Trauma Therapy

Treating All Types of Trauma

The question isn’t why the behavior, but why the pain?

What is trauma and how do I know if I have it? This is actually a much more complicated question than you would expect. Trauma therapy helps those coping with many types of trauma. Often we think of trauma as a shocking and life-threatening single event, but that’s just one kind of trauma. We’ve all heard of veterans coming home from war with PTSD. That is what we call “big-T” trauma. However, “big-T Trauma” is much less prevalent than “small-t trauma,” which is widely misunderstood. In fact, the behavioral health field is in the midst of a dramatic shift in how we think about and treat trauma. We will guide you in understanding the impacts of trauma and help you shift out of “what’s wrong with me” thinking and into “what happened to me” thinking. Trauma can disguise itself as many other disorders like depression, anxiety, personality disorders, chronic pain or fatigue, substance misuse, anger, dissociation, or just a deeply felt sense that you are unworthy or unlovable. Learn more about the different types of trauma and how we treat it below.

Does the phrase “walking on eggshells” resonate with you? That’s trauma.

Complex Trauma

Small-t trauma is less about a single, severe event and more about the chronic nature of toxic stress, especially in childhood when the brain is still developing. It is most commonly seen in individuals who grew up in dysfunctional households and experienced physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, neglect, divorce, witnessed domestic violence, or had a parent who was imprisoned or suffered from a mental health or substance use disorder. For children of alcoholics, or Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOA), small-t trauma is prevalent. These are the most common childhood adversities, but other experiences such as bullying, racism, or involvement in the juvenile justice or foster care system are other sources of complex trauma. It’s important to note that C-PTSD has not yet been recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), but is an official diagnosis in Europe. The symptoms of C-PTSD include:

  • Toxic shame

  • Difficulty regulating emotions

  • Deep feelings of mistrust and disconnection from others

  • Emotional flashbacks

  • Hypervigilance and need for control

  • Apathy and feeling helpless or in need of rescuing

  • Dissociation

  • Chronic sadness and suicidal ideation

  • Dissociation

PTSD

Big-T trauma or PTSD is usually diagnosed after a singular traumatic event like an assault, natural disaster, or accident, which is either experienced or witnessed. The effects can be short or longterm, and we don’t fully understand why these events may traumatize some and not others. The impacts of PTSD can be debilitating and it is important to know that PTSD is a normal response to an abnormal situation. We were designed to respond with fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, but sometimes our nervous systems get stuck there. The symptoms of PTSD include:

  • Recurrent and distressing flashbacks and nightmares

  • Marked reactivity to internal or external exposure to cues that relate to or resemble the event

  • Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the traumatic event

  • Negative alterations in mood and cognition including negative beliefs about oneself or the world

  • Dissociation and feelings of detachment

  • Increased startle response and hypervigilance

Attachment Trauma

Attachment trauma is created from a lack of connection and safety in a child’s relationship with their caregiver. Humans are born helpless and completely dependent on their caregiver for survival. When that caregiver is detached, abusive, or neglectful, or overbearing, children’s brains simply don’t develop appropriately. These children may develop an anxious, avoidant, or disorganized attachment style which has lasting impacts on their self-concept and ability to relate to others as adults. The symptoms of attachment trauma include:

  • Difficulty regulating mood including emotional outbursts

  • Feeling damaged, unlovable, or defective

  • Inability to trust (avoidant) or dependency (anxious) or both (disorganized) relationship styles

  • Social isolation and fear of judgment

  • Difficulty identifying needs and reassurance-seeking behavior

  • Dissociation

*You may notice that a lot of these symptoms overlap. That’s why it is so important to have a trained trauma therapist help you unravel past experiences and identify effective treatment approaches.

Minority Stress - Understanding Discrimination From a Trauma-Informed Perspective

trauma therapy

Living under the constant threat of discrimination can be small-t trauma. A lifetime of hate, micro-aggressions, invalidation, and rejection can create a state of chronic stress, leaving a painful imprint on your nervous system and causing physical and/or mental health problems.

We understand that the disparities in mental and physical health in minority populations is not genetic, but environmental. We work to create a safe space and affirming care for anyone who may be suffering from the impacts of minority stress.

Treatment Approaches

to help traumatized individuals access feelings of safety, empowerment, and connection.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Somatic & Attachment Focused Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (SAFE EMDR) is a clinically-proven method to treat trauma, PTSD, C-PTSD, ACOA trauma syndrome, adverse childhood experiences, attachment trauma, minority stress, or toxic stress. EMDR conceptualizes trauma disorders as a symptom of improperly stored memories, and uses bilateral stimulation (eye movements or tapping) to recreate the brain’s natural mechanism of filing away experiences in longterm memory. This normally happens when we are in REM sleep and our eyes move back and forth, essentially processing the day’s events. Trauma memories, however, can get stuck in short-term memory so the brain doesn’t fully realize that the trauma is no longer happening. It’s like that memory is right there, ready to be cued up, when a person is exposed a triggering emotion or event. With EMDR we RE-process traumatic memories so they can be filed away appropriately in order to reduce reactivity and distress. Part of EMDR is also an attention to the somatic (felt sense) experiences that get stored in the body. When people experience trauma, the over-activation or under-activation (fight, flight, or freeze) responses get stored in their nervous system and can leave a person feeling chronically stressed or chronically disconnected. Working through stuck energy in the body is critical to complete healing from trauma.

Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy

Ketamine was approved by the FDA for treatment resistant depression in 2019. Since then, practitioners all over the world ahve found success treating individuals suffering from PTSD. We work with a local IV Ketamine clincii to provide individuals with an effective combination of medicine and psychotherapy. The impact of these interventions is often reductions in sensitivity to triggers and avoidance and in increase in feelings of self love, safety, and flexibility. To learn more about our Ketamine protocol, please schedule a free consultation.

Parts Work

Parts work or the official intervention name, Internal Family Systems, is a type of psychotherapy that assists clients in seeing themselves as a system rather than an individual in order to learn how to self-regulate and heal. We all have different aspects of ourselves and show up differently in different environments. For example, you may be different at work vs with your partner or your parents. With parts work, we spend time identifying and healing each part as well as building loving appreciation between parts in order for the entire system to work together harmoniously. For more about how we use parts work to heal trauma, please schedule a free consultation below.