A common concern people have before engaging in psychotherapy for trauma is that they are afraid of their darkness. Afraid they will enter deep, hidden away spaces. Afraid to let monsters out they have learned to cage. Afraid the darkness will overwhelm them.
I get it. These fears make sense and are completely valid.
When seeking trauma counseling, it’s important to work with a therapist who specializes in trauma. Someone who understands how to create safety, and hold a compassionate, non-judgemental, patient space that you can show up to each week, however you are.
This is the work I do.
I’ve learned over the past 20 years as a therapist, how to create and embody that space.
An embodied approach
Therapy that focuses primarily on cognition isn’t enough. Brief therapy isn’t enough. Trauma is stored in our body, and plays out in our thoughts. An embodied approach tends to the body, mind and soul. This is a long-term approach where consistency, containment, and time are what’ s needed for personal growth and healing to take place. We will work somatically with your nervous system and the sensations you experience. Therapy is a mix of talking face-to-face, breath work, guided meditation, and somatic exercises in the body, all depending on where we are in the process.
You don’t have to reveal the details of your trauma to begin healing.
There is plenty of work to do before we talk about the details. We work with your nervous system and your present day emotional expressions of the trauma which may include anxiety, panic, excessive worry, OCD, PTSD, C-PTSD, depression, frustration, stress, traumatic stress, and anger. We want you to be able to live in the present without being overwhelmed by emotions from the past.
Your life needs to have enough space to process the trauma.
What is distressing you today? What relational challenges are you facing? We need to develop an understanding of the relational patterns you engage in and help you regulate your system so you don’t get overwhelmed when we venture into the darkness. Does your body overtake and control you? We need to focus on self care and somatic skills so you can begin to ‘take charge’ of your system. When it’s safe enough, your story will unfold and we can tend to the painful pieces trauma has left.
We will go at your pace.
Our human experience deserves compassionate curiosity, and time. Time to create safety. Time for the narrative to unfold. Time to reunite us with our own internal wisdom.
Trauma Counseling in Old Bridge, NJ
I’m Ellen Gregory, LMFT, owner of Thrive Counseling Center in Old Bridge, NJ. I provide therapy for clients with unmet childhood trauma, assault, abuse, and law enforcement and first responders with on the job trauma exposure and traumatic stress.