Trauma Therapy

Like grief, Trauma is a natural and healthy response to an overwhelming and unimaginable disaster. It is as much in the body as it is in the mind. One cannot simply will it to go away. If we do not process trauma, we will probably develop dysfunctional ways to manage, plagued by intrusive memories, feelings and thoughts.

Unprocessed trauma often causes us to make what I call, “traumatic decisions”, which are intended to keep us safe in the future, and which seem to make sense at the time. However, these traumatic decisions often result in dysfunctional beliefs or behaviours that no longer make sense once we are no longer in a dangerous situation (e.g. don’t wear certain clothing, don’t trust one gender or another, don’t travel by certain modes of transportation, etc.) These beliefs, and the resulting behaviour can really play havoc with our lives and relationships.

I use several different techniques to address trauma, from Emotion-focused, Experiential Therapy to Internal Family Systems (IFS) as well as a dynamic, short-term approach called Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR). Working together, we will find the best approach to help you significantly reduce the impact of all kinds of trauma.