Complex Trauma Therapy

Is Everyday A Struggle? 

Are you struggling to move on from traumatic experiences, some of which occurred years, even decades ago? Do have you difficulty maintaining healthy relationships and navigating day-to-day activities? Perhaps you’re struggling to cope with anxiety, often feel on edge and have difficulty trusting others or even yourself. Or, maybe you often feel unhappy or even numb and struggle with feelings related to low self-esteem, grief and abandonment. It may be that you perpetually feel disconnected and dissatisfied, and wonder where the despondency stems from. Are challenging emotions becoming increasingly more intense, maybe even causing tightness or pain in your jaw, neck, joints, chest and stomach? Do have you trouble sleeping and wonder if your discomfort will ever end? Is there an emptiness in your life that you’re unable to locate or understand? Do you wish you could just find some relief? 

Living with complex trauma can significantly impact your capacity to foster relationships and feel stable. Adults who experienced trauma in early childhood often struggle with depression, anxiety, insomnia, processing emotions and maintaining trusting and lasting relationships. They can also experience a lot of dissociation and tend to hold the trauma in their bodies. This trapped survival energy can result in joint pain, a tight or locked jaw, stomach and digestive issues, back pain, chest tightness and more. 

Many Survivors of Trauma Continue To Struggle 

If you experienced trauma as a child, you are not alone. According to PTSD United, 70 percent of adults in the U.S., approximately 223 million people, have lived through some type of traumatic event during their lives. Many people who were chronically ill, abused, assaulted or neglected as children didn’t receive the help they needed when the events were happening, and continue to experience long-term effects of the trauma. When trauma is not properly dealt with, it can overwhelm your nervous system and even cause it to shut down.

I know that issues related to trauma can be very difficult to talk about, which is why many people keep quiet and internalize their distress. Some people don’t even know or understand what really happened to them as children, but know that something wasn’t right. But, you don’t need to keep painful thoughts, feelings and questions locked inside. There are many resources available for people to get help. Treatment for trauma can help you better understand how your past experiences influence your emotions, behavior and health. Once you’re able to cultivate compassion for yourself, better understand your trauma and how to process it, leading a healthier life becomes possible.

Trauma Treatment Can Help You Heal

Therapy can be incredibly effective in helping people overcome pain related to trauma. My approach is body as well as mind oriented and designed to get at the heart of the issue. If you’ve experienced repeated trauma throughout your life, the pain associated with those events can build up and overwhelm both your mind and your body. Trauma counseling can help rid the excess energy built up in your system and restore you mind and body back to functioning order. 

In trauma therapy sessions, I can help you gain an understanding of how trauma has influenced your relationships, behavior and physical and mental health. You can develop the skills needed to move forward feeling more balanced and confident. We will practice coping techniques that you can utilize when you’re triggered or feeling intense stress or sadness. And, you can learn how to mediate the present effects of your trauma, prevent uncomfortable sensations from happening in the future and resolve the trauma little by little so that eventually it no longer takes over your life.

Because trauma is held in the nervous system, we work at a body level as well as a mind level. We work to stabilize your nervous system at a pace that feels comfortable and safe for you. Ultimately, we want to restore your system to a state that feels grounded, safe, resilient and able to move forward. In order to accomplish this, one of the ways we work is with your kidneys/adrenals. This is because the kidneys/adrenals are central to the system in your body that deals with and perpetuates the trauma. The kidneys/adrenals of traumatized individuals are almost always held high in the body, ready for fight or flight. We want the muscles surrounding them to relax, allowing the fight or flight system to release and the body to return to its natural state of relaxed attention. This body-based work can alleviate a myriad of symptoms—from digestion problems all the way to fostering healthy relationships. 

If your trauma happened before you could talk, we may work without talking to restore your initial sense of safety, which often is established when you’re a baby through touch. If you’re experiencing stomach problems, I can provide techniques that allow more blood flow and help your core expand and become less tight. Through the use of Somatic Experiencing®, a proven, body-based approach to processing trauma, you can heal the trauma that’s stored in the body. Symptoms will begin to disappear, leaving you feeling more balanced and relaxed. And, the practices and support that you experience in sessions can be applied immediately and throughout your life. 

I am a licensed psychotherapist and a certified Somatic Experiencing® practitioner with advanced training. I have been working in the field of trauma recovery for over 25 years. I have also experienced and healed from my own childhood trauma. I know both professionally and personally that you do not have to merely cope with uncomfortable sensations. You can heal from trauma. It is possible to live a balanced, empowered and fulfilling life. 

Although you want to heal, you may still have questions or concerns about trauma and recovery… 

I’m not sure I’d be comfortable working with touch. 

Although the touch work I do is a very effective way to heal developmental trauma, we can also work without touch. In that case, our sessions will look like regular therapy sessions. I will call attention to certain movements and ask you to be mindful of any sensations, images, thoughts and emotions that come up. Resolving trauma is still possible in this format. If at any point you want to try the touch work, that is always an option, but not until you feel comfortable.

I don’t want to re-experience my trauma and related pain. 

During our time together, your sense of comfort and safety will always be at the forefront of our work. I take the time to carefully learn your system so that it doesn’t accidently become overwhelmed during session. Step by step, we will work collaboratively to rid the pent-up energy in your body so that that you can experience profound balance and relief. 

I’ve heard that trauma counseling can be expensive. 

I invite you to truly consider how much pain and dysfunction your trauma has already caused and will continue to cause if you don’t get help now. Symptoms related to anxiety, depression and PTSD often do not resolve on their own. My approach deals specifically with treating both emotional and somatic symptoms. Although trauma therapy may not be quick, it can be incredibly effective. Nothing is more important than your health and wellbeing. I’ve helped many people recover from trauma, and I believe I can help you too.

You Can Process The Impact of Your Trauma 

If you are a survivor of trauma in the South Bay Area or the Peninsula, I invite you to call 408-357-3736 for a free 15-minute phone consultation to discuss how Somatic Therapy can help you heal. My office is located in Los Gatos, CA, across from El Camino hospital.

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