Trauma Recovery | Washington & Florida
Now serving clients over telehealth in Washington state and Florida
Accepting new clients as of November 2024
“Trauma is an “encounter with death” that “shatter[s] all one knows about the world””
Trauma tells us, our bodies, our minds, that the past is still happening in the present. It, therefore, prevents us from living fully in the present moment and leads us to unconsciously, or consciously, recreate the past. It makes our present moment unbearable, our responses to others often reactive vs out of choice. It makes building a future we want difficult, unimaginable or a fantasy. Trauma can trap us between rumination on the past or self-soothing with fantasies of the future, yet without a clear road map of how to get there.
Trauma shatters. It shatters everything we know about the world, ourselves, our sense of safety or security. Trauma steals.
Memory, time, perception can be confusing and experienced differently, body weight can increase or decrease without effort, disease may present itself, change in appetite and energy levels can occur and some experience a loss of language and cannot clearly communicate what they want, need or feel. You may experience headaches, nausea, stomach aches or have other somatic issues.
It may be difficult to feel at home in your body, to trust others or build meaningful and intimate relationships. You may feel helpless, lost, out of control. You may be experiencing anxiety, nightmares, distressing recollections of the past. You may have a sense of feeling “crazy,” while on the outside appear to be high functioning. You may be watchful, hesitant, easily startled. You may feel numb and disconnected.
For these, and many other reasons, trauma recovery and treatment must be a holistic approach. Recovery, healing, and integration of and from trauma includes tending to the heart, body, spirit, and mind so that freedom for is attained vs freedom from.
Approach
My holistic approach to trauma therapy is focused on the mind-body connection, of reintroducing and cultivating communication and awareness of sensation between the mind and body that is often severed during trauma as a wise defense mechanism. And thank goodness, for it helped keep you alive. Yet in the present, it is no longer serving. I will often utilize techniques of somatic experiencing as well as trauma-sensitive trauma yoga during sessions, inviting intentional awareness, curiosity and choice back into the relationship with the body.
When appropriate, I utilize LifeSpan Integration to help the nervous system and brain organize the past events in the past and alleviate the symptoms of PTSD. When and if appropriate, I also use EMDR to help assist the release of the deep- rooted lies trauma tells us about ourselves and the world around us.
Journaling and other writing may also be utilized in between therapy sessions including narrative-based writing of a/the trauma story and processed during session through trauma-focused narrative therapy, as seen through the Allender Center. This may lead to further exploration and the challenging of narratives and negative confirmation bias.
Other tools that may be used include restorative yoga (outside resources), self-soothing techniques (including utilizing internal family systems, compassionate self-talk and self-parenting), DBT skills, and the creation of safe and healthy coping skills.
Trauma recovery and treatment also address issues of:
Addiction
Grief and loss
Codependency and caretaking
Building a sense of self and identity
Eating disorders and disordered eating
Fragmentation and dissociation
Self-harm
Domestic violence
Family of origin
Interpersonal relationships
Stress and anxiety, burn out, secondary trauma
Spirituality and spiritual abuse
Creating safe coping skills
Mindfulness and meditation
DBT Skills