Trauma Therapy in Orange County, CA
Online therapy for trauma in California and Florida
Resolve issues from the past.
Step into your desired future.
Do you feel stuck in the past?
Trauma from the past can leave you feeling so alone.
How do you explain to someone that you can’t concentrate at work because you keep looping on the terrible words your mother once said to you when you were seven? How do you explain to the person you love that your body feels tense all the time and that snuggles now feel alarming rather than comforting and you have no idea why? How do you tell your best friend that you are nervous about showing up at her party awkward and anxious because you are worried that she will be upset or assume that you just don’t want to go to her party? How do you explain to your friends that you REALLY do want to prioritize your physical health by going to the gym but you simply cannot make yourself get out of bed in the morning because you’re too exhausted from another night of sleep terrors?
This leaves you…
Worried about getting into trouble at work because you’re missing deadlines or making small mistakes
Feeling sluggish in the mornings because you’re having a hard time getting a good night’s rest and as a result find yourself irritable with your partner and forgetting important things
Feeling disconnected from those around you because you are often having conversations in your head about how to prevent bad things from happening
Feeling on edge all the time and so you are snapping at others leaving you feeling more alone when what you really want is closeness
When you can make sense of your past, it can shift from still being ever present to being truly historical.
This allows you to fully show up in THIS moment rather than thinking of the past repetitively or worrying about trying to prevent problems in the future. This means you can be here NOW; concentrating at work, listening when others are sharing, feeling safe to hug and feeling close to those you cherish, and being aware of when relationships are not healthy and confidently setting boundaries that respect your wants and needs.
With EMDR therapy, I can help you to build awareness and compassion around what happened in your past.
Together, we can unpack those painful memories and form new ways of thinking about what happened and how you see yourself now.
This will help you to…
Wake each day feeling rested
Communicate your needs and feelings effectively to your loved ones
Break free from painful thoughts about yourself
Improve your self-esteem and self-compassion
Set boundaries with confidence
Cultivate healthy relationships and release those that no longer serve you
You deserve to feel better
FAQs
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Trauma is an experience or series of experiences that causes a person to feel overwhelmed and stressed in their day-to-day life. Trauma can be things like car accidents, sexual assaults, natural disasters and wars. However, trauma can also be repetitive invalidation, criticism and or/verbally abusive statements. In fact, emotional abuse in childhood can be more difficult to treat than a trauma such as rape (if it is one incident), due to the repetitive nature of the trauma and because it is occurring throughout childhood when the brain is forming.
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EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is a type of therapy that is used to process trauma. A lot of people will say, "I don't have trauma" but there are all types of traumas and even the ones that seem small may have a big impact on a person’s life.
EMDR is unique in that research demonstrates people heal faster with it than in traditional talk therapy and the client does not need to go into detail about the trauma. This means, I do not need to know the specifics of the trauma in narrative form. For example, when a person has experienced sexual trauma, they likely do not want to give a play-by-play of what happened. In EMDR, when we are focusing on a specific memory of sexual abuse, the client can use brief statements such as “I am feeling disgusted” or “thinking of bad memories” rather than tell their whole story. Because clients do not have to go into details about the trauma and because the healing is often faster, clients often prefer EMDR over other types of trauma therapy.
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In the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event, a person can experience shock and disbelief while some people may not notice symptoms at first. However, gradually over time the person can develop symptoms such as:
• hypervigilance to the traumatic event occurring again
• avoidance of reminders of the trauma
• a negative belief about oneself, others and/or the world
• nightmares and sleep disturbance
• physical symptoms such as headaches and stomachaches
• difficulty in relationships
• flashbacks
• difficulty concentrating and sometimes even dissociative experiences
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As soon as possible really. There is even a “recent events” protocol for trauma that can help process the traumatic experience with the hope of preventing full development of PTSD.
To me, PTSD is like living in a big house and there are scary monsters (the trauma) in each room and so the doors to other rooms are closed because you don’t want to go into the scary rooms with the monsters. So, you then find that you are basically living in a huge house but only walking through the halls because you have to keep all the doors closed. Together, lets help you live fully in that big house (your life) rather than living small by pacing the halls (effects of unresolved trauma).
I invite you to experience and enjoy your big house and live as fully as possible and go where you want to go.
It is never too late to heal from trauma.
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Trauma, particularly from our parents/caregivers, can be especially impactful. The same people who are expected to protect us and love us sometimes are also the ones who hurt us. This can be very confusing when the person we run away from is the same person we would run to when scared or sad. This can cause a person to then pursue friendships or romantic relationships with that same level of confusion. Misunderstandings can cause significant ruptures as a person may perceive that they are being hurt again by someone they expected to show compassion and regard for them. Because of this, that person can then push those they love away or cling even further in a hope of feeling more closeness. In essence, navigating adult relationships can often bring up the same confusions the person experienced in childhood.
Emotional Abuse in Childhood
I find that people who are seeking therapy for depression and/or anxiety sometimes experience emotional (aka “developmental”) trauma in childhood. This may include a feeling of general neglect, often feeling invalidated or invisible, or messages such as “How can you be so stupid?”. These might seem small to some but for those experiencing this, it can feel huge because it impacts a person’s sense of self as well as how worthy or good enough they feel to others. I have significant experience in noticing these examples of emotional trauma, how they impact a person today, and often will suggest using EMDR to work through and heal from this type of trauma that is often under-recognized as well as to understand how trauma has impacted the person’s life and their relationships.
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