Trauma Counseling
What is trauma?
Trauma is the body’s emotional response to deeply disturbing circumstances in which you felt overwhelmed and helpless. When distressing events exceed your capacity to cope, we label this as trauma. Trauma results in difficulties with experiencing full range of emotions, disrupts your sense of self, and causes interpersonal conflict. Trauma can also lead to physical symptoms like headaches and/or nausea.
What are the signs of trauma?
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Shock, denial, or disbelief
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Confusion, difficulty concentrating
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Anger, irritability, mood swings
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Anxiety and fear
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Guilt, shame, self-blame
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Withdrawing from others
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Feeling sad or hopeless.
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Feeling disconnected or numb
How common is trauma?
Trauma is not uncommon. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 61% of adults in the U.S. have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives. To bring home the point, here are some stats from the Centers for Disease Control.
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1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men experienced sexual violence involving contact during their lifetimes.
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Over 43 million women and 38 million men experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
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At least 1 in 7 children have experienced child abuse and/or neglect in the past year, and this is likely an underestimate.
Introduction to the Healing Process
When people first start in therapy, they often have fears that therapy won’t work. It is not uncommon for people to feel afraid that their situation is so awful that nothing will help them or that they may not be up for the task. These fears are natural! Even if these thoughts are running through your mind, please remember that as a species, human beings are extremely resilient. We have survived devastating wars, countless disasters, and multiple pandemics. Despite the disturbing events in our own lives, we have the power to heal and even grow from our trauma.
My practice is based on the premise that trauma is not only survivable, but that post-traumatic growth can occur. Trauma does not have to define you, your life, or your future. Experiencing trauma is not a weakness and does not define you. In reality, people can use their trauma to strengthen themselves. For example, people who have healed from their traumas often report that they “don’t sweat the small stuff” anymore. Having experienced deeply distressing events puts minor dramas into perspective. Thus, post traumatic growth can lead to a deeper and more meaningful way of life once you have been able to relate to the traumatic experiences differently. Approaching trauma treatment from the lens of post-traumatic growth is the foundation of my practice. Read below to learn more.
My Approach to Trauma Treatment
My goals are to help you increase feelings of safety, develop skills of self-compassion and self-regulation, and build on your own innate resiliency. After the aftermath of trauma many individuals struggle with understanding sense of self, making sense of emotions, and relating to others, which elicits feelings of helplessness. The first stage in therapy focuses on allowing space for you to get to know me and build a sense of safety. My goals for our initial appointments together are to create trust and assist you with developing coping skills to regulate your emotions.
Many times, trauma experiences lead to misperceptions in how we view ourselves. My approach is helping you develop compassion for yourself so that you change your own self-perceptions and further enrich your resilience skills. I use the term “further enrich” as I truly believe you are already a resilient person because you survived your traumas and have the strength and courage to ask for help.
The second stage in therapy is to demystify the body’s threat response system and provide information regarding the physiological dysregulation that occurs with trauma. The third stage is learning to revisit the trauma and integrate the past memories in a desensitizing way so that you relate to your past differently without the re-traumatization. The final stage is identifying the posttraumatic growth including having new outlooks on self-perception, interpersonal relationships, and philosophy of life.
Please click below to contact me for a free initial consultation.