Counseling for Trauma

Do you struggle with anxiety or depression?

Do you relive traumatic events with accompanying unwanted memories, vivid images, and physical signs like sweating, palpitations, and panic attacks?

Are you hyper vigilant or easily frightened?

Do you feel edgy or irritable often?

Do you feel like joy, love, and other positive emotions have been sucked from your life?

Do you think about getting professional help to better understand and cope with a previous trauma?

Do want to feel more present, connected and in better control of your life?

Trauma can alter how the brain functions, and its signs and symptoms can vary from finding it difficult to trust, to being constantly on guard, to sudden panic and intrusive anxiety-ridden thoughts.

A study published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress revealed that post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is perhaps more common than you think. Just over eight percent of people in our community will experience PTSD in their lifetimes, 4.7% within the past year, and 3.8% in the past six month period. The recent events of COVID-19 and racial injustice have also elevated the risk for PTSD even more. When we include those who also suffer following significant trauma but don’t fit typical PTSD criteria, the statistics become as worrying as they are staggering.

Each one of us has our own measure of what we consider to be a traumatic event. Perhaps it was a frightening childhood incident or an abusive intimate relationship. Maybe you survived a natural disaster or a deployment in a war zone.

Perhaps you were witness to violence growing up in either your home or community. You may have experienced or witnessed intimidation, threats, or violence due to your race, language, or cultural background. Maybe you witnessed or experienced a serious car accident or violent assault or rape. All of these experiences have the potential to impact our outlook on life and overall functioning in numerous ways.

As a result of this trauma, you often walk around in a state of anxiety, perhaps on edge that another bad thing will happen. Maybe you have such a hard time relaxing or enjoying social activities or joyous occasions that others around you seem to enjoy easily.

Perhaps you are constantly jumpy and easily startled by even the smallest of things.

Maybe you’ve become constantly irritable, angry, or detached from the important people in your life.

It’s not uncommon for you to feel numb, immobilized, or frozen when reminders of the trauma come flooding back. In those times, it may be hard for you to think, move, or engage in life activities.

The world around you may feel dark, unforgiving, and catastrophic.

You feel like you have to brace yourself for the next bad feeling, memory, or rage outburst. You might even find yourself engaging in unhealthy behaviors or substances to try and cope with painful memories or feelings that the trauma provokes.

In fact, with therapy, we expect you will begin feeling better as we implement our compassionate and client-focused evidence-based techniques and strategies together. I’ve helped countless people to make improvements in their life after a traumatic experience in a safe, supportive, confidential space.

I offer a variety of therapeutic approaches to best support you and work with you as an equal collaborator in your treatment and healing.

Trauma therapy combines different approaches and techniques to help lessen, even eliminate, the painful mental and physical responses raised by the memory of traumatic events, and seeks to create new healthier patterns in your brain. It’s not an easy journey, and each person responds in their own way to the work needed to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life.

In trauma therapy, we work together toward lessening, even extinguishing the pain.

It’s my goal to identify the source and triggers of your emotional and physical suffering, to discuss ways to deal with unhelpful and unhealthy thoughts and behaviors, and to teach you techniques to manage distress and enable you to move forward.

If you would like to begin taking your next steps down the road of recovery, please contact me today for an online appointment if you live in North Carolina or Virginia.