Therapy for Trauma and Loss

What Is Trauma?

As you are looking for help, you may be wondering if what you are experiencing is trauma. Trauma is an emotional, psychological and physical response to an extraordinarily stressful event, situation or relationship. When you have lived through an intensely stressful or disturbing event, you often have both immediate symptoms (i.e. shock, denial) and long-term symptoms (i.e. depression, anxiety, flashbacks). These symptoms can grow to be extremely impactful on your daily life and functioning. The impact on your daily life can be obvious and tangible, or it can be subtle and happening internally.

    • Physical abuse

    • Domestic violence

    • Sexual abuse

    • Emotional abuse

    • Medical procedures or diagnoses

    • Car accidents

    • Cults or high-control religious groups

    • Death of a loved one

    • Emotional neglect

    • War experiences

    • Combat

    • Natural disasters

    • Chronic illness

    • Nightmares

    • Shock

    • Denial

    • Flashbacks

    • Confusion

    • Sadness

    • Agitation

    • Numbness

    • Depression

    • Anxiety

    • Emotional dysregulation

    • Difficulty concentrating

    • Sleep disturbances

    • Intrusive recollections

    • Difficulty in close relationships

    • Avoidance of activities, people, places or feelings associated with the event

    • Hypervigilance

    • Isolation from others

    • Feelings of detachment from others

Are There Different Types of Trauma?

There are considered to be 3 types of trauma.

  1. Acute trauma results from a single-incident and unexpected event.

  2. Chronic trauma results from experiencing repetitive and prolonged traumatic events over an extended period of time.

  3. Complex trauma results from experiencing varied and multiple traumatic events.

How Does Therapy Help?

Therapy from a trained mental health professional is one of the most important factors in healing from trauma. I utilize a variety of methods when treating trauma. When you are receiving help for trauma, it is crucial that we go at the pace that you are most comfortable with, and I implement my training and skills to be attuned to the pace that is best for you. I can support you to heal from your trauma by helping you understand and gain awareness about how your trauma is impacting you emotionally, psychologically, physically and relationally. Alongside of this, I help you learn and understand the coping mechanisms needed to manage and decrease your symptoms that are stemming from your trauma. One of the primary approaches I utilize is EMDR therapy. EMDR is a proven treatment for trauma, and you can learn more about EMDR below or by clicking here.

 
 

EMDR Therapy

What is EMDR?

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. EMDR therapy is proven, through research, to be a successful treatment method for trauma and PTSD, as well as depression, anxiety disorders and addictions. EMDR is a structured therapy in which you are led to focus on the traumatic memory for brief amounts of time while simultaneously engaging in bilateral eye movements to stimulate the brain to process the memory, thus reducing the emotion associated with the traumatic memory.

One of the biggest qualities of EMDR that makes it go past the capabilities of traditional talk therapy is that EMDR does not require talking about the trauma in detail. Instead, EMDR helps prompt the brain to process and heal from the memories itself. As the brain resumes its natural ability to heal memories, the memory does not disappear, but the emotional and somatic response to the memory is decreased, resolved and healed.

The most incredible part of our bodies is that our brain is designed to know how to heal itself from traumatic experiences and memories. Therapy and EMDR is a tool to help prompt the brain to engage in its natural healing capabilities.

You can learn more about EMDR therapy, as well as the impacts of trauma, by watching the video below.

 
 
 
 

Sarah Mondragon, LMFT

To learn more about the therapist, Sarah, and her credentials, please click the button below.

You are worthy of healing.

You are worthy of healing.

Step One

Fill out the contact form below, and we will schedule a first session or schedule a consultation call.

Step Two

During the first sessions, we identify and discuss your goals for therapy, your history, and what you are struggling with the most.

Step Three

We meet for regular therapy sessions as you work towards your goals, change and experience healing.

 
 

Contact Me Today

Complete the contact form below to schedule a first session, ask me a question, or schedule a 15 minute consultation call.