Trauma can be a single life-threatening incident, physical, sexual and emotional abuse or the insults and injuries that build up over a lifetime and affect our self-esteem, beliefs about ourselves and relationships with ourselves and other. Traumatic experiences can come up in dreams, intrusive images, thoughts, distorted perceptions of self and other, mood and somatic symptoms. We can develop habits to avoid and shut down that affect our day to day functioning, our sense of ourselves and our internal and external relationships. Trauma keeps us from being fully alive in the present.
Even while you are struggling to manage trauma you are also trying to move towards wholeness, to trust, let go and be open. What is too much if you are alone or cut off, can be seen and moved through if you have an embodied awareness and connection to a compassion and understanding both within and beyond yourself. ~ This awareness of connection allows you to be more fully present and alive to all aspects of your experience and thus has the potential to reshape your world view and your perceptions of yourself. Together we work to create a space where your innate healing intelligence can move you toward healing, without becoming flooded and having to shut down to manage uncomfortable feeling states inside your body, mind and heart.
When you have cleared trauma, you open up a space inside of you. Old habits and patterns can come back and fill that space. So, in addition to processing through trauma, we will work to help you fill that space consciously with new ways of being, perspectives, and beliefs that more accurately reflect what you now know. We’ll look at ways to take your new insights and joy into all areas of your life.
Leonicia Castro, LMFT Psychotherapy 