Trauma Therapy in Ottawa
I have extensive experience working with trauma—both single-incident and developmental—including four years of front-line crisis work.
How Trauma Actually Works
Most people think of trauma as a kind of blown fuse: an event so overwhelming that it damages the mind. If that were true, there would be little reason for hope, because you can't undo what happened. Many trauma sufferers feel exactly this kind of despair.
But that model is wrong. The normal response to an overwhelming event is actually recovery. Your mind knows how to process difficult experiences, and given enough safety and support, it does so on its own. An overwhelming experience is not the same thing as a traumatic one.
Trauma occurs when that natural process gets stuck—and there is always a reason. The current event has connected with an earlier experience that was never fully processed at the time. The mind is now fighting on two fronts at once: the present situation and the unresolved past that it has reactivated. Neither can be thought through clearly, because the two have become entangled. The result is confusion—it becomes unclear whether the threat is internal or external, past or present, real or imagined. In fact it is all of these at once, which is exactly why it feels so impossible to sort out on your own.
This is actually good news. It means the problem isn't that the traumatic event broke something in you. It means something from the past is blocking your mind's natural ability to process the present. That blockage can be understood, and it can be resolved. The goal of the work is to untangle the present from the past, so that your symptoms can actually go away, not just become more bearable.
Trauma Therapy in Ottawa: In-Person and Virtual
I offer trauma therapy from my office in central Ottawa (361 Waverley St), with in-person sessions available Friday evenings and Saturdays. Virtual sessions are available most weeknights for clients anywhere in Ontario.
I offer complimentary 20-minute consultations to discuss your situation and whether this approach might be helpful for you.
Related Services
Psychodynamic Therapy in Ottawa · Psychoanalysis in Ottawa · All Services