It’s not just you. These are statements we hear often in therapy. Another of the Greatest Hits is “I don’t want to just sit around and blame my parents. I want to know what to do.”
If that’s you, you’re in the right place.
When your mind gets stuck on worry, self-criticism, self-hatred, sadness, or an intolerable future, it’s hard to imagine having a satisfying life. It’s also very easy to blame yourself or assume something is wrong with you.
Our culture is great at showing people how to acquire stuff, but not how to deal with loss or difficult emotions. If “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” were actually that easy, wouldn’t you just do it?
To make matters worse, when self-help gurus and clickbait articles urge you to choose joy, visualize your dreams, think positive, like yourself, and let go of negative thinking, you’ll probably end up feeling like a failure — which will just make you more anxious or depressed!
We’re not going to make you re-experience your trauma in every session. We don’t think that’s helpful. If you experienced a trauma, you didn’t have control over what happened or how long it lasted, so we believe in giving you control over when you’re ready to talk about it and how much.
Our approach to treating trauma focuses on how it’s affecting you in your life today. There may be difficult or painful memories you really need to process, and we’ll absolutely provide you with support and compassionate listening as part of that healing process. Then, we’ll empathetically explore how it’s affecting you now, and collaborate on what you need to recover from it and gain resilience.