Go beyond traditional talk therapy.
Trauma Therapy
Healing for Adults Letting Go of the Past
Has Trauma Made It Hard For You To Maintain Healthy Relationships?
Throughout your life, have you continually found yourself in relationships that aren’t satisfying? Do you often feel:
Trapped in cycles of people-pleasing and overcommitting?
Constantly worrying about whether you’ll get hurt again?
Stuck in self-doubt and feelings of inadequacy?
Maybe you suffered from sexual assault or an abusive relationship in the past, and it’s made it hard for you to trust others and be vulnerable in your relationships today. You might feel like you’re constantly on guard with everyone around you, always waiting for the other shoe to drop. As a result, you may feel anxious, exhausted, and burnt out. Your relationships may feel stagnant and you might find yourself wondering if it’s time to reach out for more support.
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You’re Ready To Heal Your Trauma—But You’re Not Sure Where To Start
Whether you suffered from a traumatic experience that happened a long time ago or just recently, the hallmark of trauma is feeling stuck. No matter how hard you work to shed the past, old patterns continually rear their ugly heads and unhealthy dynamics crop up in relationship after relationship. Perhaps none of your relationships seem to last and all of them leave you with more emotional baggage than before.
After a while, this kind of life can get lonely, draining, and frustrating. You’re probably eager to embrace a new chapter and put the pain of the past behind you—but you’re not sure where to start.
If this is how you feel, you’ve come to the right place. At Positive Moods, our therapists specialize in using EMDR and other evidence-based approaches to help people like you move beyond surface-level change and achieve lasting healing from trauma.
You don’t have to keep shouldering the weight of the past alone—we’re here to help you carry your burdens and finally get some relief.
Many Of Us Grew Up In Environments Where We Couldn’t Safely Express Ourselves
Oftentimes, clients will tell us that they haven’t experienced trauma—their childhood was “normal” and they didn’t have it “that bad.” Yet when we dig a little deeper, it becomes clear that they’re carrying unhealed emotional wounds that come from somewhere in their past.
Many of them grew up in communities where emotions were viewed as a sign of weakness and certain parts of themselves weren’t safe to express. In order to survive, they had to suppress these parts and live in a way that wasn’t true to their core selves.
As you might’ve guessed, this kind of experience is itself a form of trauma. When you aren’t allowed to be your authentic self, it can have lasting repercussions and lead to lifelong patterns of people-pleasing, overcommitting, and toxic relationships.
It’s Time To Update Your Coping Skills And Step Out From The Shadow Of The Past
Emotional suppression is normal in the wake of trauma, and it’s especially common among military families, working-class families, and families of immigrants. Many people from these backgrounds grew up as “parentified” children—they had to fend for themselves at a young age and essentially learn to be adults before they were fully grown.
As a result, many people with trauma end up clinging to the coping skills and survival mechanisms they learned as children. But most of the skills that served them as children—such as people-pleasing to avoid rejection or punishment—no longer serve them as adults.
For this reason, counseling is all about updating your toolkit of coping skills so that you don’t keep getting stuck in the trauma patterns holding you back in life.
Healing Is Possible Through The Power Of Trauma Therapy
At the end of the day, we want you to know that you are enough exactly as you are. You don’t have to change yourself for others or be someone you’re not in therapy—we welcome all parts of you and encourage you to move at your own pace.
Your journey toward healing and self-discovery is unique, and we’re here to walk alongside you every step of the way. Together, we’ll create meaningful change that empowers you to step into the life you deserve—one that’s fully aligned with your true self.
At Positive Moods, our therapists specialize in treating the symptoms of both complex trauma and PTSD and we serve clients from all backgrounds and walks of life. Whether your traumatic experience was a single event such as a car accident or violent assault, or a long-term trauma such as a toxic or abusive relationship, we are confident that we can help.
What To Expect In Trauma Counseling Sessions
In therapy together, we’ll help you identify the stressors and triggers impacting your life today and explore how your current struggles may be related to unprocessed childhood trauma. Although therapy involves digging into the past, we’re equally concerned with the present—we want to help you manage your trauma responses and reduce your stress while working toward healing from what happened long ago.
Our counselors are able to draw from a wide range of interventions to help you process and resolve your trauma:
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)—The goal of this approach is to reframe the negative beliefs and self-blaming thoughts that arose from trauma such as “I’m not good enough” or “I’m not worthy of love.”
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)—Before you begin processing your trauma on an in-depth level, we’ll work on equipping you with skills and strategies for staying calm and grounded throughout treatment.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)—Rather than have you “talk” through your traumatic experience, EMDR therapy uses a revolutionary set of bilateral stimulation exercises to help you lessen the emotional impact of your trauma.
In the end, the combination of approaches we use ultimately depends on you, the client—we want to personalize therapy so that it meets your needs and fulfills your goals. Your story of healing is uniquely yours, and we want to help you write it one chapter and one session at a time.
You May Have Some Questions About Trauma Therapy…
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There are so many benefits to collaborative support. Since trauma usually happens in the context of relationships, it stands to reason that healing needs to happen in the context of relationships, too.
Many of us tend to believe that our childhoods were normal, or our experiences weren’t as bad as other people’s, and these beliefs can hold us back from being able to process trauma alone. What’s more, we all have blind spots when it comes to evaluating our childhood traumas, and counseling is a place where those blind spots can be addressed.
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Depending on the severity of your trauma and how long it’s been present, therapy can last anywhere from a few weeks to several months. While healing is usually an ongoing process, therapy doesn’t have to be long-term, especially since EMDR can often deliver powerful results in a few sessions.
That said, we encourage you to be kind to yourself regardless of how long trauma therapy lasts. Everyone’s healing journey is unique, and sometimes slow and steady truly does win the race!
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This is a very common fear—that talking about trauma will be like opening Pandora’s box and unleash a whole host of bigger pain points. Working through trauma isn’t always comfortable, but at our practice you’ll have a compassionate professional by your side, and they will equip you with plenty of skills and resources for navigating the pain of the past.
If you’re reading this page, it shows tremendous courage on your part—it shows that you’re willing to take that bold step of healing from the past and crafting a brighter future. To learn more about our approach to trauma counseling, you can call 804-390-5704 or use our scheduling form.
Serving clients through virtual and in-person sessions in Virginia and virtual sessions in Florida.
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Trauma Does Not Define You. A Legacy Of Healing Awaits.
discover your inner zest for life.
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discover your inner zest for life. —