Trauma Therapy
Is Something From Your Past Keeping You From Being Present?
Do you struggle with symptoms of anxiety or depression that seem to impact every aspect of your life, from your work to your parenting to your social life and relationships?
Is your reaction to stress often “bigger” than the situation warrants?
As a result, do you have a hard time trusting your instincts and emotions?
If any of these struggles sound familiar, it’s possible you experienced something in your past that has caused you to be on high alert ever since. Maybe you grew up in an environment that didn’t feel emotionally or physically safe, or perhaps you endured a sudden loss, injury, or accident. Now, you can’t help but feel worried constantly and unable to manage your stress response.
Your relationships are likely the area of your life where these challenges show up the most. You may have noticed fear and anxiety dictating your parenting approach, or maybe you’ve had a hard time opening up in your intimate relationship due to feelings of shame and a lack of trust. It’s possible you have not been able to become vulnerable enough to commit to an intimate relationship in the first place.
Your experiences don’t reflect shortcomings or flaws; rather, you’ve been operating with a traumatic response for years. In trauma-oriented therapy, you can feel supported in overcoming your anxieties and acting in a way that’s consistent with how you want to feel and who you want to be.
Perhaps You Are A Parent Of A Child Who Is Demonstrating Anxiety Or “Acting Out”…
If you have noticed a sudden shift in your child or teen’s behavior, you may be concerned about their mental health. They may have become increasingly defiant or closed off, impacting the entire family dynamic. And this may be especially hard for you if you had similar struggles with your parents when you were younger.
We understand that you don’t want to continue an unhealthy pattern in your family dynamic—you just want your kids to be happy, healthy, and successful for years to come. Our therapists will work with you, as well as your children, to understand the impact of trauma and help put an end to the cycles that perpetuate it.
We Often Believe The Term “Trauma” Doesn’t Apply To Our Experiences
We are conditioned to think of trauma as something sudden, scary, and life-threatening, but the truth is that many of us experienced incidents that, while subtle, left an indelible mark on how we think about ourselves and the world around us.
One common example of this is internalizing the criticism or anger we received from our parents at a young age. Despite knowing that our parents love us and mean well, we can nevertheless carry their disappointment inside ourselves, which can influence how we think, behave, and interact with others for the rest of our lives. In addition to these individual circumstances, we may also be influenced by cultural, religious, and familial norms dictating our values and self-perception.
Becoming aware of the impact of trauma—no matter how “big” or “small”—is a key factor to finding relief from stress and anxiety. Unfortunately, many people fear becoming vulnerable with a therapist, keeping them from meaningfully understanding and overcoming trauma.
All of us can benefit from the outside perspective of a mental health professional. By offering insight into where trauma originates, how it impacts us, and how to respond to our stress and emotions in a healthy way, therapy facilitates the healing process.
MLB Therapy Is A Trauma-Informed Practice
Our therapists meet clients where they are, offering individualized counseling to help them reach their unique goals for trauma treatment. We work with adults, children, teens, and their parents to gain insight into themselves and their experiences.
One of the main goals of therapy is to set a comfortable pace for counseling that allows you to open up and become vulnerable. As you build a strong, trusted rapport with your therapist, they will be able to provide you with life-changing perspectives on how past experiences impact your life today. Through this process, you will gain strategies for identifying and regulating your emotions.
Our Approach
Understanding a client’s core beliefs is essential for determining which trauma treatment approach to take. These core beliefs serve to illuminate ongoing patterns, which can offer insight into how distressing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are triggered.
As we learn more about your unique experience of trauma, we will incorporate specialized therapy approaches to help you build your mental health toolbox. Mindfulness strategies may be used to increase awareness and create more intentionality.
With these skills in place, behavioral methods—including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)—will help to enhance resilience and reframe distortions created by trauma. For parents and families, in particular, we find that Multisystemic Therapy (MST) is useful for understanding how patterns perpetuate themselves along the family line.
We also use the revolutionary technique of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in trauma counseling. EMDR is a highly effective treatment approach that actually removes the blocks created by trauma while rewiring the brain to have a more adaptable emotional response. To read more about how this method works, visit our EMDR therapy page.
Though it can be intimidating to begin the process of therapy, we are here to customize the experience to your needs. We will find out what it will take for you to feel supported, confident, and capable. Change is possible, and through counseling at MLB Therapy, you can develop an awareness of your trauma and the boundaries necessary for you to feel safe again.
Common Concerns About Trauma Treatment
I’m not ready to deal with traumatic memories.
We understand that it can be overwhelming to revisit the past. That said, your unresolved trauma is likely impacting you every single day, whether in obvious or subtle ways. The therapies we use are gentle and trauma-informed, designed to move at your pace and target your unique symptoms.
It may be helpful to keep in mind that EMDR is a relatively nonverbal therapy that doesn’t require you to disclose specific details of your trauma, making it a less invasive approach.
Won’t therapy just make me feel worse?
Your comfort and safety are priorities in therapy. Before discussing anything sensitive, we will make sure you have sufficient coping skills in place for managing uncomfortable thoughts and feelings as they arise throughout treatment. You will be in control of every step of the process—if you need to stop or slow down at any point, we will follow your lead.
I don’t have time for therapy.
It may feel like you have virtually no time outside of your work, family, and other responsibilities to commit to therapy—but have you ever considered that this feeling of busyness adds to your overall sense of stress and overwhelm? Is it possible you are filling your schedule to avoid uncomfortable or negative thoughts?
Your answer to these questions may very well be no, yet therapy is nevertheless an investment in yourself, designed to help you feel more relaxed, in control, and present in your life and relationships.
Trauma Is A Challenging Aspect Of Being Human, But Healing Is Possible
At MLB Therapy, we use trauma-informed methods—including EMDR and CPT—to help clients overcome their anxieties, foster resilience, and feel more confident in themselves. For more information about how we can help, contact us.
