Trauma Survivors

Trauma refers to the intense emotional and psychological distress caused by overwhelming events, which can include physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, natural disasters, severe accidents, childhood neglect, traumatic loss, tumultuous divorce, experiences of war, and other significant life challenges. These events can have lasting impacts on mental health and overall well-being, but with the right support, recovery is within reach.

Trauma-informed approaches such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can help address trauma-related distress, including flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety, and depression. Depending on what you are struggling with, we may pull from a variety of therapeutic modalities to create a unique treatment plan tailored to your symptoms. This could look like using parts work from Internal Family Systems, exploring what is happening within the therapeutic relationship using Psychodynamic Theory, or role-playing from Existential Therapy.

Here are some of our goals of therapy for trauma survivors:

• Make sense of the trauma

  While we may never know why bad things happen, therapy can help people come to terms with what happened to them and reframe the traumatic experience. One of the key focuses of trauma therapy is assisting clients to navigate daily life without constant fear of the past resurfacing, allowing them to engage with the world more safely and confidently.

• Improve relationships and relearn to trust

  Trauma can wreck your ability to trust others and impact your beliefs about the world as a whole. Therapy can help individuals struggling with trust, whether in others, their environment, or even themselves. A trauma-informed therapist helps clients rebuild the capacity for trust, which is essential for healing and fostering healthy relationships. Therapy can help people improve their relationships, both personally and professionally. Working through trauma allows for a stronger, more grounded sense of self, empowering you to move forward with renewed confidence and capability.

• Improve physical and mental health

  The effect of trauma is widespread throughout the body. Trauma treatment must take a holistic, mind-body approach that acknowledges how trauma becomes stored in the body. Therapy can help reduce or eliminate symptoms of anxiety, depression, and dissociation. Any previously occurring mental or physical issue may be exacerbated by trauma. Taking part in Trauma therapy helps reduce the emotional reactivity to triggers, improving mental stability and emotional well-being. By addressing both the emotional and physical aspects of trauma, therapy can lead to better overall physical health.

• Build resilience and sense of self

  Therapy can help people build resilience and internal resources to cope with trauma, as well as rebuild a person’s sense of identity and stability. Working through trauma in therapy allows clients to reconnect with a stronger, more grounded sense of self, empowering them to move forward with renewed confidence and capability.