Trauma Therapy
Is Unprocessed Pain From The Past Impacting Your Mind, Body, And Sense Of Peace?
Do you often find yourself walking around feeling anxious, hypervigilant of your surroundings, or feeling as if you are in danger, even if there is no actual “danger” present?
Or perhaps, do you tend to shut down, feel numb, and have a hard time identifying what other emotions—besides fear or worry—you might be feeling?
When your mind and body experiences trauma, it is often difficult to trace your fears and anxieties back to one specific experience because the feelings and overwhelming emotions commonly spill over into so many other parts of your life. Our frustrations or sadness about not being able to get a handle on our emotions quickly have us turn against ourselves, and you may find that you’ve become self-critical when experiencing difficulties to cope.
Trauma is not always easy to identify or explain, and our culture tends to characterize trauma as resulting from very specific, life-threatening events. Yet, plenty of us come from environments that may have seemed emotionally safe, when in fact, our emotional needs were not actually tended to.
Because this happens in childhood, it inevitably leads to ongoing feelings of insecurity and mistrust in our adult relationships. We may not realize how much our early attachments with caregivers set the tone for emotional safety, accessibility, and awareness throughout our lives, causing us to overlook or misunderstand the formative experiences and wounds at the core of our distress.
You May Have Developed Symptoms Of Unresolved Trauma Or PTSD
When trauma of any kind is left unprocessed, it can take a heavy toll on your mental and emotional health. You may experience flashbacks or disruptive reminders of the memories you’d rather forget. Perhaps you frequently feel on edge or agitated, unable to relax. And though, on the surface, these symptoms appear to be related to issues of anxiety and depression, the reality is that hypervigilance, flashbacks, nightmares, and a heightened stress response are often directly correlated to unprocessed trauma. In fact, if such symptoms become severe or frequent enough, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) may be present.
When trauma of any kind is left unprocessed, it can take a heavy toll on your mental and emotional health. You may experience flashbacks or disruptive reminders of the memories you’d rather forget. Perhaps you frequently feel on edge or agitated, unable to relax. And though, on the surface, these symptoms appear to be related to issues of anxiety and depression, the reality is that hypervigilance, flashbacks, nightmares, and a heightened stress response are often directly correlated to unprocessed trauma. In fact, if such symptoms become severe or frequent enough, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) may be present.
Relationships are where our trauma shows up the most. Unprocessed trauma can create a narrative that says you are inadequate, alone, and unworthy, compromising your ability to develop healthy, transparent bonds with others. As a result, you may not feel prepared for—or deserving of—a life that feels satisfactory and fulfilling. Instead, trauma is keeping you stuck inside a narrative that reinforces a nagging sense of inadequacy.
Trauma often happens in relation to another person, and it is why healing from trauma is rooted in recreating new relations and connections. This is especially true if that trauma took place during childhood within your early relationships. Relationships are ultimately where our trauma gets healed. Working with a therapist who specializes in PTSD and trauma of all kinds, you can heal core wounds while developing the skills to lower anxiety and relieve the emotional and physical sensations that take over when distressed.
There Are Many Types Of Trauma
Traumas are most commonly identified as single-incident events that pose a life-threatening danger to those involved. These are known as “Big T” traumas, which can include attacks, assaults, accidents, natural disasters, medical emergencies, military combat, and witnessing violence. And while these situations can absolutely warrant a traumatic response, “Little t” traumas are arguably much more insidious and widespread.
“Little t” traumas describe events that cause significant distress but are not abjectly life-threatening. Oftentimes, these events happen in our childhoods, taking the form of emotional mis-attunement from well-meaning parents or caregivers, neglect and abuse of all kinds, divorce, loss, sudden moves, bullying, and living with chronic illness.
“Little t” traumas encapsulate any experience in which our sense of emotional safety and security is compromised, and it’s very likely that most of us will experience this kind of trauma in our lifetimes.
Early Experiences Shape Our Emotional Response For Life
Even if we came from environments that were “safe” by conventional standards, it doesn’t mean that we were spared from traumatic experiences. Recently, a group of trauma experts developed a metric to help individuals identify their trauma exposure at a young age called Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). One such expert, Dr. Barbara Nosal, clarifies how trauma is not always directly related to ongoing childhood abuse and neglect. She claims:
“[Trauma] can be just a few moments in which a child hears criticism, or feels disappointed and unheard, and internalizes the idea that they can’t rely on their parents. It doesn’t matter whether that experience of disconnection was objectively significant or not. What matters is how it was internalized by the child.¹”
As a relational, trauma-informed therapist, I work to help you identify, connect and make changes to the negative impacts of past experiences on your present-day life, through the creation of a strong therapeutic relationship and effective strategies that target those unhelpful thoughts/behaviors. Whether you are reeling from a single-incident event or working through ongoing occurrences where you didn’t feel seen, safe, or heard as a child, none of those experiences are too big, too small, or too insignificant to address.
If trauma has caused you to internalize unhealthy or damaging narratives about yourself, trauma-informed counseling is an opportunity to untangle those feelings and restore a sense of peace.
Treatment For Trauma At Cohesive Therapy
Trauma-informed therapy operates from the premise that there is some experience from your life (often rooted in childhood) that your brain is working to correct. Your mind and body are constantly working to help you find better ways of coping, which is also why you may often feel exhausted and bogged down by symptoms of anxiety, depression, and emotional distress. Therapy provides you with a safe, nonjudgmental atmosphere to explore those experiences so that you can replace feelings of fear and inadequacy with feelings of confidence and empowerment.
As I get to know you, I will better understand what exactly you witnessed or experienced and help you see how these events shaped your perspectives. By digging into what you were taught and the emotional templates you were given, you can cultivate meaningfully corrective experiences that have the potential to heal core wounds.
What To Expect In Our Therapy Space
Being a relational trauma-informed therapist means that I incorporate effective, science-based treatment methods—such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and mind-body-based approaches—to promote transformative change and lasting relief. Such approaches are helpful for developing coping strategies, enhancing tolerance, and reframing the cognitive distortions that perpetuate feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy.
I primarily view symptoms of trauma through an early childhood attachment lens in therapy. This means that we will maintain a strong focus on your childhood experiences, assessing your early bonds, how you cultivated a sense of safety, and what your overall self-understanding was from a young age. Early attachments lay the foundation for all of your life’s relationships—including that with yourself—which will clue us into how you handle adversity, conflict, pain, and distress.
Therapy For Trauma Is Not A Blame-Game, But It Will Reveal Lost Opportunities To Connect.
Your early attachments and emotional blueprints are essential to understanding how you respond to your stress and emotions today. We will discuss your early childhood experiences, understand where your primary care givers succeeded, and also, where they may have missed opportunities to support you. We will also explore how those missed opportunities tie into your current relationships, and how they did… or did… not facilitate feelings of safety in your life.
By acknowledging your caregivers’ roles in shaping your self-understanding and perspectives, you can create corrective healing experiences that will ultimately lead to more peace and satisfaction in your life and relationships. This is where the healing and change truly begins.
The commitment to trauma treatment is both challenging and empowering as you learn that you can foster deep and lasting change in your life. I will work alongside you throughout the counseling process, ensuring that you feel safe and empowered to process and overcome the trauma that has been holding you back.
Perhaps You Have Questions About Trauma Treatment Through Cohesive Therapy…
How long does trauma treatment take?
The answer to this question varies from client to client. However, it has been my experience that consistency is key when it comes to meaningfully addressing trauma in therapy. As such, new clients and I meet on a weekly basis for trauma treatment, thus affording us an opportunity to build a robust therapeutic connection.
This process might take a few months for some, and for others—specifically, those struggling with severe symptoms of PTSD—treatment can take longer. Whatever your experience and goals for therapy, I will customize our sessions to ensure that you achieve a sense of progress.
Going to therapy for trauma sounds time-consuming and expensive.
You deserve relief if you are suffering from the aftereffects of trauma or PTSD, and counseling is an investment in your healing. There are different ways to attain therapy, and it is true that some are more affordable than others. I believe that my continued investments and dedication to ongoing advanced education, specialized training and self-improvement are passed on as benefits to the clients that I work with. To learn more about my rates, visit my general FAQ page.
Process The Past So You Can Embrace The Future
If you feel chronically on edge or unsettled but don’t know why, there may be a traumatic experience at the core of your discomfort. To find out more about my approach as a trauma-informed therapist, I invite you to schedule a complimentary 20-minute consultation.
¹ https://www.newportinstitute.com/resources/mental-health/big-t-little-t-trauma/
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What is A Trauma Bond?
Bonds are often seen as a positive type of connection. They are attachments that can occur between a parent and their child, friends, or romantic relationships.
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The Effect of Trauma Bonding On Relationships
A trauma bond is a form of unhealthy attachment that occurs after experiencing a type of trauma, usually emotional or physical trauma, that is immediately followed by a type of positive reinforcement.
Have questions about weekly session rates and what to expect in therapy?
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