Medical Trauma

Medical trauma comes in many different forms. For some people it's a life-threatening illness, or surviving an emergency medical procedure. For others, it's a chronic condition that requires repeated procedures and hospitalizations. Whatever the cause, it can be traumatizing to live through a real or perceived threat to life or bodily integrity during medical care.

If you've gone through it, medical trauma can leave your body holding onto those experiences. Maybe you struggle with anxiety, depression, or feelings of helplessness. Maybe you avoid medical care, feel reluctant to follow up with providers, or you have just dropped out of treatment altogether. Many people also suffer heightened sensitivity to pain, muscle tension, or sleep problems.

Does any of this sound familiar?

No matter how you experience it, medical trauma is always accompanied by suffering. Therapy can help you suffer a little less:

• EMDR can help you reprocess what you went through (or continue to go through) so that the emotional charge around it gets a little smaller.

• Talk therapy helps you decide what it all means so that you can tell your story on your own terms. You might not get to choose the trauma, but you can damn sure decide what it means for you to go through it.

• If you are just getting used to new changes in your body, therapeutic yoga is the practice of finding your body's "edges" - the limits of balance, strength, or position. It's a way of learning to be in the world that helps many people shift their perspective toward greater freedom and independence.

There are, of course, many other ways to heal. If you need any support along the way, please feel free to reach out! That is exactly what I am here for, after all.