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 doubts. Your nervous system and brain are responding exactly the way it was designed to respond after having survived repeated traumatic experiences.

Two Sets of Goals
Goals that are typically worked on in this stage with the help of a counselor, caseworker, or other helping professional are:

Basic Health Needs

Regulation of sleep, Eating, Exercise, Drugs & Alcohol, Destructive Behavior.

Basic Environment Needs

Physical Self Protection, Work & Money, Secure Living Situation

Tasks

Therapeutic Task: Safety

Time Orientation: Present

Focus: Self-Care

Time Limit: Limited, Repeating

Boundaries: Flexible, Inclusive Conflict

Tolerance: Low

STAGE 2

Processing - Remembering & Mourning

Memories
Inner healing practitioner or counselor work on going through all the traumatic memories and taking the incoherent pieces and working it into a more coherent whole.

Cognitive Based Approaches
Cognitive based approaches associated with Somatic are best to release bod memories and make it less triggering.

  • Uncovering proceeds in small steps

  • Memories evoke intense grief

  • 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.

Tasks

Therapeutic Task: Integration

Time Orientation: Past

Focus: Trauma

Time Limit: Limited, Fixed Limit

Boundaries: Closed Conflict

Tolerance: Low

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 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

Tasks

Therapeutic Task: Reconnection

Time Orientation: Present & Future

Focus: Interpersonal

Time Limit: Ongoing

Boundaries: Slow Turnover

Tolerance: High

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

Have authority over traumatic memories, be able to control traumatic symptoms and have a coherent system of meaning and belief that integrates the trauma.

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

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.