Integrative trauma therapy can help resolve trauma faster than traditional talk therapy.
We are so fortunate to live in a time where there are many wonderful therapy approaches that help resolve painful life experiences. I have found that by utilizing the framework of Internal Family Systems (IFS), somatic psychotherapy and EMDR (descriptions below), they each directly work with the body-mind-emotion parts of our being. Difficult life experiences can get stuck in our body, in our subconscious, can affect our emotional resilience and cause relational difficulties. I have experienced that all of these approaches utilize our internal healing ability and attend to all areas internally that may be impacted from trauma.
PTSD/Complex PTSD/Anxiety
When an overwhelming emotional/physical life experience occurs, the brain and body are not able to process the experience as it does with experiences that are not overwhelming, especially when we are young. These events may be more overt shock traumas such as a medical trauma or bad car accidents that can result in PTSD. Or, they may be more chronic, more subtle like growing up in an ongoing abuse situation or experiencing inconsistent caregiving as a child which can result in Complex PTSD. These experiences can still have a lasting impact and show up in every day experiences in the present. You can think of trauma impact as extreme beliefs (shame or danger cues) and extreme emotions that get frozen inside. These belief systems and overwhelming emotions are what can still get triggered in the present and cause relational difficulties, not feeling safe in the world, low self-worth, etc. You may be conscious or unconscious of what is stuck. It is also very common to develop ways of coping against trauma impact. Examples of this could be avoiding feeling emotion, people-pleasing, isolating and more. Anxiety can often times be another impact of trauma. Fear can get stuck as a part of the original trauma as well as act as a protective defense in present day life. I hold all of these experiences in the therapy room with curiosity to learn what happened to create the present struggles in your life.
Once you can start to process the full impact difficult experiences have had on you, overwhelming emotions, stress responses (body impact) and extreme beliefs have a chance to resolve. Your nervous system and psyche are able to read the present more accurately. Even if you still experience a trigger in the future, you can have more awareness of what is happening for you. This often times can create more space internally and can allow you to engage with your needs more clearly.
Medical Trauma and Cancer
I specialize in working with folks who have experienced any type of medical trauma. This can include a broad scope like surgeries, facial deformities, chronic illness, traumatic dental experiences, cancer and more. I have a lifetime of personal experience with medical trauma, including being a cancer survivor myself. I am passionate about holding space for others that have gone through medical issues and the complexity that they can bring. I hold space for you to process all of the emotions, fears, relational and mental impact that these experiences can cause. I also utilize the below treatment approaches to help process any specific medical events that feel overwhelming and unresolved.
How I integrate my approach.
Somatic Psychotherapy: This approach utilizes detailed focus on how experiences are expressed in our body and automatic nervous system including the parasympathetic, sympathetic and social engagement system. By bringing present, detailed awareness to these experiences, the body's natural ability to "complete" defense responses can be accessed. Internal Family Systems (parts work): This framework holds the view that our internal system is made up by many different parts of our psyche, and underlying them is a person's core Self. Parts hold different experiences, mainly divided into wounded parts and protective parts. This model works to strengthen a person's Self, heal our wounded parts, transform protective parts and restore balance. EMDR:This approach is helpful for direct traumatic memory processing that utilizes bilateral stimulation to turn on our system's natural ability to process experiences on the emotional, mental and body level.
How is this different than just talk therapy? All of these approaches go much deeper than traditional talk therapy. We bring into focus your emotional experience, nervous system responses, beliefs and relational dynamics between you and me in real time during our sessions versus just talking about it. We start by slowing down your experience. We invite curiosity about what is happening for you internally. By doing this, we help slow down intense emotions and body responses, which can make the therapy process more tolerable. You will develop rich inner-connectedness and experience what is happening in your internal world with more clarity. This all creates an opportunity to build emotional resilience, understand your self on a deeper level and reach a deeper resolution to difficult experiences.