How I Help

I help you heal from the pain attached to your postpartum struggles, birth trauma, infertility, or loss experience and find emotional healing.

Whether you have brought a healthy child into this world, or you are experiencing the heartbreak of infertility and loss, you likely have some sort of trauma or pain attached to your experience. 

 

For those with postpartum struggles or birth trauma: Your birth experience may not have gone as planned, and birth complications or unexpected medical interventions can be traumatizing. Even those lucky enough to have complication-free births often find themselves experiencing trauma-like symptoms (insomnia or difficulty sleeping, difficulty bonding with your baby, nightmares, irritability, constantly feeling on edge, recurring thoughts about the event, intense shame or anger) in the months following birth, and often write them off as postpartum depression symptoms. While postpartum depression is a very real and serious thing, so is the trauma your mind and body experience during childbirth. The body can often have a difficult time differentiating your experience from trauma (not surprising considering all of the pain, adrenaline, and lack of sleep you undergo), and your brain can often store the memories as trauma. This is where processing the experience using EMDR therapy is extremely beneficial, and this is where I can help.

For those experiencing the heartbreak of miscarriage, infertility, or loss: I know firsthand the unique pain you are feeling, and how most other people cannot fully relate. Truthfully, it is not something someone can imagine until they have experienced it themselves. You may be feeling alone in your pain, even feeling that your partner does not understand or has stopped grieving long before you. This is a time when many tend to isolate themselves because they feel no one understands what they have been through, and it is not uncommon to begin experiencing trauma-like symptoms as a result of the difficult experiences with miscarriage, infertility, and loss. Many women become preoccupied with feelings of guilt or shame, wondering why their body “doesn’t work properly” or why the loss occurred. Perhaps you go out of your way to avoid seeing pregnant women or babies in public. Maybe you are isolating yourself from your pregnant friends or family members or their children. While I can tell you this is normal, it does not mean you have to continue living this way. Together, we can work on processing the trauma and pain you have experienced, so that you can find peace.

How EMDR Therapy Helps: I am trained in EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) which helps reduce the feelings of distress associated with difficult or traumatic memories. EMDR therapy uses the brain’s natural ability to heal, and uses eye movement similar that of REM sleep. EMDR helps the brain process traumatic and difficult memories, so that we can look back on the memories with significantly less, or even no distress. Together we will work towards helping you process all that you have experienced, and take the steps towards emotional healing and peace. To learn more about EMDR therapy, contact me or check out my What is EMDR? page.

“Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but it is this same necessity of loving that serves to counteract their grief and heals them.”
— Tolstoy