Unprocessed trauma gets trapped in your body. Let’s move it through together.
Counseling to heal from Trauma
Virtual therapy for trauma in Seattle & throughout Washington State.
Whether it’s little T Trauma or Big T Trauma - you now will have a space to understand the events in your life.
Sometimes trauma can be sneaky. It might not be what we have come to know trauma to look like from the media – physical abuse, sexual trauma, exposure to war. Yet trauma is simply “disorientation” in the brain. It’s that feeling you get when you trip & are about to fall. The brain is momentarily disoriented, suspended in time as your whole body & mind prepare for the collision.
Some people seek trauma therapy fully knowing they have experienced a Big T traumatic event. These people aren’t sleeping, their body is riddled with anxiety, constantly tight as if bracing for danger & their flashbacks from the event show up unannounced, with little warning.
Other people can come to therapy for symptoms like anxiety, difficulties in their relationships, depression & low self-esteem. When we dig further into therapy, we come to understand that there was either one defining event or a series of small events that have shaped the way they interact in the world. This is little T trauma & it absolutely matters that this becomes processed as well.
However, trauma resides in your body & psyche; it will begin to affect your larger world.
You might notice that you move from extremes of being afraid of relationships & intimacy to running blindly into relationships because the thought of being alone with yourself could be your own version of hell. Either version of this is simply a way to cope with your specific life events.
Most importantly, trauma impacts the relationship you have with yourself. You can feel so alone & rotten in your own skin that self-loathing can start to spread.
Blaming yourself is another common way to cope with trauma. If you can blame yourself, maybe then you can prevent something like that from happening again or find some explanation for why this happened to begin with.
However, you have coped up until now - I want you to know I am proud of you.
You are simply doing the best you can with a pretty shitty hand in life. But all these ways have only allowed you to survive: get up, go to class or work, self-medicate, no sleep, fight with your partner, family, and friends, rinse & repeat.
You are not meant to simply survive in this life, you are meant to thrive & I am here to help you claim that.
Therapy for trauma is an incredibly courageous act.
You are deciding that life is worth living for & not just one to get through. This process certainly won’t be easy & yet it will be absolutely worth it. Intentionally going back & processing past events involves feeling again. Through this feeling, you begin to process & ultimately heal. This inner work will show up in a wide array of ways that prove we are moving this trauma through.
You may start to notice that life seems to gradually feel more manageable. That the day-to-day life stressors don't seem to take you under as much as before. You may start to feel a sense of self-worth slowly creep back & affect your whole sense of self. You might start to make different decisions, ones that stem from a place of self-love versus self-sacrifice. These changes may seem small, subtle & covert but they are the building blocks of setting your life trajectory in an entirely new direction. Because over time, you will see that you have arrived somewhere new, standing tall on your own two feet.
What we will do together…
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TRUST
Trauma-informed care is first about building trust & rapport. A sense of safety with me & within the therapeutic space is paramount for doing this type of work. As you begin to tell me about your experiences, a sacred act is happening: you start to speak & I in turn listen. Sharing your story with a person that cares about you appears simple on the outside but has profound implications on the inside.
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SELF-PACED
I will follow your lead with how fast or slow we move. This is your story &/or stories to tell. Feeling confident that this is within your control is important, as you begin to rebuild your sense of autonomy over yourself & life. Furthermore, having the choice to take a break or put a pause on this focus is also yours to make. I am here to hold space for you to show up as you are & to affirm that this is more than enough.
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EMBODIED
When processing painful events, I will ask that you tap in & get to know the sensations that are in your body. Processing while staying embodied begins to reorganize the past events within the brain. Instead of the events feeling like they were yesterday, the brain will accurately file them as experiences from the past so that they are no longer impacting you in your current day-to-day function.
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MEANING
How are you going to make sense of what has happened & use this to inform your spirit? That will be the guiding question throughout. How does this event get to take shape in your personal narrative? Only you will have the answers to this & depending on where you are in this process, your answer will vary & change. The point is that this event &/or events no longer get to define who you are.
How trauma therapy can help -
Taking care of your inner experience through mindfulness & self-compassion.
Finding meaning from the events that have happened & realizing the role it plays in helping you to grow.
Learning to advocate for yourself & setting new standards for how others can treat you.
Forgiving yourself for any blame or judgment you mistakenly placed on yourself.
Feeling at peace in your heart, body & soul.
Listening to your inner voice as it guides you from this moment forward.
Common questions about counseling for trauma
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This is a great question & something that may take some time to know the answer to. You are the expert in your own experience. That means I will defer to you to hear how you relate to your own experiences.
Does that mean that identifying past events as trauma feels right? Only you can answer that. I will be here to share with you my professional opinion but I will never push that onto you in any way.
Trauma is when the mind becomes disoriented & this bodily reaction becomes stored in the body. So, whether this is Big T trauma or small T trauma, however, your mind & body interpret it; it deserves to be treated.
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Trauma therapy helps to organize the events that have happened, file them in your long-term memory & create meaning from there. Each of these aspects involves processing, mindfulness & self-compassion.
I will teach you how to return to the body instead of leaving when triggered. You will additionally learn how to offer yourself kindness & be gentle with your process.
This integrative approach helps you to make peace with the past & confidently step into the future.
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Unprocessed trauma can lead to long–term mental & physical effects. Trauma can quite literally be trapped in the body, brain & cells. In trauma’s attempts to be processed, it will show up again & again in the present.
Unhealed trauma works like a roadblock in your body’s natural energetic flow, breaking down your psychological & physiological processes. Thankfully, trauma is completely treatable, with growth & resiliency as a possible result.
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Click this link to reach out to me so that we can schedule a free 20-minute consultation. If we determine ourselves to be a therapeutic match, I look forward to guiding you on your journey to a more fulfilled & meaningful life.