Historical/ Intergenerational Trauma

As an EMDR-certified therapist, I guide clients through trauma processing and healing, helping them regain a sense of safety and control.

Indigenous practices have been around and utilized for centuries yet, due to cultural stigma, erasure, and genocide, many of these practices have been lost or not deemed acceptable within our Eurocentric mental health profession. The act of reindigenizing mental health is the effort to replace the current systems with culturally specific, culturally sustainable, and culturally appropriate mental health and well-being practices developed and passed on among indigenous people.

I am a Certified Clinical Trauma Clinician and I work with clients who want to process past and recent traumas.

More new information is emerging about the effects of trauma on health & wellbeing. PTSD and CPTSD (complex - PTSD due to years of abuse/neglect) is when we feel hi-jacked by our senses/body connecting us back to past events that were (or seemed) life threatening. These experiences can be from Domestic abuse, events/accidents related to the lifestyle of substance abuse, and from chronic traumatic/neglectful childhood experiences. There is hope for recovery. It is time for you to heal.

There are things that are yours, and things passed down, but sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference. Epigenetics show that trauma can be passed down as many as 7 generations. From generation to generation, traditions, beliefs, fears, values, traumas, are often so interwoven in the fabric of one's family, it is as if they are transmitted through osmosis. Somatic therapy can help you decide what you want to keep, and what you want to pass back.

Most of my clients are doing the emotional and psychological work of their parents, grandparents and beyond. In other words, our healing what the healing our lineage has needed. Families pass down the good and the bad. I compare this to physical belongings, like heirlooms or unopened boxes. When the "boxes" contain habits, patterns or traits that have caused harm to or are no longer serving my clients, I support them to sort that stuff out in exchange for what heals, helps and brings happiness

I have experienced working with intergenerational trauma, helping clients break free from unhealthy patterns that they learned or inherit from their parents. I have experienced first hand this type of trauma and this has helped me to understand it and learn the tools needed to heal. The most difficult part of this trauma is that it is very silent. Clients often don't recognize its impact, leading them to believe they are overreacting or that something is wrong with them.

Intergenerational trauma can be a difficult subject to talk about, because it involves naming how our family and community members have reenacted their traumas. There doesn’t need to be blame associated with naming the presence of intergenerational trauma. It will continue to be present in every generation until someone is ready to interrupt the cycle. This can involve healing together and/or naming boundaries. In some cases it means going no contact with our family or community members.

Trauma can derive from obvious, horrific events, as well as from universal ones such as having been raised by a critical parent. In other words, what determines trauma is its impact, not the event(s) itself. Upsetting experiences - even forgotten ones - can get lodged in our nervous systems and stimulated in subsequent, parallel circumstances. Trauma treatment, including EMDR, can help clients adaptively process past experiences to prevent them from getting re-triggered in the present.

I am an EMDR therapist and have extensive training in treating complex trauma. I worked for several years with children in the foster care system navigating the challenges that trauma presents in daily life.

I focus my individual clinical work on treating attachment trauma such as narcissistic abuse, adult survivors of childhood emotional and/or sexual abuse, and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (also known as developmental trauma). I care deeply about supporting clients in understanding and recovering from these types of trauma because of their destructive effects on an individual's ability to enjoy life. Therapy can help you find balance and develop a healthy sense of self.

Transforming the Experience-Based Brain (TEB) is a regulation focused model integrating learnings from somatic, attachment, & neurophysiological models. Through hands-on or intentional presence in healing you are able to access pre-verbal & early childhood developmental trauma stored in the body. As a non-pathologizing method of care, this embodied approach is a different way of healing as it targets the nervous system rather than specific symptoms & supports integration of primitive reflexes.

My expertise in treating generational trauma is characterized by a compassionate and holistic approach that incorporates Sandtray Therapy as a powerful tool for healing. By fostering empathy and encouraging clients to explore their family narratives, I aim to create a safe space for transformation. Through this process, individuals can discover their strengths, honor their ancestral legacies, and ultimately pave the way for a healthier future for themselves and future generations.

This can cause so many variations of depressive issues, anxiety problems , dissociations, grief and loss, attachment wounds, toxicity, difficulties in relationships, social difficulties, stress, feeling stuck and lost

I have prioritized serving communities that have faced systemic barriers to care, which often results in the passing down of traumas across generations. I have specialized expertise working with people who experience community violence, religious violence, immigration trauma, and family violence, and believe restorative justice principles can help remedy longstanding hurts in the family continuum. My work as a healer is to honor of my own elders and ancestors who could not get help.

My training in trauma informed care, my passion for social justice and equity, and my own lived experiences as a biracial woman, have made me acutely aware of the painful legacy of systemic oppression on the epigenetic and socioeconomic experiences of all of my clients. I incorporate somatic, polyvagal and attachment basedtechniques with EMDR, IFS and brainspotting to help clients process the entirety of the pain they are carrying, in order to give my clients the healing they deserve.

I often work with folks that have experience religious trauma/ have grown up in a religious background and are looking to deconstruct/ process that experience.