Trauma Therapy & PTSD Treatment
Trauma Therapy & PTSD Treatment
Trauma is a serious public health issue. It can be caused by any situation that is emotionally or physically threatening and it disproportionately impacts women. Trauma could result from a singular event, such as an assault or natural disaster. On the other hand, it can come from something reoccurring such as intimate partner violence or sexual abuse. It can also accumulate via thousands of microaggressions that are demeaning, threatening, or leave you feeling unsafe- sort of like death by a thousand papercuts.
Other potential causes of trauma include:
Severe injury or illness (or the real threat of it, like the pandemic)
Complications from surgery
Sexual assault or abuse
Being the victim of a crime
Surviving a serious accident or natural disaster like wildfire
Child neglect or endangerment
Verbal abuse and threats
Physical abuse, including discipline that hurt or frightened you
Experiencing a hate crime or threat of violence
Losing someone to suicide
Systemic oppression like fascism, racism, transphobia, fatphobia, heterosexism, ableism, sexism, etc.
To learn more, read "What is trauma?”
Trauma Therapy for Intergenerational Trauma
Trauma that goes back generations in a family can create patterns of toxic relationships. If there was no one to teach each new generation about healthy emotion management and relationship skills, an unhealthy family culture develops. How would you know how to manage emotions and relationships in an appropriate way if your parents couldn’t teach you because they were developed in unhealthy, abusive relationships? And so on, and so on.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can break the legacy of trauma in your own family. It is never too late to learn how to heal. You can learn how to manage emotions and relationships in a healthy way with the help of a trauma therapist, giving subsequent generations a gift you were never so fortunate to have.
Trauma Therapy for Sexual Assault
Sexual assault is not only common, but particularly hard to move forward from. Women are usually blamed for their sexual assaults, and in fact, may have already learned that sexual assault is a woman’s fault by the time they are assaulted. This piece of being blamed by others and self makes sexual assault very hard to cope with. Women report intense shame and as a result, may never tell anyone, suffering in silence. It may result in feelings of disgust with one’s self and one’s body or cause someone to feel used and discarded. Sexual activity itself then becomes a trigger of sexual trauma, which makes physical intimacy difficult and can cause great pain once these women find a safe, loving relationship. Worst of all, it can severely damage a woman’s sense of safety and trust, since the perpetrator is usually a friend, relative, date, or partner, making it hard to have an open heart or sense of peace. If this resonates with you, know that sexual assault is never your fault and healing is possible - make today the day you decide to stop living like this.
IMPORTANT NOTE: sexual assault includes any unwanted sexual contact. This is different from sexual contact that you regret after the fact. If you did not consent to engage in the sexual contact, then it is assault. This is true even if you are married to the perpetrator of it. It is also true if you began engaging in sexual contact and then changed your mind, withdrawing consent. It’s sexual assault even if you didn’t say explicitly say ‘no’, were wearing revealing clothing or were intoxicated. People should always ask for consent first, but even if they don’t, if someone is not actively participating in sexual activity, then that means STOP. There are no excuses for proceeding with a person who has not consented or who cannot consent due to intoxication. If you couldn’t say ‘no’, it may be that you had a traumatic freeze response. This could be because either saying no in the past was dangerous and/or forbidden OR your body wisely recognized in the moment that keeping quiet was the safest option
Trauma Therapy for Adult Survivors of Child Abuse or Neglect
Just because you are an adult out on your own, doesn’t mean you aren’t still scarred and affected by the child abuse and/or neglect you suffered. Child abuse includes physical, emotional, verbal, or sexual abuse, including witnessing violence between adults in the home. Child neglect can be physical (child’s physical needs of food, hydration, warm clothing, shelter, hygiene, and medical care are not met) or emotional (not attending to a child’s emotional needs for any reason, including parental substance abuse). Abuse and neglect leave wounds that persist into adulthood if not treated, including difficulty trusting, poor boundries, difficulty recognizing red flags in relationships, not knowing how to build intimacy in a healhty way, scarcity mindset and anxiety about not having enough of something, difficulty taking up space and asking for what you need, people pleasing, poor anger management, low self worth, and difficulty in relationships. The good news is you can overcome this with the help of a skilled trauma therapist.
Trauma Therapy for Wildfire
As wildfire season is becoming longer and more dangerous, more and more people are impacted by the trauma of wildfire. Firefighters and other first responders, people who lost loved ones or homes, and those who had to evacuate all are being traumatized. After the danger is over, emotional scars can remain.
The trauma of it all may replay over and over in your mind. You may be grieving the loss or someone, your home, your way of life. The terror of having to evacuate persists even if you ended up safe and even if your home remained - the threat is what creates this response. You will feel immense relief and gratitude if your home was spared, but also it’s common to shame yourself for struggling because someone else out there has it worse. Long after you return home, “fire weather” may create significant anxiety. If you are a first responder, you were likely exposed to untold amounts of trauma (on top of what you’ve experienced previously), hazardous conditions for your safety and the safety of those around you, and difficult feelings about the property and people you weren’t able to save. These are all normal responses to a prolonged, dangerous situation and you can get better with the help of a therapist specializing in trauma.
Therapy for Complex Trauma (cPTSD)
When you have had the experience of repeated and/or prolonged trauma, from someone you know, over a long period of time, in which it was difficult or impossible to escape, you have experienced complex trauma. Examples include prolonged intimate partner violence , child neglect, and child physical/sexual/emotional abuse. This type of trauma leaves a particularly deep wound. On top of regular symptoms of PTSD, survivors may have low self worth, intense shame, great difficulty managing intense emotions, and consistent relationship difficulties.
And this makes perfect sense - when you have been so incredibly harmed, for such a long time, from someone who should have been caring for you… who was showing you healthy ways to manage your emotions? Who was teaching you that you are valuable and worthy of respect and safety just as you are? Who was demonstrating healthy, kind conflict? And how on earth would you have learned about how to pick a quality partner from people who were walking red flags? If you struggle in these areas, please know, it is not your fault - it is an expected response to a particularly harmful kind of trauma, and it is treatable. You deserve healing.
Ready to start trauma therapy & PTSD treatment?
As a trauma psychologist near Los Angeles, I understand how hard it can be to reach out to support after you have experienced trauma. Well Woman Psychology is here to support you every step of the way. No matter what caused you to need trauma therapy or PTSD treatment. While reaching out for support can be hard, following these next steps can make it easier.
Contact us for a consultation at Well Woman Psychology
Meet with your trauma psychologist
Start getting the support you need to start recovering
Other Services We Offer in Los Angeles, CA
At Well Woman Psychology I am dedicated to helping support you and whatever struggles you face as a woman. That is why I provide therapy for body image issues, grief, sex therapy, EMDR therapy, and individual relationship therapy. As a therapist for women, I provide services to support your women’s health such as therapy for miscarriage, infertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and new moms. All of my online therapy services are offered throughout the states of California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Washington.