Trauma Therapy in Seattle and online across WA
Process. Heal. Grow.
Living with trauma can be overwhelming and exhausting.
Have you noticed this life changing event….
feels earth shattering and it’s touching other parts of your life
makes you want to isolate from others to try and protect yourself
feels too painful or sad to talk about
is linked to your family and the generations before you
feels like there is a numbness in your body
makes you feel so fed up that you’re trying to control everything and make your environment feel as safe as possible (even though it never seems to feel safe enough)
is actually impacting the way you see yourself and what you’re able to do in the world
It’s incredibly difficult.
how i can help
My Approach to working with trauma
I use EMDR, Art Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Somatic work to support your body’s ability to metabolize traumatic experiences. EMDR is very effective in healing trauma and we can also use art and somatic work to support your brain and body's ability to heal.
Art can explain so much, without using words. It can create movement inside of us, bring up trapped feelings, or allow something to come to life that we have buried.
Through somatic work, we can work to find, nurture, witness, and hold trauma that has been trapped in our bodies. Our bodies have different languages of expression. Part of this work is understanding the particular language of your body and how it holds a particular emotion, experience, expression, or story.
Working through trauma can transform your life, so that you can….
Feel more at ease in your body
Reconnect with joy and meaningful relationships
Feel more compassionate towards yourself and confident
Build tools for coping with trauma symptoms
What to expect from this process:
Your comfort level and pace is important in this work.
Because trauma work is sacred, we will take the time to understand your comfort level with expressing your emotions.
Then, we can start to process your trauma through art, movement, body awareness, and new insights. I know certain emotions can be overwhelming to feel and we can work our way up to being able to handle and understand certain emotions so they don’t overwhelm your system.
At times emotions can be overwhelming and we will be ready with coping strategies to take care of you, so that you can take care of your mind and body during times of stress.
Although we cannot always control when emotions come up, we can create a space where you feel like it's possible to handle them.
Methods
Trauma Therapy &
Art Therapy
Sometimes there are no words for the things that have happened. Express yourself with Art.
faqs
Common questions about Trauma Therapy
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Honoring your readiness, tolerance, and pace is so important. You deserve to take the time you need to be able to heal. No one gets to determine your timeline, you get to feel safe in moving forward. We can work with one or multiple traumas.
Trauma work does take time (this time is different for everyone) and that’s okay.
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In doing trauma work, sometimes you may feel worse before you start to feel better. This can be for many reasons, some being:
Sometimes we store events in our minds and bodies because they’re too painful to think about. We store for a reason. When you begin to uncover these, it can feel like a time capsule of emotion.
Your past coping skills may show up. We all have coping skills we’ve used in the past to help us get through tough times. This could be “sweeping things under the rug”, avoiding certain thoughts or situations to not get triggered, unconsciously avoiding, or feeling numbed out (one of our bodies defense mechanisms). These may resurface as you process your trauma.
Settling into your body can be difficult, especially if you feel like it would be safer to leave. At times, you may start feeling so anxious that it feels hard to come down into your body.
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The first step is to create a trusting therapeutic relationship.
Your emotional safety is my priority and it's important that you feel safe about opening up to me about your traumatic experiences. I will work to build a trusting and collaborative relationship with you, so that I can tailor your therapy to your unique needs.
You get to decide when and how much you want to talk about and process your trauma. We can look into art therapy, EMDR, CBT, and somatic therapy to support your healing.
Trauma Therapy
Specialties
Complex trauma
(C-PTSD)Single incident trauma
Childhood & adolescent abuse
Sexual trauma
Grieving the loss of a loved one
Ready to get started?