we reprocess traumatic events. I want you to succeed and feel mastery over the experiences. You deserve to feel in charge of your experience, and I want to give you the tools you need to succeed in your trauma recovery.

Clinical hypnosis is a gentle, effective way of looking at your past and having a different experience of it. Solution Focused Brief Therapy can help you remember how you've coped with other difficulties and how powerful you really are. EMDR therapy is also empowering in viewing the experience from an adult perspective. I also have a self-help video program that can give you information and healing experiences. It can be used with therapy or without it. Please give me a call or click the contact button if you're ready to heal from your traumatic past.

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