Trauma
“Complex Trauma” – the experience of multiple and/or chronic and prolonged, developmentally traumatic events, such as abuse, neglect, community violence, medical maltreatment, brutalities of war that one has experienced throughout life, sometimes with an onset as early as infancy. Trauma can be transferred to the subsequent generations.
Anyone who has ever experienced trauma cannot overlook the excruciating pain and the fear it instills in the body and mind. Such pain, if left unattended may morph into depression, anxiety, chronic physical pain, and profound sense of loss and continuous grief.
The pain can mask our identity and destroy our lifestyle. We turn out to be disoriented, stuck, and confined. Our lives become foreign to us. More often we find ourselves witnessing the broadcast of our daily life, as opposed to fully experiencing it in the moment. Hence, we turn to our defenses in the form of compensatory behaviors, such as addiction and compulsions, or we develop an indifference and lose the meaning of life.
We are simply scared to talk about pain, thinking that by doing so we would deepen its power and intensity. The opposite is true. By attending to our pain and processing it with another human being, we lessen the intensity and duration of it, develop connection with pain, facilitate hope, and finally find a new meaning derived from it.
Grief And Loss
Grief is a natural way of healing one’s broken heart. It is an individual, timeless journey of processing loss, attending to pain, accepting “new normal”, finding hope, and assigning meaning to the newly established relationship with loss. It requires kindness, patience, self-compassion, awareness of needs and wants, and continuous remembering of our loved ones.
Chronic Pain
The experience of chronic pain can adversely affect physical, emotional and social functioning of a person, to the extent that medical and psychotherapeutic treatment is required. Understanding the pain circuit, accepting pain and personal limitations, and developing healthy coping strategies is the primary goal in living with pain.
Identity Formation
Formulating an authentic sense of self based on the past relational and life experiences.
Life Transition Issues
Accidents, Buying/Selling a house, Career change, Divorce, Marriage, New baby, Leaving for college, Relocation, Retirement, Serious illness, Significant loss (of a person, job, pet, or anything important), etc.
Depression
An emotional state characterized by deep sadness, feelings of worthlessness, guilt and withdrawal from others. Other symptoms include difficulty sleeping, loss of appetite or sexual desire and lack of interest in pleasurable activities. It is a pessimistic view on one’s self, future and the world.
Anxiety
An unpleasant feeling of fear and/or apprehension accompanied by physiological changes such as fast pulse, quick breathing, sweating, flushing, muscle aches, and stomach tension.
Relationships
The greatest tool in the relationship is boundless empathy and faith of the partners respecting individual feelings and perceiving each other as sensible people. Artificial kindness and courtesy lead people nowhere and create distance in relationships. We cannot demand honesty, love, empathy, warmth and genuineness from people in our relationships if we are not loving, caring, nurturing, empathic and honest with ourselves. The key to any relationship starts with love for personal self. This sets up the mood for the feelings and consequent behaviors that are being shared with others. Such behaviors generate mutuality of trust, empathy and openness.