Trauma is a deeply personal and life-changing experience. While it may originate from tangible events like abuse, neglect, or environmental disasters, the true essence of trauma lies in how those events are felt and processed by our bodies. Trauma affects our core beliefs about our safety and control over our lives, leaving behind emotional imprints of fear, helplessness, and vulnerability. It’s not just the event itself that wounds—it’s that our ability to cope with challenges was overwhelmed.

For many, trauma intrudes our life in waves of painful memories, nightmares, or flashbacks, dragging the past into the present moment. There may be an overwhelming urge to avoid reminders of what happened to us—whether they be people, places, or even thoughts—leaving life feeling smaller. Trauma creates disconnection from our bodies, our sense of self, and reality.

Trauma reshapes how the mind and body respond to the world. It sharpens vigilance, creating a constant sense of danger, even around safe spaces and safe people. The aftermath of trauma can feel like a fractured existence—a struggle to reconcile who you were before with who you are now.

For those who’ve endured repeated or prolonged trauma, especially during childhood and in the context of attachment relationships, the effects can run even deeper. Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) brings not only the avoidance of traditional PTSD but also an internalized belief of being fundamentally broken, unworthy, or unlovable. Dissociation can become a protective mechanism, a way to escape even minor distress, but it often leaves a person feeling distant from life and themselves. At times, you’ll do anything to avoid the emotions you might feel are too much to bear. At other times, there’s only numbness, a disconnection from life, joy, and connection.

Trauma often shapes your relationships, decisions, and self-perception. And yet, the journey through trauma is not about erasing what has happened but about transforming how you relate to it. It’s about reclaiming your sense of safety, agency, and identity. Whether it feels like a single devastating moment to overcome or a thread woven deeply into the fabric of who you are, we will work to navigate the pain, rebuild your sense of self, and uncover your inherent resilience.