Trauma Counseling

TRAUMA occurs when the nervous system experiences an overwhelming event that leads survival mechanisms (fight, flight, freeze, fawn, shutdown) to get stuck in the body. People can experience chronic traumas in childhood, one singular traumatic event, or many. We know from science that the body remembers. So addressing trauma gently via the nervous system helps heal the roots of the trauma. In therapy, I help guide clients through renegotiating traumatic events with Somatic Experiencing (read more below), and also by practicing self-regulation techniques for calming the vagus nerve and present-day trauma activations, or “triggers.”

Examples of traumas I commonly work with, yet by no means an exhaustive list:

Trauma Experiences I often work with:

  • Childhood developmental trauma /
    Attachment wounds:
    • Emotionally immature parents
    • Psychological, emotional, or physical abuses
    • Emotional neglect
  • Sexual assault
  • Childhood sexual abuse
  • Birthing parent trauma:
    • Emergency C-section or interventions
    • Medical complications for parent or baby
    • Near-death experience
  • Medical trauma
  • Car accidents, physical accidents
  • Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia
  • War, fleeing homeland
  • Complex traumatic grief

+ Common Experiences and Symptoms

  • upsetting memories, thoughts, images, or sensations that still arise
  • avoiding certain situations, people, or triggers
  • flashbacks or dreams
  • hyper-vigilance (like anxiety), hypo-arousal (like depression)
  • difficulty with trust in or initiating close relationships
  • trouble with startle, concentration, or sleep
  • maladaptive coping in a variety of ways

SOMATIC EXPERIENCING

Somatic Experiencing (or SE) is the gentle, body-oriented approach that helps re-negotiate trauma and stress-related symptoms in the nervous system, including early ongoing developmental traumas, or acute traumas. Somatic Experiencing comes from the work of Dr. Peter Levine’s ethological work studying animals’ recovery from traumatic experiences. SE therapy works slowly, safely and ultimately reaffirms trust in the body itself to protect and defend.

ANXIETY

Anxiety is a natural physical occurrence that literally everyone feels at times. Yet when those momentary anxious moments expand to broader days, more hours, and intense thoughts and sensations, learning the skills to live alongside your worry is a great relief.

You might notice:
– racing thoughts, difficulty breathing, continued worrying, restlessness, thinking you aren’t doing enough or aren’t enough, sleeping problems, panic attacks

In therapy you will learn to embody new practices to both manage and befriend anxiety, feeling less overwhelmed and more empowered. We’ll utilize mindfulness, essentials of meditation, somatic approaches for the nervous system, and some cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

ARAB WOMEN, MUSLIM WOMEN | REFUGEES, IMMIGRANTS

I am grateful to work with many Arab/Middle Eastern women (often former or current refugees, or immigrants) who seek me out for therapy, wanting to talk with someone not in their community but who has core understanding of their cultural and religious norms. My clinical and cultural experience comes from living in the Occupied West Bank of Palestine and working in Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter with Palestinian refugees, as well as from similar work in rural Tanzania with current Burundian and former Rwandan refugees.

You might be a former or current refugee who is feeling settled and ready to process in therapy about: religious, cultural , sexual, or other identities; professional life changes; personal or family relationships; societal integration; anxiety or trauma. While I am not of these identities myself, I offer familiarity with Arab and Muslim cultures, whether you identify as Muslim, no longer Muslim, questioning, or Arab and another religion.