Trauma Therapy in Lehi

Is Something From The Past Keeping You From Feeling Safe And Secure In The Present?

Are you or your child struggling with aspects of anxiety, fear, anger, or sadness, but don’t know why?
Do you have nightmares, sleep issues, or a hard time relaxing?
Is it difficult to feel safe and secure in your decisions or around others?

If you’re living with unresolved trauma, it’s possible you may have developed physical, mental, or emotional symptoms that seem unrelated to past events. Maybe you automatically wake up in a state of panic, already tense and bracing yourself for what the day holds.

It may feel like you’re constantly on edge or easily startled, even in otherwise “normal” or ordinary situations. Bad memories or associations always seem to be at the surface, ready to jump in and ruin your day at any moment. So, it’s no wonder you’re always on high alert, constantly scanning your surroundings for the next bad thing.

Trauma Often Shows Up In Relationships

Living in hypervigilance mode has probably impacted your ability to connect with others. You may feel clingy and worried that you will be abandoned by or lose your loved ones. Or maybe you don’t even let yourself get close in the first place because you have a hard time trusting others or thinking that you’re worthy of their love and attention.

It’s painful and isolating to feel this way, but it doesn’t have to last forever. Through exploring your self-beliefs and trauma through therapy, you can learn how to face and manage your emotions in ways that allow you to feel connected and in control.

Do You Have Questions About Trauma Therapy?

Trauma Is More Common Than You Might Think

“Trauma” can be a loaded word, and it’s often associated with big, life-altering events like an accident, assault, or other critical situation. The truth is that trauma takes many forms, and it’s estimated that close to 70 percent of Americans will experience a traumatic event in their lifetime. [1]

While trauma can no doubt result from events that threaten your sense of safety and security, there are many subtler traumas that can occur throughout the lifespan, though you may be hesitant to characterize them as traumatic. Any form of neglect or abuse—including religious abuse—may result in trauma. And there are other common experiences like bullying, financial insecurity, instability at home, a death, an instance of discrimination, or witnessing violence that might get stored as a traumatic memory.

The fact is that if you’ve ever felt unsafe, overwhelmed, or like your needs didn’t get met in a distressing situation, symptoms of PTSD can occur. Because a traumatic memory doesn’t get stored like a “normal” memory, you can be left feeling anxious, triggered, and on edge even long after a traumatic event has occurred. This doesn’t mean you’re broken or incapable—it just means your memories need to get reprocessed in a way that doesn’t compromise your sense of safety and resilience.

At Willow Shore Counseling, we are trauma experts who’ve seen, firsthand, the impact that therapy can have on your life. Working with our therapists, you can learn to identify your trauma, understand its impact, and rebuild your coping toolkit to live with more security and freedom.

Willow Shore Counseling Offers Gentle And Effective Trauma-Informed Therapy

Our practice specializes in trauma-informed therapy for adults, teens, and children six and older. Using safe, time-tested approaches that teach you how to manage tough feelings, treatment is designed to help you notice triggers, reduce trauma symptoms, and update your stress response.

We want to create a safe and connective therapeutic experience that allows you or your child to feel more secure in your decisions and relationships.

What To Expect

First and foremost, we want to ensure that therapy moves at a pace that feels productive yet comfortable. If you come to counseling wanting to address a particular trauma, we will work to create a solid, age-appropriate foundation for a therapeutic relationship before going into detail about what happened.

When you’re ready to disclose painful aspects of your past—and only to the extent that you’re comfortable going into detail—we will then figure out which combination of approaches to integrate into trauma treatment. Some of the highly effective approaches we use are:

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which is a relatively nonverbal therapy that uses the brain’s natural healing mechanisms to reprocess difficult memories.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), which is a highly structured and relatively quick method that, like EMDR, uses eye movement and other internal mechanisms to re-integrate traumatic memories to be less distressing.
Internal Family Systems (IFS), which addresses internal wounded parts and protected parts to help you access and align the whole Self.
Aspects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to adjust and update the beliefs driving your actions.
Narrative Therapy to help you retell your story in an empowering way.
Referrals for Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) by request.

These approaches range in their focus, process, and duration of treatment, but they are all great options for cultivating compassion, calmness, curiosity, and connectedness in your life.

You don’t have to keep living in your trauma and your fear—daily disturbances don’t have to be part of your routine any longer. Our therapists will work to find a treatment approach that works for you and centers your comfort.

Avoiding your trauma now will just continue to build pressure and cause issues in the future. But learning how to face it with experts who know what it takes to release and heal your pain can be the first step toward a happier, healthier future.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Therapy For Trauma

We understand that it can be difficult and even frightening to discuss past trauma, which is why our therapists are committed to making this process feel as gentle and approachable as possible.
If discussing your trauma has made you feel worse in the past, keep in mind that there are highly effective, relatively nonverbal approaches we can integrate into therapy. For instance, body-based therapies like EMDR and ART don’t require a lot of verbal processing around specific details of the trauma. And no matter which approaches we use, we promise to move slowly and thoughtfully so that you don’t feel overwhelmed.
If you’re new to therapy, it is entirely expected that you won’t know which direction to go right away. We will guide you in selecting a therapy approach that makes sense for your trauma, and we’re always open to feedback if you’re not getting what you want out of the experience.
Our therapists don’t have an agenda or strict set of rules for which methods to implement into counseling—we individualize the process to your unique trauma and goals for therapy.
Medication is by no means a requirement for trauma healing. If you’re struggling with acute daily symptoms—like sleep disturbances or panic attacks, for example—then medication might be helpful for calming the more problematic symptoms you’re experiencing. But the choice to use medication is entirely yours.
Let your therapist know if you’re interested in medication, and they will collaborate with you about your options. Though we are not licensed prescribers ourselves, we have a lot of trusted doctors we can refer out to. And for clients who are interested in Ketamine Assisted Therapy for trauma, we partner with a credible clinic here in town. Contact us to find out more.

Move From The Past Into The Present

If you or your child experience daily disruptions to your mood, routine, or ability to feel safe and connected, Willow Shore Counseling can help you target core traumas. For more information, contact us or book a free consultation with one of our trauma specialists.

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[1] https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Trauma-infographic.pdf