Healing Grief and Trauma

Grief often feels like it will last forever.

Traumatic experiences have a way of smashing to smithereens the life you know. When trauma overwhelms our ability to process and make sense of the world, we feel frozen, angry, or afraid, and the people and activities that used to bring us joy seem hollow. These feelings are normal.

Loss or trauma can be sudden or can take place over the years or even over generations. Overwhelming experiences affect our innermost sensations (how our bodies feel and perceive) and how we feel about the world in which we live. They affect the very core of who we are.

You don’t have to feel like this!

It is understandable and normal to try to escape the pain by using food, alcohol, or other compulsive behaviors to distract or numb ourselves.

While some of these behaviors bring temporary relief, they all bite us back hard and do nothing to help us heal and move back into a joyful life.

It takes time to overcome significant losses, and grief often feels like it will last forever.

But grief is the beginning of healing – through our ability to grieve, our bodies and minds recover.

Therapy provides a path to healing.

Recovering from trauma and grief is easier when you have a supportive therapist who can guide you through the process of healing. It is hard to do this alone.

While I have training in a variety of methods proven to help people integrate and heal from trauma and grief, the most important ingredient in healing is the quality – the safety, the honesty, and the kindness – of my relationship with you.

Using a highly personalized approach, I will help you turn toward and eventually release painful memories and bodily sensations so that you can heal and move forward into a meaningful life.

Healing takes time.

Allowing yourself to go slowly is good! When healing from trauma and grief, it is best not to hurry. The healing process is a slow, gentle turning toward what is painful.

Trauma and grief cause us to contract and hold the pain in our bodies. Often, we re-experience the trauma in flashbacks or get stuck in our feelings of grief, loss, and fear. When this happens, we cannot fully process and move forward.

By turning toward the pain with kindness and therapeutic support, you feel what you feel and allow your body and mind to integrate what has happened. The pain is in the past, and you can start living in the present moment again.

It takes tremendous courage to reach out for help. I understand this, and I can help you.

Call me at (941) 404-6355 for a free 20-minute consultation.