Why focus on trauma?

“Trauma is an experience, a series of experiences, and/or impacts from social conditions, that break or betray the inherent need for safety, belonging, and dignity. When these breaks occur, we will often try to meet one of these needs at the expense of another.” -Staci Haines, The Politics of Trauma

While not everyone that experiences significant life stressors goes on to develop PTSD, for many, the impacts may still show up in your relationship with yourself and others, your day to day life, and the overall meaning and satisfaction of your life.

Trauma can look many different ways. While some people may experience major events that significantly alter their lives, others may have had traumas or relational stressors during development or experience ongoing chronic stressors that shift how they perceive and engage with the world around them.

Trauma also impacts the way your body responds to present stressors. The body, continually scanning for danger based on past experiences may become overactivated more easily or even shut down as a way to manage the intensity.

Regardless of what you may know, you may find yourself reacting in situations in ways that do not seem to make sense on the surface or feel stuck in patterns that are no longer helpful. This is because of the trauma stories the body holds that the body plays out in attempt to resolve the initial experience. When a stressful event happens that overwhelms the capacity to cope, it becomes stored in memory and stuck in time. Through witnessing and honoring these stories of the past, the ways they show up in the present, and the coping mechanisms that have allowed you to survive, you allow them to transform.

In our work together, working on trauma means first slowly building the capacity to face hard things and feel the full spectrum of feelings. As you build the capacity to cope and self-regulate in the face of adverse memories, feelings or situations, we will delve deeper into processing and connecting with those. Through this process I hope to expand your capacity not only to cope with uncomfortable feelings, but to fully experience the positive ones as well.