Trauma Counseling

Are Past Events Disrupting Your Present Life?

Is pain from the past affecting you today, making it difficult to trust others or function in various areas of your life?

Do you find yourself experiencing extreme, unexplainable emotions or sometimes feel numb and detached from the world around you?

Are nightmares, intrusive memories or flashbacks causing you distress?

Do you attempt to avoid people, places or things out of fear they will trigger a flood of painful memories?

Surviving trauma, whether it was a single event or ongoing occurrences, is a miracle, but it may not feel that way. Maybe you have endured a life-threatening situation, such as a natural disaster, or witnessed violence against someone you love. Or, perhaps you are contending with years of prolonged childhood abuse that has left you feeling unworthy, shameful and depressed. Or you may have endured the pain of psychological, physical or sexual abuse by a stranger or an intimate partner. No matter the reason for your distress, trauma can dramatically alter your life, self-esteem and relationships. To escape the pain, you might engage in destructive patterns, such as recurrent unhealthy relationships, unrelenting self-criticism, alcohol abuse, angry outbursts, isolation, or self-harm. All you want is freedom from the past, but you might feel impossibly stuck, as if you will never heal.

You are Not Alone, Trauma Affects Millions of People

Enduring trauma is not uncommon. According to the National Institute of Health, seventy percent of adults in the United States have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. Of these individuals, twenty percent develop a disorder called, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Symptoms of PTSD can include: intrusive distressing thoughts, nightmares, flashbacks, hypervigilance, dissociation, exaggerated startle response, sleep disturbance, and avoiding situations, people and places that trigger unwanted memories. 

Even in the absence of a PTSD diagnosis, if you’ve suffered from trauma, such as growing up with emotionally abusive parents or enduring subtle forms of mental abuse, you may still have great difficulties in your ability to trust others, be in healthy relationships, cope with feelings, or manage various life areas. If you are experiencing any of these issues, working with a well-trained trauma therapist is an essential step in aiding and restoring your physical and emotional well-being.

Trauma Counseling Can Help You Rejuvenate Your Life

As a trauma therapist, I make it a top priority to provide you a safe, welcoming, and secure environment to support your healing. Because I am dedicated to the field of trauma, I am invested in learning the newest information available and will tailor treatment interventions to your personal needs.

The first step to trauma healing is creating safety and stability in your life. While you may be out of the dangers of the situation that caused you suffering, you may still feel overwhelmed by alarming emotions, memories, thoughts and physical sensations. To numb the pain, you might resort to activities that provide short-term relief but in the long-term cause more issues in your life. We will take time to unravel these life-narrowing methods, honor the relief they provide and examine their costs to begin restoring safety.

When you’ve endured terrible events such as rape, or domestic violence your body can get stuck in fight, flight or freeze responses. All perceived threats, whether they are lethal or not, can unconsciously trigger intense reactions. Because trauma does not lie in the verbal reasoning areas of the brain, you might be unaware how these reactions are rooted in the past. I incorporate psycho-education and body grounding tools from various trauma-centered therapies to enhance your self-awareness and internal safety. This will empower you to effectively experience difficult thoughts, memories and feelings, without needing to rely on harmful coping strategies. 

After surviving trauma, you might notice many critical thoughts about yourself, the world and your past experiences. Often people become fused with beliefs such as: I’m damaged. The world is a dangerous place. I must be on alert. I can’t trust anyone. Nothing good will ever come. It is normal and natural to have such thoughts; however, when you get enmeshed with them, they can negatively influence your behavior and choices. In sessions, you will learn to disentangle yourself from these beliefs to make decisions and actions based on your most significant values.

For many years, I have worked with adult survivors of prolonged childhood abuse, devastating losses, rape, assaults, and interpersonal violence.  I am constantly in awe of the strength and resilience I witness in each of my clients. Men have changed anger into opportunities for reconnection and assertiveness. Women have transformed insecurities into inner empowerment. Most importantly, I have seen men and women rekindle their innate strengths to heal old wounds and restore a life of vitality, purpose and meaning.

Although you are ready to heal from trauma, you may still have questions and concerns…

I don’t see how therapy can help me.

I incorporate trauma therapies into my practice that have a wealth of scientific research to support their effectiveness. When you are dedicated to the counseling process, you will see changes in the way you respond to internal stress and the world around you. No longer will your past dictate your life. Instead, you will regain power of your own mind, body and actions.

Therapy will just rehash everything in the past I want to forget.

Often there is a misconception that going to therapy will force you to retell and relive all the details of the past. Studies show that you do not have to immediately recall or recite details to recover, and in some instances, this can be re-traumatizing. We will work together as a team to determine what feels right to you, and using body-oriented therapy strategies, you will develop skills to enhance self-awareness and internal safety.

In my family, we never talked about issues. Shouldn’t I be able to deal with this alone?

Within families where abuse occurred there is often a systemic denial of reality. This frequently comes with secret keeping, and messages such as, “don’t rock the boat.” Because of these dynamics, you may have learned that keeping things quiet is the best way to handle issues. Trauma and abuse counseling can help you overcome these myths to strengthen your communication, assertiveness and interpersonal skills.

Your Path to a Better Life

If you would like to learn more about trauma counseling or my approach, please contact me for a free 15 minute phone consultation. I serve all Virginia residents included, but not limited to Northern, VA and Richmond, VA.