Trauma and PTSD

Everything you were has gone up in smoke.

Something happened. You tell yourself, “It wasn’t that bad,” or “Others have been through worse,” or “I just need to let it go,” but the words don’t make the hurt, confusion, and fear end.

You feel so sensitive, reacting to every little thing, always on edge, out of control. You feel so numb, unable to feel, in a daze, disconnected. Either way, it’s exhausting. Is this what life is now?

You want to feel secure in your skin again.

Or perhaps life has always been this way.

You can’t remember when it felt like you could trust yourself, others, or the world around you. You’ve never been entirely sure whether you’re on solid ground or simply in the pause between disasters.

It feels like everything is wrong, or maybe like you are. A mighty stranger in a strange world that no one taught you to feel part of, much less understand how to survive. You tread carefully and spend everything you have avoiding the next overwhelming wave of emotion, outburst, or miscalculation that might cost you everything.

You don’t know what security might feel like, much less in yourself.

Healing doesn’t mean it never happened.

When traumas of any kind happen – whether the significant events that threaten our safety, the sudden losses, or the patterns of chronic stress or rejection – they overwhelm our capacity for coping.

Often, they become traumas specifically because we did not have access to what we needed to cope: a supportive community, nurturing care, protection, and skills and support to process the stress in our body, mind, and spirit.

Healing is a gift to ourselves, the people we value, and the world. It frees our vitality, love, and lives from the burden of shame, of being stuck in a story of fear, damage, or worthlessness.

We don’t unlive our lives nor lose the scars that we may carry.

The world is often unsafe for many of us.

Whether you are Black or Indigenous or Hispanic, a woman, queer or trans, disabled or fat-bodied, there are a thousand ways the world not only teaches you not to trust your perceptions but actively threatens or harms you.

No amount of therapy is going to make that untrue. But you can begin to grow the security of self-trust and a safe community for and with yourself and essential others.

But it does mean that there is space for new growth.

Healing happens by giving ourselves now the things we didn’t have then as a foundation for a flourishing future.

This foundation creates many ways to heal trauma, all effective at different times. We learn the skills, build the support, and continue our story into something different.

Like many of our most beautiful ecosystems – forests of mighty trees like sequoias, redwoods, and pines – regrow differently but are beautiful after a fire, we can never undo what has been but can create a thriving life.

To schedule a brief consultation to explore your needs – and hopes – in healing from trauma and how I may support you toward that life, call today.