Trauma Can Shape the Present Long After the Experience Has Passed
You may know that what happened is in the past, while still feeling its impact in the present.
Trauma can affect more than how you remember the past. It can shape how you experience yourself, your relationships, your emotions, and your sense of safety in the present. Therapy can help you understand these patterns, process what you've experienced, and begin responding to your life from a place that feels less driven by the past.
I provide virtual trauma therapy for adults throughout New York and New Jersey who are navigating PTSD and C-PTSD, attachment wounds, difficult relationship experiences, and other experiences from the past that continue to affect the present.
Understanding Trauma & How It Can Show Up
Trauma isn't defined only by what happened, but also by how an experience affected you and the ways your mind and body learned to respond afterward. Experiences that felt overwhelming, frightening, painful, or difficult to process can continue to influence emotions, relationships, behavior, and the beliefs you hold about yourself, others, and the world.
Trauma can also shape the nervous system's responses to perceived safety and threat. The sympathetic nervous system is involved in mobilizing the body to respond to stress, while the parasympathetic nervous system plays an important role in processes such as rest, recovery, and regulation. After difficult or overwhelming experiences, the nervous system may become more likely to respond to present-day situations based on patterns that were once protective.
These experiences can also contribute to deeply held beliefs such as “I'm not safe,” “I'm not good enough,” “I can't trust anyone,” or “I have to stay in control.” Even when you intellectually recognize that a situation is different now, your emotions, body, or automatic responses may continue to operate from what you learned in the past.
Experiences → Nervous System → Beliefs → Present-Day Patterns
Trauma-Informed Therapy That Looks Beyond Symptoms
My work considers how past experiences, belief systems, relationships, and nervous system responses may be influencing the present. Therapy is individualized to your needs and may incorporate EMDR, regulation-focused, attachment-informed, and mind-body interventions to support meaningful change.
