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Childhood Trauma Recovery

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Trauma is perhaps the most avoided, ignored, belittled, denied, misunderstood, and untreated cause of human suffering. Trauma is a basic rupture—loss of connection to ourselves, our families, and the world…. when [worked through] thoroughly, healing can lead to…long-term transformation.
—Peter Levine, “Waking the Tiger”

Trauma Keep Us “Stuck in the Past”

That “stuck in the past” feeling sometimes shows up in flashes of memory that come without us wanting them to. It often shows up in relationships and in areas where we feel stuck, frozen, or like we’re “freaking out”.

Transforming trauma means that those reactions get unstuck and your energy stops getting so stuck or stifled, or going out of control in fight and flight reactions. As you feel more empowered, grounded, and connected, your energy becomes available to support you in doing the things you want to do in the here-and-now rather than responding to fear and anger that belongs back there back then.

Childhood and Attachment Trauma

When you’re hurt as a kid, it leaves big scars. Big gaps in your ability to meet your own needs and to relate to people who are safe in ways that feel safe, loving, nurturing. Some people with this kind of wound feel like there’s no help for them, no one who cares, no safe place — all emotional memories of the trauma.

But it’s not only childhood abuse that leads people to have traumatic reactions in the present. They may also be struggling with attachment wounding.

This wounding, often not recognized as trauma, can happen when a child has to cope with these situations:

Being adopted…
Parents who can’t give them the care and attention they need to thrive…
Neglect or emotional abuse…
Parents who need the child to take care of them…
Feeling emotionally attacked by a reactive caregiver…
A parent who can’t connect to a child due to mental or physical illness…

These constitute traumas for children because these circumstances are overwhelming to a child, because when we’re little we can’t put these things into their appropriate context (We tend instead to blame ourselves or the whole wide world!) and we can’t just walk away either, to find more stable people to connect with. The fear and the anger can linger, as well as the confusion of having unmet wants and needs that have felt scary or unwelcome.

What Trauma Looks Like

Maybe these experiences keep happening over and over and over again…

Have a hard time calming down—as though your body is always on alert?

Feel sad, afraid, stressed, enraged, or numb?

Have flashbacks to terrifying moments or moments of betrayal?

Experience emotional flashbacks of shame, helplessness, and abandonment?

Feel shut down or numbed out—as though you can’t think or feel clearly?

Pick fights or shut down without understanding why?

Feel overtaken by fear, shame, desperation, or anger?

Have feelings too overwhelming to bear?

Find comfort or control in problematic outlets like overeating, spacing out, or finding ways to avoid feelings?

Tried talking with people about past events but lack the words or talking in loops?

Feel betrayed and left all alone?

Often these repeated experiences only make us feel worse and MORE alone.

Sometimes, working with Trauma Takes More than Just Words

When it comes to trauma, words aren’t always enough.

You may find that, when you’ve talked about your trauma, you wound up feeling even more panicked, or just as alone as before you shared it. Trauma isolates us from others, and sometimes telling the story without feeling truly met, seen, and affirmed deepens this sense of being “all alone with it all.”

When you have an ally who is attentive to all the fear or anger or desperation that no one attended to, trauma responses begin to heal.

How I help

I’ll help you to understand how this trauma is living within you today and help you to find tools to begin to find safety and relief.

I help to undo the aloneness of trauma by sitting with you every step of the way and helping you to tell, yes, but also to breathe, to feel, to connect—all at a pace that’s safe for you.

My approach helps you to tune into your body at a pace that’s safe for you, to feel newfound safety and solidity in yourself, and to find a sense of empowerment.

This is important because trauma can take away our sense of control over ourselves, over our feelings, and sometimes over intrusive images, shame attacks, or other reactions.

Let Me Be Your Ally

The combination of working with your body and your emotions helps people to stop “just talking about it” and stop reliving it… and to find freedom, clarity, connection, and even a new sense of themselves and the world.

From beginning to end, I’ll help you to feel safe and supported so your mind and body begin to perceive a sense of safety, within yourself and with others.

“Michaela’s approach is perfect for the woman who has been to counseling and isn’t seeing the shifts she’s hoping for. She is able to hold space during the difficult moments. Her ability to be present for people is what creates a very effective therapeutic environment. I’d recommend her to any woman who has unresolved trauma that is greatly influencing their ability to live the life they want to live. Healing is 100% possible.” —Former client

Trauma Isolates, Good Counseling Reconnects

The feelings, sensations, and memories that have kept you feeling stuck can be worked through and released.

It’s time to release yourself from feeling “stuck in the past.”

Call (541) 224-6732 today to set up a FREE 30-min consultation

Schedule your appointment online today.

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