Trauma-Informed Therapy

Trauma-informed therapists who offer a holistic, client-oriented trauma-informed approach will:

• Prioritize emotional safety and physical safety to create a safe space where healing can occur

• Talk about self-care, emotional boundaries, and grounding techniques

• Help you understand your coping skills, how you’ve coped with past trauma, and how to develop healthy new strategies.

• Help you navigate the treatment process at a pace you feel comfortable with, checking in with your progress along the way.

Some tenants of trauma-informed therapy may include:

Secure Attachment
Boundary Repair
Emotional Availability
Avoiding Re-traumatization
Understanding the Whole Person
Reducing Stigma and Shame
Trustworthiness and Transparency
Empowerment and Choice
Cultural Sensitivity

​Collaboration and Coordination
Self-care for Caregivers
 

Depression

Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease your ability to function at work and at home.

Depression symptoms can vary from mild to severe and can include:

• Feeling sad or having a depressed mood

• Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed

• Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting

• Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much

• Loss of energy or increased fatigue

• Increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., inability to sit still, pacing, handwringing) or slowed movements or speech (these actions must be severe enough to be observable by others)

• Feeling worthless or guilty

• Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions

• Thoughts of death or suicide

Symptoms must last at least two weeks and must represent a change in your previous level of functioning for a diagnosis of depression.

 

Anxiety

When someone has an anxiety disorder, their body goes into fight or flight mode at times when a neurotypical person wouldn't. This may be due to specific environmental or emotional triggers, or it may be less easy to spot a cause. The person experiences anxiety, fear and panic. It can also be very scary in itself to feel your body sort of slipping out of your control, having this fear response when your rational mind can't see a cause - and then, because that's scary, it makes you have an additional fear response. The body has physiological responses to fear that are fairly well-known. These include things like your mouth drying up and throat/stomach tightening, as your body turns off digestion systems to divert energy elsewhere, an increase in adrenaline (which has several different effects on the body, from a bitter taste in the mouth to being much more jittery), you can get tingling/pins-and-needles feelings in your extremities as your body focuses on core functions, your breathing quickens to get more oxygen into your blood. During an anxiety attack, the body experiences some or many of these changes, in addition to changes in the way you think which can create a vicious cycle that increases the anxiety/fear response.

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Gender Issues

Gender Dysphoria is when your brain's identity for what gender you should be doesn't match your body. For pretty much everyone alive, we don't know what that feels like because our brains match our bodies. But there are studies showing that transgendered people have different brain chemistry than cisgendered people, that it's a case of their having a male brain in a female body, or vice versa, and because of that, they get feelings of being wrong, of awkwardness. A voice that continues to remind them that there is something wrong.

Like having the wrong hardware installed in your computer, and continuing to get driver error messages all the time, but you don't have another video card and everyone else is telling you that HP laptops are fine and they don't have problems so obviously you're just complaining, or should just learn to deal with a few pop up screens once in a while.

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Trauma and PTSD

Imagine the brain is the needle on a record player. When a record is playing normally, that is like your brain processing events. Just playing along. Then it gets a deep scratch on the record. That is the trauma. The needle can’t get past it, so it just keeps replaying and responding as if it is going through the trauma. That is really hard on the brain and the body, so it starts to show signs of wear and breaking down... but it can’t get past that trauma so it is just skipping in it, trying to process and continue.

That is PTSD.

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Self Esteem

Self-esteem therapy focuses on building a positive self-image & addressing negative beliefs about oneself. Techniques such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) help individuals challenge self-critical thoughts & develop healthier self-perceptions.

Benefits of Self-Esteem Therapy: 

Improved self-worth and confidence

Reduced anxiety and depression

Enhanced social skills and relationships

Increased motivation and achievement

Better able to cope with stress and setbacks

Goal Setting

Benefits of Goal Setting in Therapy

Provides Direction:

Goals give therapists and clients a roadmap to follow, ensuring that therapy sessions are focused and productive. 

Increases Motivation:

Having specific goals can motivate clients to engage in therapy and work towards improvement.  

Empowers Clients:

Goal setting empowers clients to take ownership of their therapy and actively participate in the process. 

Improves Outcomes:

Studies have shown that goal setting can lead to better therapeutic outcomes and increased client satisfaction. 

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Accountability

What Accountability Means in Therapy

Ownership of Actions and Patterns:

Clients take responsibility for their behaviors, reactions, and choices, even the ones that are self-sabotaging or difficult. 

Goal Setting and Adherence:

Clients set specific, achievable goals and commit to the plans designed to reach them. 

Self-Reflection and Insight:

Accountability encourages you to examine your motivations, triggers, and underlying beliefs, leading to greater self-awareness.

Action and Change:

Therapy provides insights into problems, but accountability pushes clients to take consistent action to change their patterns and achieve their goals. 

Fosters Self-Awareness:

By reflecting on your choices, you’ll gain insight into your patterns and underlying beliefs. 

Encourages Goal Achievement:

Holding oneself accountable increases motivation and commitment, driving consistent action toward objectives.

Builds Trust and Integrity:

Demonstrating reliability by following through on commitments builds self-trust and integrity.

Empowers Individuals:

Taking ownership of one's journey empowers individuals to take charge of their well-being and recovery. 

Facilitates Problem-Solving:

A willingness to be accountable helps individuals confront challenges and setbacks with more resilience.