Healing from Trauma is Possible
Research suggests that around 60% of adults have lived through at least one major traumatic event. While not everyone who experiences trauma develops Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the effects of trauma can still linger—sometimes for years. Trauma can keep the brain’s alarm system stuck in overdrive, leaving the body on high alert and storing memories in fragmented, emotional form.
The good news? With the right kind of support, healing is possible. You can move through your distressing symptoms and begin to feel safe and whole again.
In Emotionally-Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT), the focus isn’t on labels or diagnoses. What matters most is how your experience lives in your body and your story. When an emotionally-focused therapist sits with a client who has been through trauma, we are listening for the moments that left a lasting emotional mark—especially the ones that seem to keep you stuck. Using EFIT, we create a safe space to connect with and transform these experiences. Through this process, the brain can begin to “update” old trauma responses, allowing you to feel safer, more connected, and more in control.
Many survivors experience things like:
Intrusive thoughts or flashbacks
Nightmares or sleep problems
Strong emotional or physical reactions to reminders of the event
Avoidance of places, people, or topics linked to the trauma
Self-medicating to numb or cope
Memory gaps or missing pieces of the story
Feelings of shame, self-blame, or disconnection from others
Symptoms of depression, anxiety, or intense anger
Trauma Hijacks Your Stress System
When you’ve experienced trauma, your nervous system reacts quickly to triggers. A scare or stressor can activate fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. Usually, once danger passes, the body settles—your “Window of Tolerance” (see below). But with severe or repeated trauma, even small issues can feel overwhelming, and the stress response may keep firing long after the threat is gone. This can show up as intense anger, depression, or shame.
How Traumatic Memories Get Stuck
Normally, the brain moves memories from short-term to long-term storage. Trauma interrupts this process, leaving memories “stuck” and shaping how you see yourself and others. Many survivors feel “too much,” unworthy, unsafe, or unsure if they can trust their own emotions.
In emotionally-focused therapy, we gently unpack these feelings and understand how your nervous system has been trying to protect you. From there, healing can begin. The good news: memories can be updated. Through memory reconsolidation, painful stored experiences can be softened and reshaped.
How EFIT Helps Heal Trauma
We often use Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT). Trauma can leave emotional experiences locked in the body and brain. EFIT helps shift these patterns—not by retelling the trauma in detail, but by changing how the emotional experience is held.
Healing begins in a safe relationship. Our role is to stay present and attuned as you connect with deeper emotions like fear, shame, or grief. This new experience tells the nervous system, I’m safe. I’m not alone. Over time, emotional responses attached to old memories transform. The pain doesn’t have to disappear, but the way you carry it can change.
If you’re ready to work through your past, we can begin that healing together.
