“It may come as a surprise that living life in a full and expanded way is one of the most difficult challenges we face as human beings.”
-Laurence Heller, PhD
- Do you struggle to let people know who you really are or have difficulty trusting others?
- Is there a wall around you that feels safe and lonely at the same time?
- Do shame, guilt, insecurity, helplessness, depression, or anxiety feel familiar?
- Do your emotions overwhelm or control you? Or maybe you feel disconnected and numb?
- Do you worry that you’ll never be okay? Like no matter what you do or how hard you try, you feel empty, overwhelmed, and exhausted?
- Maybe you feel unloved, unseen, “not enough,” split off or hidden – and you’re struggling to find a way to cope and find a way to heal.
- If you’re struggling in intimate relationships, do these issues show up in conflicts or threaten the relationship’s future?
If any of these feel familiar, you’ve probably experienced some level of relational trauma.
What IS complex relational Trauma?
You may have heard about little “t” and big “T” trauma, complex trauma, PTSD, vicarious trauma, collective trauma (think Covid 19) … the list goes on. A simple way to start is by separating event or shock trauma (usually what we think of as PTSD) from relational trauma (sometimes referred to as C-PTSD). The primary differences are:
Event and Shock Trauma usually occurs after a time-limited, isolated circumstance or set of circumstances in a person’s environment. A surgery, physical attack, living/fighting in a war zone, or natural disaster are some examples.
Relational Trauma is intricately linked to our environments and the cultural and collective relationships that shape you—from familial and social interactions to broader societal and cultural influences.
Trauma occurs on a spectrum ranging from mild to severe. Sometimes people aren’t aware that relational trauma has affected them until issues begin showing up in their relationships.
Approach to Healing
Together, we’ll uncover the layers of your life’s experiences, acknowledging how they’ve shaped you and influenced your interactions with the world. Our work will help you build awareness of these foundational experiences and how you relate to them (and yourself in them) while moving toward what your heart wants most.
You have everything you need for this transformation, and I’ll be with you on the cliffs, in the dessert, and for the sunrises as you continue on this path of self-discovery and personal growth.
Trauma only lives in the now.
It isn’t about what happened in the past, but how we relate to the past in the present.
My hope for you is that our work will support you to:
- Center in What You Want for Yourself: It’s hard to move toward change if you don’t connect with the things you can and want to grow toward.
- Notice with Compassion: I’ll support you in recognizing the patterns and belief systems that keep you stuck so you can move toward holistic growth and aliveness.
- Anchor in Curiosity: We’ll slow down with curiosity (and hopefully more grace and less judgment) to explore what no longer serves you – and build your capacity to experience emotions and parts of you that you’re tenderly protecting.
- Stand on What You’ve Already Built: It may be hard to relate to right now, but you’ve already got everything you need for this chapter of your journey. We just need to reconnect with those parts of you.
- Recognize and Reinforce Your Growth: We build the capacity to create what we want for ourselves by reinforcing what feels different. Once we land on something new, we’ll explore it so you can get to know yourself better and integrate new perspectives into your everyday life.
Ready to start your journey?
Contact me today for your free connection call.