Steps to starting therapy

  1. Screening Form: Start by filling out our brief form. It's designed to gauge our compatibility and see if we can embark on a successful therapeutic journey together.

  2. Schedule Your Consultation: Within 2-3 business days after your screening, we'll send you a link to book a complimentary consultation at your convenience.

  3. Phone Consultation: Engage in a phone consultation to discuss your needs and expectations, ensuring we're the right fit for your therapy goals. If we are not aligned; Quality referrals will be provided for providers better suited to your needs.

  4. Intake: If we're aligned, we will discuss scheduling and you will receive a digital intake packet to complete.
    4a. Submit insurance information at least 4 days before the appointment for timely eligibility verification.
    4b. Complete intake packet in its entirety (including relevant assessment measures) by 9am on the day of the appointment.

STAGES OF COMPLEX TRAUMA RECOVERY

Based on Judith Herman’s Model

Recovery is not linear.

Your journey will likely not follow a straight line, but instead might be circular moving in and out of stages until you feel you are ready to move forward and reconnect with your goals and dreams.

STAGE 1

Education, Stabilization & Safety

Education
Education helps normalize your pain and better understand what happened to you. This stage allows the settling in of knowledge that your nervous system and brain responded/are responding exactly the way it was designed to after having survived repeated traumatic experiences.

Stabilization

This stage consists of stabilizing major life domains and making sure basic needs are met.

Basic Needs

  • Sleep

  • Eating

  • Exercise/movement/functional mobility

  • Managing drugs & alcohol

  • Managing destructive behaviors (e.g. behavioral addictions, self-harm)

  • Housing

  • Work

  • Financial security

Basic Psychological Needs

  • Stable relationships

  • Sense of connection and belonging

  • Feeling of accomplishment and competence

Summary

Therapeutic Focus: Safety; resourcing; ego-strengthening; engaging in self-care

Time Orientation: Present

Time Limit: As indicated

Affect Tolerance: Low-Mid

STAGE 2

Processing, Remembering & Grieving

Memories
Inner healing that includes unpacking traumatic memories and taking the incoherent pieces and working it into a more coherent whole.

Goal: Integration
An integrated approach that combines cognitive, somatic, emotional, and relational interventions are best to release body memories and make it less triggering.

  • Uncovering and processing in small steps

  • Allowing for intense grieving

  • Goal is integration, not catharsis

Memories of several representative traumatic events and periods are processed but not every single memory as the emotional content is often the same.

Summary

Therapeutic Task: Desensitization; reprocessing; grieving; feeling

Time Orientation: Past

Time Limit: Limited, Fixed Limit

Affect Tolerance: Mid-High

STAGE 3

Meaning & Reconnection

Meaning
This stage is where inner healing is especially helpful in identifying faulty coping mechanisms and lies that were believed and dealing with existential questions like:

• “Why did God/the Universe/My Higher Power allow this to happen to me?”

• “Why am I here?”

• And “What does it all mean for me?”

Reconnection

  • Expanded Peer relationships

  • Intimate relationships

  • Family relationships

  • Reintegration at successive stages

  • Social action and survivor mission

Summary

Therapeutic Task: Re-connection; meaning making

Time Orientation: Present & Future

Time Limit: Ongoing

Tolerance: Low-Mid

Duration & Continuity

Each of these stages can last months to years depending on the severity, duration, and age of onset of the trauma. The stages also may not follow one another directly, with breaks taken between the stages and sometimes relapses occur to previous stages of recovery. People may be done with recovery after stage one or after stage two based on personal comfort level and goals.

Support after trauma is critical for recovery

"Recovery can take place only within the context of relationships; it cannot occur in isolation. In her renewed connection with other people, the survivor re-creates the psychological facilities that were damaged or deformed by the traumatic experience. The first principal of recovery.” - Judith Herman

Reference: Herman J.L. Trauma and Recovery. 1st ed. Basic Books; New York, NY, USA: 2015.

“We heal in connection—with ourselves, others, and the world around us”
— Elisha Geers

HERE’S A GLIMPSE INTO WHAT OUR WORK TOGETHER CAN LOOK LIKE.

QUESTIONS? LET’S CHAT.

HAVE QUESTIONS OR JUST WANT TO CHAT? BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION WITH ME.