Trauma Therapy in Oakland
Are Unprocessed Past Experiences Making It Challenging To Fully Embrace & Enjoy Life?
Unresolved trauma has a way of making life feel smaller. When we struggle with feelings of anxiety, overwhelm, hypervigilance, and disruptive physical symptoms, the joy and vibrancy of life can become diminished.
Detachment increasingly takes the place of connection, leading to isolation, relationship conflict, numbing behaviors (such as substance abuse), hopelessness, and an inability to be present. This can also get in the way of everyday tasks like working, parenting, and taking care of yourself.
It’s difficult to relax or sleep well when feelings of agitation and irritability are present. And the lack of rest only worsens challenges with focus, concentration, and memory issues. In some cases, dissociation occurs, and life is overtaken by feelings of fear and distrust—rather than joy, security, and connection.
Whether you can trace your symptoms back to a specific event or you generally struggle with sadness, intrusive thoughts, and a chronic feeling that something is wrong, counseling can help you identify the source of your pain and distress.
Working together in therapy, we can explore and process the roots of your trauma in a way that resolves your symptoms.
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Trauma Comes In Many Forms—It May Be More Present In Your Life Than You Think
Unfortunately, our society doesn’t understand, recognize, or know how to meaningfully support trauma in general. We tend to narrowly define “trauma,” often using it only to characterize big, life-threatening events. We also live in a hyper-individualistic culture that makes survivors feel isolated and responsible for pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. This is why so many people end up avoiding categorizing their experiences as traumas, seeking treatment, or validating the very real pain they feel.
The truth is that there are many kinds of traumas that can manifest in many different ways. Some common single-incident traumas may include being the victim of a crime, experiencing an accident, witnessing violence, undergoing a traumatic medical event, or going through another life-or-death situation.
But there are also developmental traumas that are often more complex and deep-seated, which may involve difficult experiences from childhood like abuse, neglect, and unmet needs by parents or caregivers.
Complex developmental traumas can be the most insidious as they create impairments within the nervous system that are difficult to detect. And without being able to name or identify the problem, it can be hard to seek help. Because of this, many survivors sit alone in deep feelings of shame and isolation, wondering what is wrong with me?
Help is available—and there is no shame in seeking it. As we work to connect your symptoms to core stressors and traumas in therapy, we can pave a path toward lasting inner peace and recovery.
My Practice Is Trauma-Informed & Centered Around Your Healing
The goal of counseling is to identify and reprocess the conscious or unconscious roots of your suffering so that you can live a fuller, more satisfying life.
In addition to resolving your symptoms, this work includes recognizing and validating your experiences of suffering, giving you new language and a fuller understanding of the role that trauma has had in your life.
What To Expect
Therapy is always individualized to your unique needs and goals, though this process usually involves some degree of exploring early experiences and attachments—and how those formed your emotional blueprint.
Together, we will uncover the various coping strategies you have been using and how they’ve impacted the ways in which you relate to yourself and others. As awareness increases, we will build your toolkit for practicing healthier, more adaptive responses to stressors big and small.
I can incorporate effective, evidence-based therapies as needed. In addition to a psychodynamic treatment approach that fosters self-understanding and awareness, I draw from Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to target unresolved trauma that is being incorrectly stored within the nervous system. Mindfulness skills may also be taught to encourage grounding and relaxation.
I want to support you in being better and kinder to yourself as you build your resources through therapy. As you heal your trauma symptoms in counseling, you can experience relief, freedom, expansion, joy, peace, and calm in your life.
Common Concerns About Therapy For Trauma…
Counseling won’t be effective in resolving my trauma.
This concern is valid—especially if you haven’t had a positive treatment experience in the past. If this applies to you, an important part of our early sessions will be discussing what has and has not worked for you previously so that we can adjust the treatment according to your needs and I can make this experience feel as hopeful and helpful as possible.
It’s also worth noting that evidence-based approaches like EMDR therapy are scientifically proven to reduce symptoms of trauma and PTSD. Counseling works! It can help you experience relief, access greater satisfaction, and affect lasting change in your life.
Therapy will take too long to make a difference.
While some traumas are complex and may take longer to resolve, treatment can still create a significant difference in your quality of life and be very worthwhile. As we begin our work together, it will be helpful for me to know your specific concerns and goals. This way, I will do everything in my power to accommodate your needs so that we can focus on truly healing in the most efficient and effective ways possible.
Psychodynamic therapy tends to go in-depth, addressing patterns from early life that may have been ingrained for some time. We can also use EMDR, which is a much more structured, time-limited trauma therapy. The length of time it takes to resolve trauma varies from person to person, however, as your therapist, I aim to help you experience a reduction in your immediate symptoms even if the deeper work takes time.
I will become reliant on therapy.
My ultimate goal is to help you work through your trauma and integrate what you learn from the treatment process into your life outside the counseling space. Through this process, it is important for you to develop a strong sense of agency and control so that you feel equipped with your own resources as challenges arise in the future.
I am here to support you on that journey—not foster dependence on therapy.
Make Space For Healing & Empowerment In Your Life
If you suffer from the effects of anxiety, hypervigilance, restlessness, and the feeling that something is wrong, you may have unprocessed trauma that can heal in therapy. For more information or to schedule a session, contact me.
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