Trauma Therapy for Women

Are You Filled With Anxiety, Panic, and Fear?

Have you experienced a distressing event and haven’t been yourself since?  No matter what you do, you constantly feel unsettled and out of control. You never know what will trigger you and feel like something is wrong with you.

Maybe you recall mistreatment during your childhood from those who were supposed to care for you. The anger and resentment spill out no matter how hard you try to contain them.  Or maybe your childhood consisted of mostly happy memories, yet you’re filled with anxiety, fear, panic, loneliness, sadness, and anger. You’re exhausted, confused, and frustrated with this rollercoaster of emotions, and you feel stuck. You dream of a life where you are fearless, fully present, and in control of your emotions.

Dealing with the effects of trauma can be especially distressing and frustrating because sometimes you don’t even realize how deeply something has affected you. Without this understanding, you feel stuck and hopeless.

Your past doesn’t have to be your future.

Imagine the weight that would be lifted from your shoulders if you were able to release anger and resentment from your past.  You feel in control and navigate the future feeling calm and confident.  You feel at peace and whole.

No matter what you’re going through, you are not alone. While it is usually associated with veterans who’ve experienced combat, most people will experience trauma in their lifetime whether it’s a car accident, abuse or neglect, the sudden death of a loved one, a violent criminal act, or a natural disaster.  Despite what you may be currently feeling or experiencing, healing from trauma is possible.  No one should have to live in the past.

Trauma therapy can help you reclaim your life.

Many people tend to question if their experience is considered “traumatic.” However, trauma is any deeply distressing or disturbing experience. This can include experiences that we often don’t associate with trauma, such as unmet emotional needs during childhood or bullying.  We can define trauma as “too much, too soon, too fast.”

Everyone responds differently to traumatic experiences. Some common natural reactions are feeling numb, helpless, confused, hopeless, or sometimes even guilt and shame.

While many people can recover from trauma over time with the love and support of family and friends and bounce back with resiliency, others may discover the lasting effects of trauma, which can cause a person to live with deep emotional pain, fear, confusion, or post-traumatic stress far after the event has passed.

In these circumstances, the support, guidance, and assistance of therapists are fundamental to healing from trauma.

The DSM-5 classifies common symptoms of trauma into four categories:

Intrusive Symptoms

  • Recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive distressing memories of the trauma

  • Recurrent distressing dreams

  • Dissociative reactions (flashbacks)

  • Psychological distress to internal or external cues that resemble an aspect of the trauma

  • Physiological reactions to internal or external cues that resemble an aspect of the trauma

Avoidance Symptoms

  • Avoiding distressing memories, thoughts, or feelings about the trauma

  • Avoiding external reminders (people, places, conversations, activities, objects, situations) that create distress about the trauma

  • Negative changes in thinking and mood

  • Inability to remember important aspects of the trauma

  • Persistent and exaggerated negative beliefs about oneself (“I’m not good enough”)

  • Persistent, distorted thoughts about the cause or consequences of the trauma (blaming oneself or others)

  • Persistent negative emotional state (fear, horror, anger, guilt, shame)

  • Diminished interest or participation in significant activities

  • Feelings of detachment

  • Persistent inability to experience positive emotions

  • Changes in physical and emotional reactions

  • Irritable behavior and angry outbursts

  • Reckless or self-destructive behavior

Hypervigilance Symptoms

  • Exaggerated startle

  • Inability to concentrate

  • Sleep disturbance

Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms

  • Recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or images that are intrusive and unwanted, typically cause distress and may be time-consuming

  • Attempts to ignore, suppress, or neutralize such thoughts, urges, or images

  • Repetitive behaviors or mental acts that one feels driven to perform in response to an obsession or according to rules that must be applied rigidly

  • Compulsions aimed at preventing or reducing distress, or preventing some dreaded event or situation; however, these compulsions are not connected in a realistic way with what they are desired to neutralize or prevent, or are excessive and may be time-consuming

(American Psychiatric Association, 2013)

Therapy can help you to decrease physiological and emotional distress, look at situations in a new, less frightening way, and develop better coping mechanisms and problem-solving skills.

Therapy can help heal from experiences that left you feeling broken.

We use evidence-based modalities that allow you to “connect the dots,” gain a deeper understanding of your internal and external experiences, and get to the “root” of your issues so you feel long-term relief.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an extensively researched, effective psychotherapy method proven to help people recover from trauma and PTSD symptoms.

Our brains have a natural way to recover from traumatic memories and events. This process involves communication between the amygdala (the alarm signal for stressful events), the hippocampus (which assists with learning, including memories about safety and danger), and the prefrontal cortex (which analyzes and controls behavior and emotion). While many times traumatic experiences can be managed and resolved spontaneously, they may not be processed without help.

Stress responses are part of our natural fight, flight, or freeze instincts. When distress from a disturbing event remains, the upsetting images, thoughts, and emotions may create an overwhelming feeling of being back in that moment, or of being “frozen in time.”

EMDR therapy helps the brain process these memories, and allows normal healing to resume. The experience is still remembered, but the fight, flight, or freeze response from the original event is resolved.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy is an evidence-based model that helps you heal from the past, find calm in the present and navigate the future with peace and clarity.

We’re committed to making quality care accessible for women by offering convenient online therapy throughout the state of Michigan, including online EMDR and IFS.

you can break free from the grip of trauma.

We’re here to help.

The best way to schedule your complimentary 15-minute phone consultation is to fill out the contact form below. This will allow us to send you a few different available dates so that you can check your schedule and choose a time that’s best for you.

During your consultation, we will get to know more about what you’re looking for and better understand if we can help you. We can also answer any questions you might have or you can visit our FAQ page.  If you and your therapist agree you are a good fit for one another, we will offer to schedule your intake.