Trauma Therapy
You Are Not Broken
Regardless of how severe your trauma, or how seemingly mundane, your suffering is real. It changed your life. You didn’t choose it but are left to live with the consequences. The past cannot be erased, but it can be understood and put to rest. Trauma therapy can help.
Some memories are difficult to process. Even after years, they can still feel vivid and painful. There are events so awful they shouldn’t happen to anyone. Other times, traumas are not clear or dramatic, but they keep coming to mind. Maybe you just feel like something is off. There are also memories that get repressed or blocked out until something triggers them back into focus.
You may or may not feel ready to talk about everything. And that’s okay.
Whatever your experience, our therapists will help you navigate the process on your timeline, not ours.
Past traumas impact people in all sorts of ways. Survivors can avoid thinking about the past, blame themselves, deny anything happened, gravitate to toxic situations, feel debilitating stress, self-medicate with alcohol, or simply feel shut down from happiness or connection.
Unprocessed traumatic memories can wreak havoc on your life when they go unresolved. You want to break the negative cycle.
We all want to love and be loved.
Nothing will ever erase what happened to you, but you don’t have to feel broken, ashamed or guilty. It starts by processing what happened with compassionate therapists extensively trained in trauma so you can:
- Understand your past from a different perspective.
- Understand your past from a different perspective.
- Unlearn toxic, untrue messages that echo in your mind.
- Regain your sense of self.
- Create the future you want and feel happy again.
Different approaches work for different people. That’s why our therapists are highly trained in a variety of techniques, including trauma-informed therapy, sensorimotor processing and EMDR.
Trauma-informed therapy: You know what happened to you, but you might not fully grasp the complexity of its impact. Even if you can’t name it, it’s trauma and our therapists understand that. Suffering and surviving trauma require treatment that can help you heal. You may have developed coping behaviors that are hurting you. There is zero shame. You did what you had to to survive. Now our therapists can help you thrive by learning new coping skills.
Sensorimotor processing: It’s not uncommon for trauma survivors to be randomly triggered and experience uncomfortable physical sensations. Your body carries the memory of your trauma. Sensorimotor psychotherapy addresses both the physical and emotional patterns that have developed. This approach helps you to separate the two and strengthen your instinctual survival skills so you can find relief and move past difficult events.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): This technique helps you address and resolve painful or disturbing memories. As a relatively new approach, it is effective for PTSD as well as less traumatic memories that may be difficult to emotionally process. There are a number of phases in an EMDR treatment, but the idea is to think about a particular memory while moving your eyes in a side-to-side motion to facilitate communication between both hemispheres of the brain.
Take back your power. Trauma counseling can help.
You’re not defined by your history. You are not a clinical label to us. You’re someone seeking understanding, acceptance, support, guidance, empowerment. That’s what our trauma therapy is about. Life is meant to be enjoyed and you are worthy of happiness and connection.
Onsite & Online Therapy
Psychotherapy Associates of Chicago provides onsite & HIPAA-compliant teletherapy sessions. Although in-person sessions are generally preferable, an online therapist can be a great option when this is not possible. Contact us for more information.
Why PAC for Trauma/Abuse Counseling?
We don’t use clinical jargon or write for academic journals; we are here to help people. Our approach doesn’t work for everyone, nor should it. It just needs to work for you. Your concerns guide our therapeutic approach. We each have diverse specialties so you can choose one of our licensed therapists that fits you. Sometimes you instantly click with a mental health counselor. Other times, you don’t. We get that and work to find you the best match.
Our Chicago community has counted on our psychotherapy practice for over 20 years. The on-site & online therapy services we provide range from individual therapy, couples therapy, mindfulness and child therapy. It’s a true privilege knowing that we have created a highly respected resource for our neighbors. We are an inclusive practice serving individuals, couples and families of all ages, genders, sexual orientations and ethnicities. All are welcome.