"Together we can find a cure for the phrase, 'What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.'" - Emily McDowell, on one of her amazing Empathy Cards

Sometimes, life kicks your ass. None of us are immune, and chances are if you're reading this page, you may have gotten to the point where you're recognizing that trying to "just suck it up and get over it" isn't working so great. 

Whether you're struggling with post-traumatic stress in the aftermath of a recent event, or recognizing that depression, anxiety, or other issues/symptoms might be related to things that happened years ago, working with a trauma specialist can help you actually process this stuff instead of just shoving it back into a box in your mental attic. 

Defining "Trauma"

Many people think of trauma as serious and acute incidents, like sexual assault, combat, car accidents, or the sudden death of a loved one. While all of these certainly are examples of traumatic events, we often minimize the impact of more covert or complex types of trauma. We specialize in working with developmental trauma, dysfunctional family dynamics (including adult children of alcoholics), emotional abuse, sexual abuse & assault, and spiritual / religious trauma and abuse.

While some folks seek out therapy knowing that they have trauma they need help moving through, others may only know they are anxious, depressed, "checked out," or seem to end up in the same self-sabotaging patterns over and over again, without awareness that past experiences are likely at the root of their concerns. 

How We Work With Trauma

So, part of our job is helping you explore the origins of your negative beliefs about yourself and whatever behaviors or patterns are getting in the way of you living the life you want to live. From there, we weave together various tools and techniques from my training and experience with trauma to help you do more than just cut the weeds down until they grow back again, but pull them out at the roots by more fully processing these experiences. 

For the therapy nerds (a term we use endearingly, as fellow nerds 🤓) or other providers reading, we often find that a blend of EMDR, experiential, and parts work (ego state, Internal Family Systems) is most effective for treating trauma, especially complex trauma.

Several of our clinicians provide EMDR, and some offer Brainspotting, which is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation and a variety of other challenging symptoms.

We’re happy to answer any questions you might have about our approaches to trauma resolution, and you can also check out our Resources page for links to helpful videos, books, and more. 

We are firm believers that, while cognitive-based approaches have a lot of value in many ways, healing trauma requires us to get into the body and into the heart. So if you feel like you've tried talk therapy before to work on trauma but didn't find it helpful or effective, you might benefit from an approach that helps you get out of your head.

Make sure to check out the Trauma section on our Resources page for tons of great books, podcasts, and more.