Trauma Therapy

Helping survivors of trauma find meaning and joy in life again.

If you are one of many people who know they’ve survived trauma, you know that traumatic experiences can stay with you.

Life's challenges can feel dark, heavy, or even impossible to deal with. No matter how much you try to talk yourself into letting go, you just can’t shake off those old feelings. Memories control your life too much. This is a typical sign of trauma stress, as the emotions connected with the trauma stick around as if the traumatic event is still happening in the present time.

Most people who start Trauma Therapy have tried everything, but it just isn't working; they feel stuck. Perhaps you can relate. Maybe you feel like you want to escape your life or you avoid people and places that trigger terrifying memories.

Stuck in negativity and feeling desperate, you may feel like life is spent constantly feeling "on edge". Friends and family tell you that you’re overreacting. You worry all the time.

But now, you are here because you are ready to reclaim your own agency.

Do You Feel Numb, Ashamed, Hopeless?

Do any of the following resonate with you?

  • You feel lonely, even when you are with others.

  • You are in a constant state of panic and it rules your life.

  • You feel dread, fear, strange thoughts, and a pounding heart, and you can’t quite explain why.

  • You know that being stuck in worried thoughts isn't helpful, but getting unstuck on your own simply hasn’t been possible.

  • You sometimes have brutal flashbacks to scary times in your life, or feel feelings as if those scary times are still happening, even when they’re not

  • You work really hard to avoid thinking about certain things because they feel too terrifying or overwhelming

If any of this is true for you, I want you to know that even though something bad happened to you, it doesn't mean something is wrong with you. Trauma can trick you into believing that you were at fault. Recovery means understanding that nothing is that simple.

Trauma therapy can help you remember the parts of yourself that you love, even if you don’t believe that to be possible or can’t imagine that you ever loved yourself (you did, even if it was before you can remember).

Trauma Therapy Can Help You Feel Like Your Real Self Again

It’s possible to feel better.

Imagine a life where you could...

  • Feel more free and safe in your relationships.

  • Shift into a more positive and hopeful outlook on life.

  • Create a more meaningful life, unbothered by thoughts and feelings that currently weigh you down

  • Get deep down healed, making it much easier to change unwanted behaviors.

You may have heard the tale about the frog in a pot. That frog doesn’t notice as the temperature slowly rises, and by the time it does notice, well, it’s a sad ending for that hot frog.

Like the frog, humans adapt to their environments. It’s a key survival mechanism. The problem comes when the human adapts to a dangerous environment. Just like the frog, a human in an unhealthy environment learns to create comfort with that environment. Eventually, the human comes to believe that the unhealthy environment is normal, and fears anything else, because anything new (like unconditional love, or relationship stability) is scary.

In trauma treatment, we dismantle the belief that the unknown must be avoided. You learn ways of feeling deep down safe inside your own body, so that you can confidently explore new ways of approaching life.

I’ve helped my clients using a variety of approaches. At the heart of any therapy for trauma is to learn to see yourself differently, and we can use a number of tools for this. People leave treatment feeling empowered, able to take on new challenges with less doubt and more openness.

Why Trauma Therapy?

Trauma Therapy helps you rise above your challenges and start moving towards your ideal life with less less suffering and more fulfillment.

You will get effective skills you need to directly face your difficult memories. The techniques I use to help clients are specific to targeting and healing trauma. The results are often beyond what clients imagine.

Trauma treatment will allow you to shed the weight of bad memories, so that you can move freely in your life. The skills you learn will serve you for the rest of your life, creating new brain pathways that increase your sense of stability even in the face of challenge.

Even if you have no interest in discussing difficult events from your past, Trauma Therapy may be able to help. The approach that I use (EMDR) does not require repeating stories of trauma.

I've helped people who have suffered through terrible events to loosen the grip of their memories. By using EMDR to access the nervous system, we can move into deep healing that most other therapies can't touch. And I’m constantly working to learn more and improve my skills so that you will always receive the best care possible.

There’s no way to truly understand what waits for you on the other side of a healing journey. You have to experience it for yourself. Are you ready to give yourself that gift?

My name is Sonja Seglin and I am a therapist and trauma specialist who is here to help. Ready to get started?

The Treatment Options

When you come to me for therapy, you’ll have access to a number of different ways to ease your anxious mind:

  1. Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy is one option to help you get past anxiety barriers. By using this medicine, you become more able to integrate new thought and behavior patterns into your life. Since this is a cutting edge approach, it’s expected that you would have lots of questions about it. Click here for more detail, and of course we can discuss further whether this would be a good fit for you.

  2. Some people prefer a more open ended exploration of their minds. This organic approach has robust research supporting its effectiveness. Working this way allows us to incorporate activities such as art, guided meditations, ‘venting,’ exploration of your childhood, analysis of your relationship patterns, focusing on problem solving in your daily life, or anything else.

  3. Nature therapy, where we engage with the natural world around you in order to teach your mind new ways to feel. Click here for more information about how nature therapy works to help relieve the symptoms of anxiety.

  4. Any or all of the above

No matter how you choose to move forward, there are some things that I always strive to bring into the therapy space.

I provide a safe, accepting space so that you will feel comfortable sharing your struggles with me.

I welcome any spiritual practice into the room. If you consider yourself a spiritual person, you can feel assured that your beliefs will be respected, and may even prove an integral part of our work together.

We will partner on defining your needs from therapy.

We will check in periodically to make sure you are getting what you need from the therapy process. Since this is different for everyone, it’s important that we can talk openly about how you’re feeling about the work.

Over the course of our sessions, you will start making progress towards the life you desire.

In session, you will notice that I tend to be active and engaged, and even funny sometimes (or not, you can make your own opinion about that). Clients have told me that they find me to be warm and that they appreciate my willingness to push back and challenge them, even as I am able to empathize with their struggles.

But…will this work for me?

It’s natural to have some concerns about entering into therapy as a way to deal with your anxiety. Many clients are skeptical at first, and then find that the work they do in therapy changes their lives in ways they could never have predicted.

  • Maybe you’ve tried therapy in the past, and didn’t see results (or haven’t yet). I’ve had this experience in my own journey as a client in therapy, so I get it. The research consistently shows that the right fit between client and therapist is key to effective therapy. For that reason, I offer a free initial consultation, and I check in regularly so that we can be sure we are heading in a useful direction. Your feedback is always encouraged and taken seriously.

    The strategies I use to treat therapy are shown to be helpful for many different people. No matter how we approach the problem, the experience we aim for is to identify thoughts and feelings that you find intolerable, and the behaviors you currently use to manage those thoughts and feelings. We will practice ways to shift responses when necessary. We will talk about what’s happening inside of your brain and body that is creating your moods and mindset, and with that knowledge, you’ll be empowered to make change where you feel it would be helpful. You may have heard of some of the techniques often used, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). These are among a number of approaches that have strong scientific support for their effectiveness, and I lean heavily on them to guide our work together.

  • When someone has been through a trauma, it effects their brain. That’s why my first line of treatment for people who have experienced trauma is a specialized protocol called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Click here to learn more about what you can expect from this modality.

  • Therapy is an investment in your future well-being. The returns on this investment are immeasurable. By taking an hour a week to focus on your own inner workings, you’ll not only feel better yourself, but you’ll also be in a much stronger position to help those around you. Your body will feel it. Your family will feel it. Your co-workers will feel it. You are planting seeds that you get to watch develop for years to come.

    You may also find that your insurance will cover all or part of the cost of therapy.

  • No! It doesn’t have to! It’s true that some people find the process of therapy so helpful in maintaining their mental stability that they decide to continue sessions without setting an end point.

    That’s not everyone’s experience.

    I offer time limited approaches to anxiety management that focus more on learning and integrating new habits.

    Additionally, I fully support the practice of taking a break from therapy, and in fact find it quite valuable to do so.

    You are not stuck.

    The duration of your therapy is up to you.

  • It's normal to feel hesitant or uncomfortable about opening up at first.

    That’s why I work so hard to create a space in which you feel safe. I am already on your side, and invested in your well-being. And, whenever you don’t want to talk about something, we won’t. Trust takes time to build, and that’s ok.

  • Yes! You can, and you should. But they aren’t your therapist (or at least they shouldn’t be). Unlike informal relationships, your therapy hour is unquestionably dedicated just to you and your well-being. My expertise is in guiding my clients to discover and create new parts of themselves. Rather than staying in homeostasis within established, informal relationships, our work together has the overarching goal of creating change, even when it’s not comfortable.

    Your friends and family are an integral part of your mental and emotional well-being. It may be a therapy goal to help you strengthen those relationships, or let go of guilt about letting yourself be cared for by your network.

    Just as it’s helpful to hire a personal trainer for your workout, or a nutritionist for your diet, it’s also helpful to have professional input on your mental health journey.

Let’s get started today.

Ready to start feeling better? If you feel you’ve tried, but it just isn't working; if you feel stuck, Trauma Therapy could help.

Start now and find meaning and joy in life again. During your free phone consultation, you can start getting a feel for how I can help, and we can discuss next steps.

Email me to schedule your free phone consultation today at sonja@sonjaseglin.com.