My Work With Trauma

The first order of business in working with trauma is to evaluate whether the trauma is acute or residual. Next we will determine whether or not the person is experiencing specific symptoms of Acute or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. These symptoms will guide how we structure our process of therapy.

I have worked with many adults and children who have residual trauma. Helping you feel a sense of safety is my first and foremost priority. The goal is not to rush into processing a traumatic experience if you are not ready to do that. That would likely make things worse. Rather, I want to create a safe and secure container so that you can feel confident that we can hold your experience together when you are ready to process the trauma more fully.

When treating trauma, I use a variety of methods including: evidence-based guided meditation and relaxation, relational processing, inner-child work, art therapy, somatic therapy, and sandplay.

iRest is a form of guided meditation that has been researched as being effective in helping folks recover from anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Based on current studies with the military, iRest has been approved by the Defense Centers of Excellence as a Complementary and Alternative Medicine warranting continuing research for its use in the treatment of PTSD. This practice focuses on helping focus develop an inner resource of safety, and security which they can use to bring calm to their nervous systems, even in times of stress.

Relational processing is based on the idea that most of our traumas occur in relationship to others. When working with a therapist, the same feelings that existed in previous traumatic experience may come up in relationship to the therapist. In this case, it is the therapist job to help you talk about, and process these feelings. This leads to greater integration and emotional healing of prior experiences.

Similarly, inner-child work is aimed to bring healing to us when we have experienced wounding or traumas in our childhood. In this kind of work, we learn to relate to the younger part of us that has been hurt and to bring love, care, and attention to them. In doing so, we become more aware of how these experiences may influence our current relationships, and how we can best care for ourselves in our relationships.

Somatic therapy is a process of being mindful of our bodily experience and sensations as they relate to our feelings and memories. Often when we think of memory, we only think of images. However, our entire nervous system holds imprints, or felt-senses of memories. Therefore, when we are processing traumas, it is really important that we make space for our felt-sense memories as they emerge by bringing gentle, loving attention to them. This is part of what allows our nervous systems to release these energies.

Art therapy and sandplay are both symbolic methods that tap into our “right brain.” Especially with trauma, aspects of our experience may be non-verbal or difficult to symbolize. In these cases, the process of making art or arranging figures in sand can help us to begin to make sense of our past experience, in ways that just talking about them may not. Similarly, dream work can also help us to symbolize aspects of our trauma that may be hard to think about.

If you’d like to talk with me about your experience and see how therapy might help, please contact me for a free phone consultation.