What does trauma look like? Maybe you saw or heard of something you just can’t forget. Maybe thoughts or memories from long ago keep forcing themselves into your day-to-day life. Maybe you can’t do the things you used to love because of fear, depression, or overwhelming anxiety. However it manifests, trauma has the power to ruin lives.

You may think that you are weak, that you should just get over it. Or maybe you think that you are broken, and that there is no hope for you getting better. Or maybe you just feel overwhelmed and do not know what to do. These feelings are not based on who you are, but rather what you’ve been through. I have been helping people work through and overcome their past for 5 years, and I can help you move toward a more connected life.

Trauma is caused by the way memory is stored in a traumatic event. Normally, when you retrieve a memory, you are able to connect with it both logically and emotionally. However, when you retrieve a traumatic memory, the associated emotion overwhelms the rest of your brain and leaves you with only the emotional component.

It is also important to note that trauma isn’t always directly experienced. Witnessing an overwhelming event, or even hearing about it happen to someone you care about, can cause these symptoms to manifest. It is important to recognize that just because an event didn’t happen directly to you, it doesn’t mean that it didn’t have an impact on you.

In treating trauma, first you need to make sure you have the tools to regulate in a healthy way. This is important because eventually, through trauma treatment, such as brain-spotting, you will start to process the memories in a way that is safe, and that allows the logical part of your brain to fully connect with the overwhelming memory. This process is a highly emotional one, and not taking the time to learn proper grounding techniques can lead to becoming re-traumatized.

Trauma work is often painful and seeking help for it can be difficult. In the work I do, I make sure to let you set the pace of treatment, so we never go faster than you can tolerate. I use evidence-based trauma treatments, such as brain-spotting, to directly treat the trauma in your brain. Despite how scary starting the work can be, I have seen people change their lives in trauma treatment. They have been able to feel happy again, to feel like their back in control of their life, or that they are finally able to put the past to sleep.

Many people feel that what they have experienced isn’t real trauma. However, the important thing to consider is if what you have experienced is negatively impacting your life. I have done trauma work from everything from abuse victims looking to regain control of their lives to athletes wanting to improve their sports performance. No matter what you have experienced, if it’s still affecting your life, I can help you through it.