Specialities
YOU ARE NOT BAD.
YOU ARE NOT A BURDEN.
SACRIFICE IS NOT THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN EXPERIENCE CARE.
YOU ARE DESERVING OF REST.
YOU ARE DESERVING OF CARE.
YOU ARE DESERVING OF TENDERNESS.
YOU ARE DESERVING OF HAVING YOUR NEEDS MET.
YOU ARE DESERVING OF LETTING GO OF PATTERNS AND NEGATIVE BELIEFS THAT NO LONGER ARE TRUE FOR YOU.
However, experiencing trauma will sometimes have you believe that you should’ve known better or even you deserved to be hurt. The shame will sometimes have you believe not only should you have known better but that you have to keep this a secret.
What is Shame?
Although shame is a normal feeling many people experience, internalized shame can lead to a felt sense or core belief that someone is bad or wrong. Shame can lead to anxiety, depression, feelings of worthlessness, lack of acceptance, rigidity, loneliness and isolation.
What is Trauma?
Trauma is an experience you did not give your consent to and it has left you feeling ongoing distress, shame, or excessively fearful. Sometimes this is a singular event and other times it’s internalized systemic oppression. Often this can contribute to symptoms of or lead to anxiety, depression, or post traumatic stress injury.
Workplace Trauma
Navigating your stressful events at your workplace with marginalized identities. Your dedication to showing up for those you serve and being an essential worker, but not having a time and space to process. Being championed for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion while balancing your workload and supporting your other BIPOC colleagues is no easy feat. While therapy is not fix-all, choosing your mental health can help prevent or assist with burnout.
Racial Trauma
Experiencing injury from any and all forms of racism can show up as anxiety, depression, low self-worth. You’re right in safety cannot be guaranteed, but we can build our walls and armor intentionally. Hypervigilance and isolation can and have been helpful, but if we are always teetering between these two we can miss out on joy and pleasure.
Intergenerational Trauma
Families are complicated. You don’t have to continue the secrets and yes, it is difficult. Identifying familial patterns is one thing, but choosing to do something different while navigating all the emotions like privilege-guilt, AND the inner critic that comes along with it? You are not alone. Your ancestors are present with you and are welcome in our space.
Religious Trauma
Many of us have meaningful cultural ties to religion and can logically understand the impact it may have on our families or own experiences. However, religious trauma can occur when our beliefs, values, ethics, or actions may not align with religion and instead of being met with support are met with toxic shame and guilt.
How does therapy help?
Being able to identify patterns and build a different relationship to shame and trauma can be empowering. We can’t change what happened to you, but we can find peace with these different experiences. Systemic oppression, internalized -isms, don’t have to continue as “this is just who I am” or “how my family is.” Unlike some other forms of talk therapy, we work at your pace and you never have to share all the details unless you choose. My hope with therapy is helping you to prioritize your joy, pleasure, and rest. Helping you uncover and understand different parts of yourself, which one you want to show up as the most, and who gets permission to access you. Rather than focus on what is the diagnosis or trying to only disprove a thought pattern, we work on how to read your nervous system so it’s not only about “just getting through it.” Together, we can reprocess some of these memories and help the body in re-membering it is not only defined by its trauma, but its choice in resiliency too.