Trauma Recovery Counseling

Has a traumatic experience stolen your sense of safety and security? Do you have flashbacks, nightmares, or negative, intrusive thoughts or memories that keep you bound to the worst moments of your life? Are you always on-edge, easily startled, persistently anxious, or emotionally numb from constant sadness or fear? 

Perhaps you have experienced the tragic loss of a pregnancy, a child, or a spouse that is challenging your sense of identity or hope for the future. Or maybe, as the survivor of child abuse or sexual assault, you are having trouble relaxing, feeling secure, or engaging with people the way you want to.

Trauma can have a severe impact on nearly every aspect of a person’s life. Relationships can suffer as communication problems, trust issues, and emotional volatility grow from the unresolved pain. It can impair your ability to take care of yourself or function on a daily basis. And the fear and uncertainty can force you to live in a box so narrow that it feels like your only option is to withdraw from everyone and everything. So you are forced to avoid situations, people, or even opportunities for future happiness to protect yourself. 

But you do have a choice. At Thrive Postpartum, Couples and Family Therapy, we can offer you hope and solutions that will enable you to move forward with your life in confidence and peace. And we can help you find enduring strength so you can step out of the cycle of grief and pain and begin living without limitations.

Trauma Can Affect Anyone For Many Reasons

“Trauma is not the story of something that happened back then. It’s the current imprint of that pain, horror, and fear living inside people.”

—Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Medical Director, The Trauma Center in Boston 

At some point in their lives, most people will experience a traumatic event that inevitably limits their capacity to feel safe, whole, and happy. However, many individuals have the misconception that trauma has to be the result of a tragedy, such as perinatal loss, combat experience, or a natural catastrophe. But the effects of trauma can manifest for many reasons. 

Abusive relationships, adverse childhood experiences, and extended exposure to a series of “small” traumas can have just as profound and harmful an impact as a sudden, tragic event. These “lesser” traumas could even include deviations from expectations for success and happiness. For instance, the often lofty goals and flawed preconceptions we have for birthing, parenting, relationships, and self-reliance sometimes clash with the illusion of control in our lives. When setbacks or loss causes those plans to fall through, the new reality can have a devastating effect.

Trauma ingrains painful memories so deeply that they distort the way we think, act, and feel—essentially constricting how we live our lives. Instead of being relegated to the past like most memories, trauma makes the experience a permanent fixture in the mind, a recurring telling of events that repeatedly brings the sensations, sounds, and imagery back into the present.

The good news is that we can help you reprocess your experience and file it away so it no longer controls you. In time, you can put the past where it belongs and live with greater strength, confidence, and inner peace. 

Trauma Therapy Can Offer Sustainable Change And Relief

Processing the pain of a traumatic experience can be difficult to do alone. Most of us simply weren’t born with the tools or abilities to deal with crises on our own. But working with our EMDR trauma therapist at Thrive Postpartum, Couples and Family Therapy can offer you compassionate support and guidance. She’ll help you process the traumatic event, overcome the challenges it is creating, and open a door to healing that will allow you to be more authentic and present in life. 

In our initial session, we’ll begin by explaining our approach to healing and getting to know you a little better. We want to build a level of trust and a sense of agency that enables you to take control of your journey. As therapists, we have no agenda. Rather, we embrace a collaborative approach that focuses on your goals and expectations for therapy, moving at a pace that is comfortable for you. Although it may seem intimidating at first to confront your pain, we are specially trained to minimize any emotionally charged experiences so that you feel safe and in control at all times.

One of the most powerful tools we use for overcoming trauma is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR). It may sound technical, and to some extent—as a research-driven and scientifically proven healing intervention—it is. But at its core, the principle is fairly simple. 

EMDR uses a series of eye movements, taps, or sounds to create an effect called bilateral brain stimulation, a phenomenon that is mirrored in REM sleep—or our dreaming state. During the REM cycle, our brain naturally processes and flushes out the memories, experiences, and sensations that characterize our daily lives. It lets our brains reset and start the next day anew. However, for trauma victims, the painful experience is frozen in time. 

EMDR uses bilateral brain stimulation to essentially reproduce your dream state so you can reprocess the trauma and file it away like other experiences. The memory will still be there, but it will feel more distant and lose its sense of urgency and immediacy.

At Thrive Postpartum, Couples and Family Therapy, we have been helping people overcome trauma and reclaim their lives since 2013. No matter what your circumstances are, you don’t have to be defined or limited by past trauma. You can have the life you want. With our help, you can free yourself from the past and realize your true potential for a happy, fulfilling life.

Perhaps you are considering EMDR trauma therapy but still have some concerns…

I don’t want to relive the experience.

ways, trauma is similar to other injuries. To heal the pain, we first have to address the wound. And just like working with a medical professional who is taught to “first, do no harm,” we too are trained to help you without making the injury worse. EMDR doesn’t force you to relive the traumatic experience. Rather, it allows you to process it and put it behind you under the guidance of caring professionals who will be there for you every step of the way.

I don’t think trauma therapy will work for me.

There is a tremendous amount of research behind our approach to trauma counseling, and we have seen it improve lives time and again. In our experience, an astounding majority of our patients respond positively to EMDR. However, even if this therapeutic model doesn’t speak to you, we have other ways of helping you manage symptoms and process your experience so it doesn’t develop into an ongoing crisis. Whatever your situation is, you deserve a better life, one in which you can feel safe and assured that happiness is possible. Why not give yourself a chance?

Maybe this will get better with time.

Right now you are likely living under the constraints of fear, doubt, guilt, or shame. The sooner you start working on the pain, the sooner you can free yourself from the burden of trauma and prevent it from becoming a crisis or an ingrained part of who you are. Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR can accelerate the healing process so that you can enjoy relief without being obligated to counseling indefinitely. With the tools and guidance we provide, you can overcome the limitations of your past and begin living anew.

Let Us Help You Move Beyond The Pain And Thrive 

If you feel that a traumatic event is holding you back or preventing you from exploring new possibilities for happiness, we can help.