Trauma Therapy

Has A Traumatic Experience Left You Feeling Helpless Or Unsafe?

• Do you feel frozen in place, unable to take charge of your life?
• Do certain triggers, such as a particular location or smell, cause you to physically or emotionally relive the trauma?
• Are you struggling to process and move past distressing or painful memories?
• Do you wish you could take control of your emotions, stop reliving trauma and learn to relax?

Trauma is any event that overwhelms your ability to deal with difficult emotions, memories or stress in the moment. Time alone does not heal all wounds. While physical injuries may heal, the passage of time by itself cannot eliminate the negative aftereffects of a trauma. What causes trauma for one person, however, may not be traumatic for another. You may have suffered a car accident, illness, loss or betrayal that has left you feeling stuck and unable to move forward. Maybe you experienced neglect, abuse or a natural disaster as a child that you were never able to process. As you recall painful events, your brain and body enter a state of hyperarousal, perceiving a threat and preparing to freeze, fight or flight.

When you are unable to process a traumatic event in a healthy way, it can permeate every aspect of your life, including your career and relationships. The perception that you are unsafe can interfere with your ability to relax, leaving you too overwhelmed to focus or keep up with professional responsibilities. Perhaps you struggle to connect with and trust others and feel as though you are always second-guessing yourself or your emotions. You might worry that your struggles mean you are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), even though you thought that was something that only affected soldiers and veterans. You may want to feel a greater sense of calm, safety and control, but feel lost and unsure of where you can turn for information, resources and support.

Everyone Experiences Trauma

We all experience different degrees of trauma in our lives. While we can resolve some trauma quickly, other events can linger unprocessed in our memories. You may be struggling to adapt to a new culture or responsibilities following a difficult or unexpected career change. Or, an illness, accident or crime may have left you feeling unsafe and constantly on edge. Maybe you lost a loved one or feel isolated in your relationship due to a distressing breach of trust. You may feel trapped in a pattern of relationships that repeat emotional, verbal or physical abuses you suffered as a child. Not all stresses lead to trauma, but all traumatic experiences are stressful. Trauma can impact your self-esteem, your ability to focus and even your physical health.

Fortunately, there is hope. Trauma therapy can give you the resources and skills you need to recognize why you are struggling, take control of difficult or distressing thoughts and foster a sense of calm and safety.

Find Relief With Trauma Therapy

While you can’t rewrite your history, you don’t have to let it continue affecting your life. You can learn to neutralize triggers and find relief from obsessive, avoidant or hyperaroused behaviors. Trauma therapy at my office in Brandon, FL can help you view the traumatic event from a healthier perspective. When you have your symptoms and challenges validated, you can see that your physical and emotional reactions are natural responses to your experience and feel confident that you are not broken or damaged. I offer a safe space where you can feel connected and supported as you develop practical tools and skills as you work toward lasting relief.

During our initial therapy sessions, we will take the time to discuss your experience in a secure setting and at a pace that you are comfortable with. A traumatic event represents unfinished business, and lingering confusion, doubt or fear can cause a lack of sleep, anxiety, compulsions and, in some cases, substance abuse. We will work together to build a trusting relationship in which you can recognize why you are struggling and learn to neutralize painful triggers. You can learn breathing and relaxation techniques, such as diaphragmatic breathing or progressive relaxation, to help recognize and relieve trauma symptoms. With trauma therapy, you can process your experience in a healthy way and move forward with a greater sense of emotional and physical wellbeing.

In addition to talk therapy, I may incorporate a process known as Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) into our sessions. Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR) is a treatment designed to bring rapid relief of Post-Traumatic Stress symptoms. Safe and simple, TIR gives you the ability to review and resolve your perceptions of the trauma in a comfortable environment. Perhaps you look back at when the trauma happened and blame yourself, believing you should have known better. Memories can often become fragmented or distorted after a trauma. During TIR, I can help you review your trauma, clarifying what happened so that you can let go of feelings of uncertainty and self-doubt. By describing the event out loud and thinking about it quietly in your mind, you can explore your memory and emotions from a new perspective. You can understand that your experience is not your fault and find relief as you learn to reprocess memories in a safer way.

I have helped individuals recognize, work through and recover from trauma for over 20 years. It can be difficult committing to trauma therapy, but you are taking an important first step toward meaningful and lasting relief. You can feel a sense of relief and leave each session feeling calmer and more in control than when you walked in.

But, you may still have questions or concerns about trauma therapy…

I lived through the trauma once. I don’t want to go through it again.

Many individuals fear they may lose control or become overwhelmed by painful memories. But, in my experience, you will quickly find that the opposite is true. As we discuss the event that caused the trauma, it becomes less frightening and you can feel more empowered. You will still have the memory, but it won’t have the pain or fear attached. Talking through your challenges in trauma therapy can help you feel calmer and more in control of your life.

I should have been able to deal with this on my own.

In my 20 years of experience, I have seen how difficult trauma can be to address on your own. You may not have had the skills or information you needed at the time to process the event. But, when you are committed to recovery, you can start to feel a sense of relief after our very first session.

I feel like I’m going crazy. How can trauma therapy help?

Trauma can leave you feeling so overwhelmed and unsafe that you can’t focus or carry on with your personal and professional obligations. You may worry you don’t have the skills you need to process the event, and the thought of going through the pain alone can leave you confused and uncertain. In trauma therapy, I offer you the guidance, resources and support you need to move through the healing process and foster calm in your life.

You Can Feel Calm And Safe

You can move through trauma and find calm and safety in your life. To get started, or if you have additional questions about trauma therapy, I invite you to call my office in Brandon, Florida at (813) 759-3278 to schedule an initial appointment.