• Do you feel disconnected from your mind, body, or emotions?

• Does your mind feel stuck on certain images, feelings, or flashbacks?

• Do you experience strong somatic or emotional reactions in stressful situations?

• Are you wanting to do the “deeper” work but feel like something’s blocking you?

The Problem

Getting hurt is unfortunately unavoidable.

In many cases, you are able to move through mild-to-moderate experiences of physical or emotional pain. Sometimes, however, there are events that are so overwhelming that it freezes you in your tracks and leaves you hypervigilant going forward.

Trauma is being stuck with the lingering effects of these wounds. You may have experienced a single devastating event or maybe it was recurring. The after-effects of trauma can leave you experiencing:

• Recurring flashbacks of the event(s)

• Disconnection from your thoughts or body

• Avoiding situations or people that resemble traumatic event(s)

• Constant state of pain, grief, or vigilance

• Feeling depleted, but unable to “let your guard down”

• Feeling guilty or ashamed

The number one goal of the brain is to keep you safe from danger. One of the core structures of the brain — the limbic lobe — senses what’s going on in the present and then compares it to the history of events you’ve endured.

If the limbic lobe assesses that you’re safe and capable to withstand it, you can let your guard down.

However, if it senses that there is an imminent threat, it turns on your “fight/flight or freeze” response, which is responsible for kickstarting your body into action and getting you out of danger.

• Fight — Your body responds by facing the threat and attacking it (verbally, physically)

• Flight — Your body responds by escaping danger (e.g., running away, hiding)

• Freeze — Your brain becomes so overwhelmed that it “shuts down” into a self-preservation mode

  • Disconnection from thoughts, emotions, or physical experiences of pain

If there is an actual threat, this is a helpful and necessary response to get you to safety. However, this “smoke detector” can feel extra sensitive or stuck in the “on” position.

This is not sustainable, as over time, the stress hormones that are released and the reserve energy that is consumed starts to physically wear down your body, leaving you more depleted than you already are. Additionally, these sensations can isolate you from loved ones who can support you or activities that can replenish you.

It may feel like you’re stuck in the defensive, even long after the threat has disappeared. It can feel like you haven’t grown or moved on from the age(s) in which you experienced these wounds. Life feels like it’s at a stand-still.

The Path Forward

Therapy is a safe space to help bring your brain & body from distress to calm. As the root of trauma is an overwhelmed nervous system, the primary goal is to regulate your brain.

Together, we map out what kind of safety you need — to physically remove yourself from a danger or practical skills like mindfulness, deep breathing, or movement to equip you to manage your distress throughout the day. We can take space to verbally process traumatic events and to release the emotions that have been locked inside your body. You must “feel it to heal it,” but it needs to be done in a way that’s approachable & manageable to you.

I use EMDR to help regulate your nervous system and mitigate the lingering effects of trauma. Additionally, I partner with modalities like psychedelic-assisted therapy (e.g., ketamine, psilocybin) and neurofeedback to further help you “unlock” your brain to allow for deeper processing and overall healing.

As your brain starts to regulate, we can then explore how you want to move forward:

• Who do you want to be going forward?

• What kind of experiences do you want to have?

• What kind of autonomy would you like to recapture for yourself?

This may take small steps to re-learn how to step into unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations, but you can start to show to yourself that you’re safe and capable of navigating them.

Part of the healing journey is working with your brain and not beating yourself up for how it’s limited you. Remember, your brain is doing its best to protect you, but sometimes it does “too good” of a job and needs some help to tune down the “smoke detector.”

The traumatic events you’ve experienced and their after-effects are unfair & undeserving. However, that does mean you’re stuck in this despair forever. With time, self-compassion, and small (but intentional) steps, you are able to free yourself from the pain and retake control of the narrative you want to write for your life.