TRAUMA & EMDR THERAPY IN ORANGE COUNTY, LONG BEACH & ONLINE IN CALIFORNIA
Living with trauma can feel like a game of whack-a-mole, with memories or patterns popping up in the present.
Or it can be a slow, steady drain on our energy. It’s possible to work through traumatic experiences and their effects. Trauma can belong to your past.
Your trauma may be showing up in a variety of symptoms.
Your trauma can impact your:
physical body (pain, illness).
emotional life (being triggered, lots of feelings, or seemingly no feelings).
relationships (avoiding, controlling, being victimized or clingy).
spiritual life (distortions, desire for control or to be controlled).
Chances are high that trauma is a significant factor if you struggle with addiction, anxiety, depression and many mental health difficulties.
Our therapists can help you work through different kinds of trauma:
Single incident: a sudden life interruption, like a car accident, earthquake, single incident of abuse, infidelity, assault, etc.
Repeated incident: experiences like ongoing abuse, bullying, the ravages of a serious illness, etc.
Developmental trauma: repeated, damaging patterns from pre-birth to teen years that disturb their normal relational and emotional development. There may be no specific memories or the memories may not have words.
Collective trauma such as experiences suffered by a large group of people
Group trauma, such as violence or discrimination against ethnic or cultural groups, racism, anti-LGBT treatment.
Vicarious trauma, hearing about or being present to another’s trauma
There are differences in how various kinds of trauma are treated. The following stages summarize how we approach the treatment of trauma.
Sometimes these stages are linear. More often, you’ll move in and out of them repeatedly.
Feeling Safe
It’s important that you know that you are safe. We’re not going to pressure you to talk. You just need to know we’re present and can validate your pain. You may want to spend some time exploring the symptoms you experience because of the trauma.
Tools to Regulate
Sometimes people dive headlong into the trauma pain and they get flooded with emotions that overwhelm them. You’ll learn practical ways to regulate – being able to move toward the pain and especially how to slow down so that you can stay present (and not dissociate).
Processing the Event(s)
You can process the trauma experience in-depth to help release emotional energy and resolve stuck thoughts and feelings. This is often an acute phase and the focus of therapy, accomplished through talk therapy, writing, play therapy, art therapy, somatic therapy, spiritual exercises, EMDR or brainspotting.
In terms of spiritual integration, sometimes this stage also includes uncovering and working through existential or faith questions such as, “Why me?” “This isn’t fair.” “Where was God?” or “How could God allow this to happen?” This stage is often tiring but also liberating.
Signs of Healing
Some signs of healing include:
Resolution of issues fueled by unresolved trauma.
More Flexibility because you don’t feel so afraid or anxious, things don’t need to be so all-or-nothing.
Greater Depth because you’re not avoiding painful thoughts or feelings.
More Availability for relationships and taking risks in life because you aren’t spending so much energy managing your trauma symptoms.
An Empowering Story that is honest about your past experiences and your current growth, and centers your resourcefulness, courage and capacity to navigate difficulties.
You didn’t ask for something traumatic to happen. But you can begin the process of redeeming your pain and reclaiming your life.
Is this your time to heal and grow?
If so, let’s connect!
Find your therapist.
Schedule a free consultation.
Begin a new healing journey.