Trauma Recovery Services
Is your past holding you back from your future?
Traumatic experiences have a way of seeping into all the good parts of life. You think you’ve had enough time or space away from it, you think you’ve done all you can do about it, but it keeps hanging around like a ghost. Maybe you feel like you’ve never been through anything that you would call “traumatic”, but something seems to be keeping your body in a constant state of fight-or-flight. Even events you have no clear memories of can find a way to disrupt your life.
Labeling something as “trauma” is fully up to you, and it is a word with multiple meanings. Common experiences explored in my sessions include attachment trauma in childhood, abandonment trauma, and generational trauma that has been passed down from your ancestors. Many people find trends in their families of people that feel “sad for no reason”, or “are always on the lookout for danger”, or “thinks everyone is out to get them”. Some people have family members who were “the black sheep”, and others were cast out of their families because of a deep, dark secret. Trauma that didn’t happen directly to you still has a way of impacting you, as we often see in ancestors of enslaved people or Holocaust survivors. My holistic approach to trauma treatment explores the complex layers of past emotional experiences that impact your life today.
How is talking about it going to help?
That’s a great question, and for some people, talk therapy doesn’t help with trauma. I offer a variety of approaches to trauma treatment and will work with you to determine the best options for your symptoms. I am trained in a method called “Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy”, or EMDR for short, which is an evidence-based approach to treating and eliminating symptoms of PTSD and C-PTSD. EMDR is a gold-standard practice in many countries to re-wire the neuropathways that trigger your nervous system.
I’ve also received training in Internal Family Systems and Somatic Therapy approaches, giving me a wide range of tools to help you better understand your body’s response to trauma. My goal is to help you understand what your body needs when it goes into that fight-or-flight response, and how you can help it respond in a more helpful way.
Many of my clients start therapy feeling anxious about this work, because they’ve tried meditation and breathing strategies in the past, but it’s never worked for them. Although meditative practices are useful, I know the importance of finding tools that work for your unique brain. We will explore all different forms of grounding and embodiment practices until we find the ones that work for you.
“I have always been comfortable weathering the storm.
I’d like to get more comfortable weathering the sunny day.”
— Andrea Gibson
Getting this weight off your back is worth it.
Carrying around unprocessed trauma eventually takes a toll. It can bring down your mood, your energy, your relationships, and your physical health. It often impacts sleep, which is one of the most important aspects of caring for our health. Suppressed emotions and dysregulated nervous systems correlate with chronic illness and inflammation. Although I can’t promise that therapy will be a cure-all for your life, I have seen drastic improvements in my clients’ quality of life when they lose the burden of these symptoms.
Starting therapy is vulnerable and scary, especially for trauma that you may have been carrying for years or decades. I will spend careful time getting to know you, building trust, and ensuring that you feel safe and supported in sessions. We never have to talk about anything you aren’t ready for, and I will teach you tools along the way to tackle specific symptoms and responses.
Schedule a free consultation today, and come prepared with any questions that you want to know about therapy. If it doesn’t feel like a good fit for you, I’m happy to connect you with my network of Virginia providers to help you find what you need.