Complex Trauma and PTSD

Sometimes the safest way we learn to cope with the aftershock of childhood trauma and neglect is to create a workable persona or "protector," fervently committed to keeping us safe by avoiding further emotional injury at any cost. As adults, day-to-day challenges trigger our protective parts with anxiety-provoking situations that elicit reactive, shielding responses, and keep us stuck looping in repetitive cycles. While these protective defenses with their "never again" mantra had reliably sheltered our vulnerability in the past, today they function as painful reminders of lingering wounds and barriers to joyful, meaningful connection with others.

When connected to and operating from our true self, we can cultivate secure—ultimately transformative—attachments to these shunned, shamed, and exiled pain-holding parts of our innermost being. This process engenders an inner harmony and equanimity once only dreamed possible, allowing you to make choices grounded in the authenticity of who you truly are.

Using accelerated psychotherapies, such as EMDR and IFS, healing becomes a reality, enabling you to feel empowered and in alignment with your authentic self. I'm honored and privileged to have helped numerous souls awaken to these liberating and joyous states of inner reconciliation.

Anxiety

Anxiety can be felt as a mild or monumental fear, worry, or tension when our brain detects a real or perceived threat, through activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Unlike real threats, perceived threats pose no actual danger to us. Perceived threats stem from unprocessed psychological and emotional injury, and are at the root of our present-day fears, worries, and concerns.

Intrapsychic injury of this nature can diminish our sense of worth, safety, control, connection, belonging, and lovability, rendering us susceptible to fear-based thoughts and feelings that underpin anxiety. Common anxiety-related diagnoses include:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• Panic Disorder

• Social Anxiety Disorder

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

• Phobia-Related Disorder

While a diagnosis can provide a helpful description of symptoms occurring within a given context, the truth is most anxiety disorders are driven by fear-based thoughts triggered by perceived threats that stem from unprocessed psychological and emotional injury.

When fear is a dominant force in your life, it takes away the joy and freedom of living.

EMDR and IFS can target and heal our compromised sense of self, which underlies fear-based thoughts and emotions—effectively addressing the root cause of anxiety—often within the first few sessions. 

Nutritional Psychiatry

As a Washington State Certified Nutritionist, I’m informed by nutritional psychiatry, which is the practice of using food and supplements as alternative or adjunctive treatments for mental health disorders. Anxiety and depressive symptoms can sometimes be ameliorated by supplementing specific nutrients, improving diet quality, and reducing or eliminating certain foods. Learn about the food-mood connection and how the food we eat impacts how we think, feel, and behave.

Anger Management

You’ve tried anger management and coping skills, but they rarely work in the moment. When you’re triggered, the “thinking” part of your brain shuts down, the fight or flight response takes over, and you react in explosive, self-defeating and harmful ways.

Guess what; it’s not your fault. You didn’t choose to be triggered, did you? It’s not your fault that your brain evolved to keep you safe and alive at any cost. Your brain evolved to react—without thinking—to keep you safe.

We can reprocess and heal your triggers so you no longer overreact in the absence of genuine threat, freeing you from disproportionate or inappropriate anger. EMDR and IFS therapy are notably more effective in resolving anger over traditional talk therapy.