Healing From Sexual Trauma

At Healing Loudly LLC, I specialize in therapy support survivors of sexual abuse, harassment, and assault. We work together to process the trauma, connect with the emotions in your body, and rebuild your sense of safety. Feeling empowered and regaining a sense of confidence is important after what you experienced.

Types of Therapy Approaches I Use to Treat Trauma

• Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior (TFCBT) Therapy - is an evidence based approach that helps survivors reframe distressing thoughts related to the traumatic events. Often times, survivors believe they are to blame for what happened to them. In therapy we work towards identifying negative beliefs and shift patterns that contribute to self-blame or shame about the trauma. While using TFCBT, you make connections between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. We would also identify behavioral strategies to engage in to develop healthier coping mechanisms to deal with trauma triggers.

• Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy - is a highly researched therapy that helps reprocess traumatic memories, so you aren’t constantly reliving the past. We want the traumatic memory to feel like a chapter in your book rather than your whole story. The main goals of EMDR is to decrease distress related to past memories, build positive thoughts about yourself, and reduce intrusive memories. This modality is effective for PTSD, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. Before using EMDR, we want to make sure you feel your therapy environment feels safe. I spend extra time with my clients before using EMDR to build a relationship and develop new coping strategies.

• Empowerment Approach - Survivors can commonly feel powerless, silenced, and disconnected from their inner strength after the trauma. The empowerment approach aims to restore your sense of autonomy and self-worth in the healing process. My role in this approach is to help guide you through assertive skills to set boundaries in your life. I emphasizes the choices you have in your life and healthy ways to make confident decisions in your healing. You are the expert of your experience. You have a voice in every aspect of your therapy process. By tapping into your voice, you can regain a sense of control over your life again. The goal with this approach is to help you feel capable, confident, and reclaim your power.

• Self-Compassion Focused - Judgment for what you have been through can be difficult to manage alone. Deep feelings of shame may arise with survivors of sexual abuse. This approach helps reshape how you treat yourself. The main components of this approach are engaging self-kindness, believing you are not alone, and being lovingly aware of your emotions. Together we identify different ways accept yourself without judgment. By softening the way you respond to your triggers, you can begin to treat yourself like someone you love. Harshness towards what you experienced will only deepen your wounds. In therapy, we will help you develop patience towards the impacts of trauma and learn how you can be kinder to yourself.

• Somatic Mindfulness Approach - Sexual trauma often manifests as uncomfortable sensations in your body that leads to disconnection and numbness. Using mindfulness, you learn how to reconnect with your body. Learning how to feel safe in your body is important. By bringing attention to body sensations, you can learn to identify which emotions you are feeling and how your emotions can guide you. A few mindfulness skills I teach in sessions are deep breathing techniques, grounding strategies, and progressive muscle relaxation. By using these skills, you can begin to release the trauma stored in your body. Somatic mindfulness empowers you to feel safer in your body and learn to trust your intuition. This approach helps you reduce hypervigiliance (feeling guarded or afraid) to the world around you.