Trauma comes in many forms
Some trauma is a single event: an accident, an assault, a sudden loss. Some trauma is the slow kind: growing up with a parent who was unpredictable, being bullied for years, living in a marriage where you were never safe to be yourself. Both kinds leave marks. You might notice it as anxiety, depression, trouble trusting people, feeling numb, over reacting to small things, or a harsh inner voice that never lets up.
I have worked with survivors of sexual abuse, physical abuse, spiritual abuse, neglect, and addiction, and with people whose trauma does not have a tidy name. You are welcome here.
How I approach trauma work
Gently, and at your pace. My primary tools are Internal Family Systems and Coherence Therapy, two approaches that help the wounded parts of you receive what they needed at the time and did not get. I also draw on Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy when it fits. We build safety first, then we heal. You are always in charge of how far and how fast we go.
Many of my clients tell me the most healing thing was simply being believed, and being met with compassion instead of judgment. That is where we begin.
Faith and trauma
For some people, trauma happened inside a church or a faith community, and that wound runs especially deep. For others, faith is the thing that got them through. I hold graduate degrees in theology and spiritual formation, and I have spent decades walking with people through both kinds of stories. Faith is welcome in this room if you want it here, and I will never push it on you.