Virtual Therapy for Trauma in Arizona and Utah

Trauma therapy may be right for you if you have experienced mental, physical, emotional, financial, or sexual abuse as a child or adult or if you have experienced events listed on the Adverse Childhood Experience Questionnaire (ACE). It may also be helpful if you have experienced or witnessed a life-threatening event, grew up with a parent struggling with untreated mental health concerns or substance use, or were repeatedly told as a child that you had nothing to be upset about and experienced chronic invalidation.

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While trauma can refer to life-threatening events or abuse, it can also develop through chronic misattunement during developmental and attachment stages. Trauma may stem from ongoing experiences of emotional aloneness while trying to cope with overwhelming emotions, especially during childhood, regardless of the triggering events.

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There are many modalities used to treat trauma, including trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and internal family systems (IFS), among others. Regardless of the modality or blend of approaches, trauma treatment generally focuses on three phases:

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• Safety and stabilization

• Reprocessing

• Integration

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Trauma therapy is not linear and often occurs in phases at the client’s pace. It is not about reliving traumatic experiences repeatedly. Rather, trauma therapy focuses on:

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• Equipping you with skills to manage emotional overwhelm or flooding

• Helping you gain control over the amount of emotion you are able to process at any given time

• Increasing your ability to approach trauma reminders or triggers safely for processing

• Addressing unhelpful self-beliefs resulting from trauma, such as “I’m not safe” or “I’m unlovable”

• Strengthening healthier beliefs about yourself and your world

• Reducing dissociation, numbness, panic, and other trauma-related symptoms

• Decreasing the intensity of trauma triggers connected to memories, places, people, or experiences

• Helping free you from shame, overwhelm, numbness, and feeling stuck in the past so you can live life fully

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The goal of trauma therapy is not to erase or forget what happened, nor to excuse injustices. While we cannot change the past, we can change our relationship to it. Healing involves moving from shame and survival toward greater self-understanding, self-compassion, resilience, and emotional freedom.