Trauma & Toxic Stress
For overwhelming single incidents and recurring experiences of trauma
Trauma may be the reason you’re stuck, but you don’t have to stay there.
Have you experienced… Relationship trauma? Childhood trauma? Accident trauma? Abuse trauma? Medical Trauma? Phobias? Vicarious trauma? Religious trauma? Racial/Societal trauma? A natural disaster? Sudden loss? Attachment trauma? Assault or interpersonal violence?
Or maybe you don't think you’ve experienced trauma, but you still have symptoms?
Experiences that overwhelm the nervous system are a shock to the body and brain.
Sometimes traumatic experiences make for shocking stories, but an experience doesn’t have to be dramatic or extreme to leave a lasting impact. Sometimes we don’t even realize that an experience was traumatic! Trauma-informed therapy helps your nervous system learn to find safety, and finish processing experiences that keep coming back up. My brain-body approach promotes healing at both emotional and physiological levels.
Trauma may show up as:
Feeling easily triggered or emotionally overwhelmed
Chronic anxiety, depression, or shame
Suicidal thoughts, attempts or self harm
Difficulty trusting others or yourself
Disconnection from emotions or body sensations/ numbness
Repeating patterns in relationships
A sense of being “stuck” despite personal insight
Not knowing who you really are or what you want in life
Distracted, inability to concentrate, ADHD symptoms
Anger Issues, history of getting in trouble
Many common diagnoses can actually be symptoms of trauma and would benefit from trauma therapy.
What does “a trauma-informed approach” mean?
Using a trauma lens helps even the strangest and most awful thoughts, feelings, and behaviors make sense. Even dysfunctional patterns are the body’s attempt to cope with overwhelming moments. In therapy, you embark on a journey to compassionately recognize how you got here, and be a witness to your own experiences and healing.
You set the pace in trauma therapy. Therapy is never about forcing you to relive painful experiences, but about helping your system process them in a way that feels manageable and respectful.
Treatment may include:
EMDR therapy to reprocess traumatic memories
Nervous system regulation and grounding skills
Understanding trauma responses and patterns
Strengthening internal and external supports
Integrating past experiences without re-traumatization
Trauma rewires the brain. But even well into adulthood, the brain can still heal.
With the right support, many clients see reduced reactivity, increased self-compassion, and improved functioning within the first 3-6 sessions.
Trauma Therapy FAQs
What happened wasn’t that bad. Was it really trauma?
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Trauma isn’t an event, it’s how your body responded to what happened. Trauma is not a moral failure, it’s a biological safety net meant to protect you. If you find your body is still reacting when you think about what happened, that is evidence of trauma still stored in your body. I can help you tap into your body-brain connection to process and release the stress that your body has been storing.
What if my body is reactive, but I don’t have trauma memories?
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Trauma is stored differently in our bodies than narrative memory. Trauma can show up as symptoms without a conscious memory attached to it. Even if you don’t have memory of a trauma, you can still find relief and healing through a brain-body therapy like EMDR.
How does EMDR treat trauma?
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EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a highly researched evidence based practice used to treat trauma and PTSD. EMDR mixes body stimulation with brain prompting to help you move past the areas you feel stuck. See the EMDR page for more information.