Trauma-Informed, Desire Based Therapy
Serving clients in Vermont
What is Trauma?
An estimated 90% of adults in the United States have experienced a traumatic event at least once in their lives.
One of the most pervasive effects of trauma is loss of connection - to ourselves, to our family, and people around us. This loss of connection is often hard to recognize because it happens slowly over time. We start to think of ourselves as people who don’t like to be around people or people who don’t like to be tied down by close relationships, or that we don’t feel sexual or as sexual as we once were. These are the hidden effects of trauma, undermining our confidence and wellbeing in life, as well as the loss of freedom and vitality, and the potential to fulfill our dreams - adapted from "Healing Trauma" by Peter Levine
How Trauma Affects the Body
Trauma isn't just in your head-- it's stored in somatic memory. Trauma has a tremendous initial effect. Exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, and agitation are some of the most common bodily reactions to trauma. If trauma is not recent, and is more or less resolved, it's normal for you to experience residual effects. Trauma makes you disconnected from your body - dissociation. It is powerful, we left our body on purpose to avoid pain. It’s a powerful slow process to come back to our bodies.
Additionally, you might be experiencing the effects of intergenerational trauma— without even realizing it! When a mother is stressed or depressed, they pass on cortisol to their babies during their pregnancy. These babies are born with more stress hormones and are more likely to have stress and anxiety.
“Physical self-awareness is the first step of healing from trauma. And then from there, neuroscience shows us that the best way we can change the way we feel is by becoming aware of what we’re experiencing in our minds and our bodies, and then by being compassionate with what is going on inside. We need to allow ourselves to befriend even the hyperaroused self. Practicing mindfulness, meditation, sensual movement, yoga, or martial arts are ways to use breathing, movement, and gentle awareness in order to achieve a more calm state, even when revved up inside.”
-Reid J. Robinson MD MDA
You Might Be Experiencing Lasting Effects of Trauma If:
You feel emotionally numb.
You experience a greatly diminished capacity for joy and connectedness with yourself and others.
You have difficulty concentrating or sleeping.
You’re hypervigilant, jumpy, easily irritated, or quick to anger, or you repress anger or rarely feel angry, even when anger is an appropriate response.
You experience roadblocks in sexual experiences and relationships.
You re-experience the trauma through distressing memories, nightmares, or flashbacks.
You avoid people, places, and things that remind you of the traumatic event.
You’ve experienced significant changes in thinking and mood.
You know you had a difficult childhood, but you can’t remember much of it.
“Every pain, addiction, anguish, longing, depression, anger, or fear is an orphaned part of us seeking joy, some disowned shadow wanting to return to the light and home of ourselves.”
-Jacob Norby
Trauma-Informed Therapy
A trauma-informed approach looks at the widespread impact of trauma on relationships, emotions, life experiences, and behavior.
Trauma-informed therapy is a therapy that understands how trauma affects the brain and body. As a trauma-informed therapist, I look beyond the behavior to see the underlying reasons for the behavior, which is usually a habitual self-defensive pattern. Once we understand together why the behavior provides relief, we use cognitive processing tools to help change the behavior.
By focusing on the deepest roots of trauma, you can find long-lasting relief, healing, and freedom from the bonds of trauma.
The Six Key Principles of Trauma-Informed Care
“Trauma-informed care can apply to anyone. It’s not just for people with obvious sources of trauma like physical or sexual abuse. Trauma-informed care applies as well to people with a history of depression or anxiety that has wreaked havoc on life, people with emotional abuse or attachment wounds, or any kind of trauma.” -Robyn E. Brickel, MA, LMFT
Safety
Collaboration and Mutuality
Trustworthiness and Transparency
Peer Support
Empowerment, Voice, and Choice
Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues
My Approach
We store memories, emotions, body sensations, and thoughts in maladaptive ways because of our trauma, and I have made a mission out of understanding the science around the healthy processing of trauma. I work with clients who are ready to unpack, to look at their lives introspectively, and do some deep intrinsic work.
When we work with trauma, we fear feelings of shame and judgment. I am a trustworthy, nonjudgemental caregiver who can help you sit with these emotions, move beyond them, and begin creating a new, positive frame of mind to view your life through.
Using EMDR, wounded inner child work, internal family systems therapy, and other cognitive processing tools, I help individuals who have experienced trauma unpack negative beliefs and move into the light and joy of living a desire-based life.
Desire-Based Living
When you live from a fear-based mentality, this is a recipe for disaster! Your focus tends to be on fear, the negative, and all the “What-ifs?” in life. This focus can lead you away from happiness and the present moment, and snare you in an exhausting web of fear, anxiety, fatigue, and depression.
Desire-based living involves knowing what you desire and then pursuing those desires freely and without self-judgment. By shifting your focus to a state of desire instead of fear, you are able to change the way you see the world- and then, your world changes to fit!
It sounds like magic, I know. I wouldn’t believe it, had I not seen the power of this work in my own life. My joy comes from seeing my clients shift their perspectives so they can live lives based on desire. Therapy can help you understand the way you perceive the world through your experiences with trauma, decode what your deepest desires are, and then apply your new knowledge to the way that you view and interact with the world around you.