TRAUMA TREATMENT

Does it seem like your past keeps haunting you and preventing you from moving forward in life?

Is it difficult to be present and enjoy your life because you feel worried about and unsafe with the unknown, are grieving the past, or feeling stuck or disconnected from yourself, others, and the world?

It’s possible you may be doing whatever you can to avoid bringing up any traumatic memories or unpleasant feelings and are just trying to make it through the day.

While your instinctual, natural survival skills of fight, flight, and freeze have helped you get through overwhelming anxiety, fear, and traumatic experiences, they may not be functioning in the same way anymore.

If you notice that you’re having a tough time setting boundaries, trying anything new, feeling fearful of the unknown, avoiding relationships or relying on others, feeling easily overwhelmed or numb, or you feel a lack of self-worth, you may be experiencing complex trauma symptoms.

Experiencing one-time overwhelming situations can certainly create feelings of not being safe if left untreated.

Surviving a lifetime of experiences and relationships where your feelings have been dismissed, your whole being has been shamed, and you learned early on that others, the world, and yourself could not be trusted, leave a serious impact on a person’s psyche and nervous system.

You know something was wrong. Even though you received love and care, you often felt confused by the other (direct or indirect) messages you received by parents, family, culture, and school, such as “You’re not good enough”, “It’s just a phase”, “Your needs don’t matter”, “Get over it”, “What do you have to be upset about?”, or “After all I’ve done for you…”

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Trauma doesn’t discriminate nor should we place a value on it.

One-time incidents of trauma can leave an impact on the psyche and nervous system if left untreated, regarding it as “no big deal”, or if what you went through is celebrated in a culture or family.

Complex trauma occurs more chronically, over longer periods of time, and is not always so obvious. Complex trauma can happen in many different and unique ways. A parent may be a source of both love and fear or love and neglect. A parent may be a sole source of fear while they were supposed to be a safe, competent, and nurturing adult to a child. A parent may only encourage and validate the positive experiences and pleasant feelings of a child, without acknowledging and helping them through the tough stuff. A child may feel loved at home and also feel the pressures of having to perform to high academic and work standards in order to fulfill parents’ dreams, break out of poverty, or survive the culture at large. Human beings learn that if parts of themselves are not accepted within their families, schools, workplaces, or culture, they will only be accepted within certain conditions – they learn to keep parts of themselves hidden – in order to maintain a sense of safety and connection.

When we’re kids and experience a lack of emotional and/or physical safety enough of the time, we begin developing incredible ways to survive and keep our lives going, even when we might sometimes feel like it’s all pointless.

You can unlearn old ways of being and surviving, make space for your whole self to unfold, and create more curiosity in your life.

Many people who struggle with the effects of complex trauma begin therapy when they feel how stuck they are when they find themselves in the same kind of relationships when they constantly struggle with anxiety and depression, have tried everything else to feel better and know that something needs to change.

Peter Levine, PhD., founder of Somatic Experiencing, describes the experience of trauma best: “Trauma is not what happens to us. But what we hold inside in the absence of an empathetic witness.”

That’s how we’ll show up for you, as an empathic witness who will be willing to believe your story, honor your pace, and work collaboratively with you to help you recover from trauma and reclaim your wholeness. We will make space and offer support through the pain and messiness of the process and celebrate your insights, choices, and growth.

Psyche & Soma Psychotherapy Group, Group Therapy

What is Trauma Therapy Like?

Just as each person is unique with their own set of lived experience, therapy for trauma recovery will be centered around your own needs and goals.

All of our therapists at Psyche & Soma Psychotherapy Group value the relationships we get to have with our clients. While we can’t foresee what progress will look like for you, our therapists will utilize trauma-informed practices that they are trained in and skilled at, be open to your feedback about how treatment is going, and show up for you consistently and with commitment to your healing.

Our therapists are trained in various trauma-informed types of psychotherapy, including Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Somatic Experiencing, Art Therapy, Sex Therapy, Relational Life Therapy, Perinatal Mental Health, Attachment Theory, Psychodynamic Theory, Jungian Depth Psychology, and mindfulness. Whatever the names may be, our therapists prioritize the therapeutic relationship between therapist and client, the safety and emotional well-being of our clients, an appreciation for diversity, and offering the most appropriate care possible.

We take the approach that individuals are effected by all their different relationships throughout their lives: relationships with early caregivers, parents, and family; relationships with peers and friends; relationships with school and work; relationships to body and soul; relationships to the world around them. We have the potential to survive and thrive in relationships and, in trauma recovery, we build skills and gain insight into spaces where folks can feel more safe, empowered, and fulfilled.

Trauma therapy is not easy, it’s not a protocol, it’s not clear-cut. As we begin to build more trust and safety within and without, we can become more curious and understanding of different parts of the psyche – the well-known as well as the lesser-known.

We offer our clients psychoeducation about the nervous system, self-regulation, and coping skills, how relationships impact us, and empathy for a person’s lived experience, thoughts, feelings, and values. Our hope is that with more self-awareness and self-compassion for all parts of the self, you will feel safer, more empowered, and less “crazy”. Over time, as anxiety decreases, your sense of self-worth, trust in yourself, and feeling more connected to yourself and others will happen more often.

What is Trauma Therapy Like?

Will I have to talk about my trauma in order to heal?

Trauma therapy is a slower process. We start slow by building trust, learning about your strengths and resources, and helping you feel a bit more comfortable in working with one of our therapists. We believe in going only as fast as your slowest/most afraid part is willing to go. If we try to move more quickly through the process, we may do some things to overwhelm the nervous system. Remember, trauma is when things happen “too much, too soon, too quickly” without the appropriate time to process. Our therapists are trained in trauma-informed approaches to therapy that keep this in mind and offer a variety of ways to process traumatic memories without having to relive it all over again.

How much does therapy cost?

How long will therapy take?

You want to feel better, that’s why you’re here. You want to be relieved of the pain trauma has caused. You are fed up or feeling confused about how you’ve been feeling. We get it!

Your time, energy, and financial investment in therapy are a big decision. While we monitor your care, receive feedback from you, and pay attention to the process, everyone’s path to feeling better is different.

Many clients begin feeling some significant reduction in symptoms after three to four months of weekly sessions in therapy. Because complex trauma tends to occur over the majority of a person’s lifespan, trauma therapy is longer-term for many people in order to see a more long-lasting change toward authentic wholeness, rather than a quick-fix solution to temporarily relieve symptoms. Trauma recovery may be an active commitment people make for a year, for a few years, or for longer. Everyone’s journey is different and we will pay attention to what works for you while exploring other sources of support outside of the therapy hour.

Can I recover if my family isn’t involved in my therapy?

Feeling safer, learning to trust yourself, building trustworthy relationships, and enjoying life again can all happen without your family’s involvement. If you grew up in a family where abuse was tolerated, it is probably best that you are doing individual work with a trusted therapist. If you are currently in an abusive relationship, individual work is considered the most ethical approach.

Depending on your age and phase of life, there may be things about individual therapy and your life that impact your well-being. For instance, many of our millennial and young adult clients are attempting to heal from past wounds while still living with people who caused harm. Therapy can be helpful in many different ways as they navigate both worlds. The process, your needs, and goals for therapy just may be different than others and that’s okay!

For some, couples therapy or family therapy is the best option for trauma recovery, often because trauma run through generations of family members. You and your therapist can decide together which approach may be best for you.

What’s the point of talking about it? It’s in the past.

As Carl Jung stated, “Shame is a soul-eating emotion”. Shame grows when we are silenced in our pain. Talking about your experience can help alleviate some of the shame you carry around with you each and every day. Talking about the past will help you make sense of what you’ve been through, with the support of someone who gets it and is trained in trauma-aware care. We tend to find ourselves in situations or relationships that feel a lot like past traumatic experiences and relationships until we become more aware of the dynamics and dance of trauma. When we help make the unconscious become conscious, we likely have more choices and direction in our lives to move forward. Contrary to many popular psychology theories, positive mindset advocates, and new age thought, we don’t know it all, we can’t just think our way out of trauma, and “just focusing on the positive” does not tend to help us heal.

More embodied, soulful, deeper connection with ourselves, in the experience of safe connection with another, is what creates longer-lasting change. It takes practice, patience, and trust, but it is possible.

What if I’m currently living in an unsafe situation and/or dealing with bigger systemic traumas?

We aren’t going to pretend that so many people don’t face traumatic events, oppression, and harm in their communities, families, and cultures on a daily basis.

Your safety is a key and top priority. No one can heal from the past if they are not physically or emotionally safe in the present. We make space to process experiences of systemic racism, poverty, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and all the different ways systems and groups keep people collectively and individually oppressed. We help clients find pockets of safety and resources with people and things they feel supported by. We look at our own privileges and do our best to consciously understand how we show up in the therapeutic space and how we may or may not contribute to a more inclusive practice.

We acknowledge that therapy is a privilege and only one piece of a larger picture.

Next Steps

Interested in trauma treatment and think we may be a good fit? Contact us for a free 15-minute phone consultation. We offer in-person counseling for those local to Fullerton, CA, and online therapy to all California residents.

It’s time to start living a life you deserve. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Helpful Resources for Trauma:

Coming soon!