Find the freedom to move on from your past.
Grounded in safety.
Oriented toward agency.
You don’t have to hold this alone.
Directions to my San Francisco therapy office:
Trauma therapy can help you process difficult emotions and restore a sense of safety after experiences that leave lasting imprints on body, mind, and spirit.
Types of trauma include:
Invitation to pause.
Take a breath.
Like, really, bathe your brain in oxygen and let your lungs expand.
Exhale.
Let’s pause here and check in.
How are you doing with this so far?
The information that follows contains a detailed list of symptoms that someone with unprocessed traumatic experiences or PTSD may encounter.
It’s a lot.
You don’t have to read this all at once (or ever) and you don’t have to understand what it all means. Some of the descriptions below are academic, some are visceral.
If you feel triggered or overwhelmed, here is permission to skip the psycho-ed and just send me a message.
Trauma therapy is a gradual unfolding that begins by establishing safety with resources, coping mechanisms and trust — at your pace. With lots of room to say, “I need to take a break. I can’t today.”
Avoidance, hypervigilance, startle response, emotional disregulation, flashbacks, difficulty sleeping, recurring nightmares, intrusive thoughts, isolation, depression and anxiety are all common symptoms of trauma that can lead a survivor to feel trapped and powerless, caged by an inability to fully engage in the present.
Acute trauma occurs after an individual has experienced or witnessed a life threatening event that is beyond their control. The definition of trauma is therefore highly unique, depending not on only the events but on the individual’s unique perception and experience of an event.
The traumatic experience most likely to develop into PTSD is relational or developmental trauma — the rupture that occurs when the foundation of our safety and trust is shattered is shattered in formative, intimate relationships. These are usually experiences that accumulate over time with our care givers and loved ones such as abuse, neglect, infidelity, and betrayal.
When a person with developmental trauma has also suffered from isolated instances of acute trauma such as natural disaster, terrorism, war or random act of violence, they are likely to suffer from complex PTSD, a cluster of symptoms that develops after prolonged or repeated exposure to traumatic events.
One of the most common symptoms of trauma is the repeated sense of reliving the experience as if it were happening in the present. Trauma therapy can help you put those experiences in the past by:
Trauma therapy can help you move through the paralyzing anxiety that keeps you trapped in the past, rediscover a sense of personal agency, and rewrite your story so you can move forward with your life.
Check out Therapy FAQ to learn more about how therapy works.
Read more about Somatic Therapy or take the Archetype Quiz to find out which therapeutic approach is a fit.
Unresolved traumatic material is frequently triggered by seemingly innocuous cues, latent reminders of an event encoded by our memory in sensory information (colors, sounds, smells) or echoes of the event in words or body language.
The body has a preverbal ability to remember experiences and can hold information that has not been encoded in cognitive memory due to automatic psychological survival strategies such as dissociation and disembodiment.
Bringing awareness to your triggers can provide a greater sense of control over your experience. These body memories are also important access points that we can use in therapy to complete emotional processing and memory reconsolidation so you can find closure.
Violence originating from those we love and trust is the most difficult to heal from and the most confusing to make sense of.
Intimate partner violence, sexual abuse and child abuse can shatter a person’s sense of reality and their ability to trust in others.
It is not uncommon for individuals who have been harmed by those closest to them to take on the blame for another’s actions and direct their mistrust or rage towards themselves — preserving their love for another by sacrificing their love for self.
Learning to find forgiveness and self-compassion for the shame you feel is the first and most painful part of the healing process. You don’t have to hold this suffering on your own.
I am a licensed trauma therapist in San Francisco offering expert treatment for complex PTSD for survivors of acute and developmental trauma throughout California.
Tending Psychic Wounds
Often what creates change in psychotherapy is a reparative relationship with your therapist founded on loving kindness where you can feel safe to explore those areas that you have repressed for fear of being judged or misunderstood.
The dynamics that play out in the context of the therapeutic relationship are important guide posts to directing the treatment. Situations, responses, and emotions that come up in treatment often echo the dynamics in your outer world. These are opportunities to:
The process of diving deep into the psyche can be by nature disruptive and uncomfortable. My intention as a trauma therapist is to hold a space that is empathic, honest and aligned with your intentions. Schedule an appointment with me today to see if individual therapy is the right fit for your healing journey.
My therapy office is located in the heart of San Francisco, CA with easy access to:
I offer in person trauma therapy in San Francisco’s Mission District near the border of Potrero Hill and Mission Bay. Online therapy and hybrid options available throughout California.
Step into the future you deserve.
The violence or harm that happened to you does not define you.