Individual Support

Trauma therapy helps the mind and body recover from overwhelming events, moving people from survival toward integration and resilience.

What counts as an ‘overwhelming event’ is not limited to experiences like surviving an accident, natural disaster, or military combat.

Any event or series of events that overwhelms the nervous system beyond its available resources can have a traumatic impact. This can include:

• Childhood neglect or abuse

• Discrimination and systemic oppression based on race, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, or other characteristics

• Sexual assault

• Domestic violence

• Religious and spiritual trauma

Trauma therapy seeks to restore safety and agency while building coping mechanisms, calming intense emotions, and exploring how trauma has impacted your understanding of yourself.

Some clients will find particular benefit from incorporating a structured therapy known as EMDR (which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). EMDR reduces distress from traumatic memories by aiding the brain’s natural information processing, often without lengthy verbal retelling.

EMDR can rapidly lessen vividness and emotional intensity of traumatic memories, while improving emotional regulation, renewed functioning, and a greater sense of agency.

I am proud to provide trauma therapy and EMDR as a part of Thrive and Grow Psychotherapy in South Windsor, CT. In person and virtual sessions are available.

At this time I’m licensed to provide therapeutic services to residents of Connecticut and Massachusetts only. I am happy to help with referrals for clinicians in other states until multi-state licensing is more widely available.

Has your experience of trauma impacted your understanding of God or the Divine?

Are you longing to find meaning in your traumatic experience without someone else just telling you what it should mean or how you should understand it?

Do you find that your faith is changing and you’re in need of a safe, non-judgmental place to lay it all out or explore?

Are you seeking new spiritual practices and rhythms that support you right where you are in this journey?

These are just some of the many questions that we face after an experience of trauma, or after the re-surfacing of trauma, but it can be hard to know what to do with them.

Spiritual direction provides an open, supportive, confidential space to explore your questions, voice your doubts, state what you know you believe, and seek wisdom from the Divine.

Mentoring for clergy who have endured trauma in ministry provides a confidential, compassionate, trauma-informed space to process harm, restore vocational integrity, and rebuild adaptive leadership.

These mentoring relationships blend pastoral care, awareness of ministry systems, and practical vocational coaching to meet needs of clergy who have experienced ministry trauma.

This work does not replace therapy or spiritual direction, and may include referrals for additional support.

This type of support may be appropriate for clergy who are:

• Experiencing or recovering from abuse, betrayal, or moral injury in their ministry setting

• Coping with burnout, secondary traumatic stress, or compassion fatigue

• Exploring new facets of call and vocation after an experience of trauma

• Navigating crises of faith or loss of vocational identity after traumatic events

• Preparing to return to active leadership after leave for trauma-related reasons