Virtual Birth Trauma Therapy in Pasadena, California
Facing the unexpected, more difficult parts of fertility journey, pregnancy and postpartum can take a toll on your emotional well-being, your body and your most important relationships.
It’s not uncommon to struggle after distressing or traumatic experiences during your efforts to get pregnant (and stay pregnant) or in the aftermath of a difficult childbirth experience.
This is where birth trauma therapy can make a real difference.
What is Birth Trauma?
Birth trauma (also called reproductive trauma or perinatal trauma) can come from any experience that you felt was frightening, felt life threatening or that overwhelmed your ability to cope. Birth related trauma is an event that you personally experienced, witnessed, or heard about. It can come from something that happened:
- during your fertility process (IVF/ART) or TTC
- during pregnancy
- in labor and childbirth
-NICU experience
-TFMR or pregnancy termination
-postpartum and early parenthood
-postpartum experiences; trauma may come from the way you were treated or a lack of communication.
Even if there were no medical complications and you and your baby are okay, anything that’s left you feeling out of control or helpless, unsafe, or afraid can be a source of trauma.
You may be struggling with reproductive trauma if you’re…
Distressed when talking or thinking about your experiences
Experience intrusive re-experiencing/replaying of a past traumatic event (of childbirth, or previous traumas), flashbacks and nightmares
Avoiding reminders, including talking or thinking about pregnancy or birth-related events, as well as people, places that remind you of what happened (for example hospitals, doctors, any reminders of childbirth including babies and other new moms, hearing other women's birth stories)
Anxiety/panic attacks
Feeling disconnected from yourself and others, feeling disconnected from your baby and having difficulty bonding
Feeling detached, “things don't seem real”
Feeling on edge, easily startled and hypervigilant and having difficulty sleeping
Irritable or angry mood
Feeling a sense of guilt, shame or failure connected to your experience
How Birth Trauma Therapy Can Help
To process unresolved trauma so that you’re more present and able to enjoy your life
To be less triggered— by your body, other pregnant people, babies, ultrasounds or medical appointments, or in your parenting. To feel more in control of your emotions. And to feel like your trauma is really in the past.
To restore a sense of safety and trust
In your body, yourself and others so that you can move forward with more confidence, feeling more engaged and connected to what matters most to you.
Feel grounded in the decision to try again
To take the next step without the element of fear and enter a new pregnancy or cycle of fertility treatment with more confidence and optimism. EMDR can help you prepare for fertility treatments, labor and delivery, or the transition to parenthood.
To process old trauma that has resurfaced following a traumatic birth or perinatal loss.
Traumas around the time of conception, pregnancy and childbirth commonly activate old trauma that you thought you’d put behind you. EMDR can help to diminish the power of traumatic memories to hook you in so that you can stay present for the important things going on in your life right now.
My Approach
I understand how much it matters to be able to move forward without trauma interfering with your life, your relationships, and your parenting.
Tending to pain from the past and learning to support your emotional wellness can help you become more present and engaged in the really important things happening in your life right now.
I use a trauma focused therapies to help women and birthing people heal from the effects of trauma and regain a sense of safety, resilience and empowerment during the family building stage of life. This includes EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), Ego State Therapy (Parts Work), and neuroscience/Polyvagal Theory. Therapy helps with birth trauma by:
Restoring a sense of safety and control- learning skills to calm and befriend your nervous system to help reduce fears, hypervigilance, intrusive memories and physical distress.
Safely processing the traumatic experience, with evidence-based therapies like EMDR and parts work.
Shifting negative beliefs about yourself, others, and the world to more positive, hopeful ways of thinking and approaching your life.
Understanding Birth Trauma Therapy
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Greive your losses and process your story (IVF/ART, losses, birth trauma) so that you can talk about your experiences without distress and emotional overwhelm
Overcome avoidance, be able to look at your photos, hear about others’ birth stories, or see babies or pregnant people and not be overwhelmed with painful feelings and memories
Address your fears to prepare for your next pregnancy and childbirth, or another round of fertility treatment with more confidence
Set boundaries that support you and your family at every stage of family building
Cultivate self-compassion for what you’ve been through and the challenges you’re currently facing
Learn coping skills to help you understand and manage your emotions as you navigate fertility, pregnancy and postpartum
Feel more connected to your body, your sense of identity, and the people most important to you
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1 You believed you or your baby were in danger or would die.
2 You can’t remember important details or have blocks of memory that you can’t recall.
3 You felt stripped of your dignity, unsupported, disrespected or violated.
4 You had an “out of body experience", things didn’t seem real, you felt detached from your body or what was happening around you.
5 You felt helpless, terrified, horrified, flooded by fear and anxiety, a lack of control.
6 There was poor communication, things weren’t explained to you, or you had to make critical decisions quickly.
Most importantly, if you feel your experience was traumatic, then it was.
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I work with women, birthing people and parents who’ve experienced traumatic or distressing experiences including:
childhood trauma and abuse
Complex PTSD
birth related traumas
fertility challenges
pregnancy loss/miscarriage
high risk pregnancy/medical complications
TFMR
Abortion care
NICU experience
death of an infant/baby loss
postpartum depression, anxiety, and PTSD
Single incident trauma (accidents, natural disasters)
Rape/sexual assault
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Effects of Trauma and PTSD can lead to:
Flashbacks, replaying events over and over in your mind, intrusive memories or nightmares
Constantly expecting something bad to happen, feeling a sense of doom, or caught in thinking of worst-case scenarios.
Questioning your own thoughts and feelings, your reality, difficulty making sense of what’s happened to you.
Feeling on constant alert, becoming anxious, on edge or insecure in certain situations
Noticing your body is suddenly in distress, in “fight or flight”.
Feeling closed off, distant from the people most important to you.
Feeling “out of body”, having a sense that things don’t seem real, feeling numb.
Because of the way memories of trauma are stored, events from the past can continue to impact your life and your relationships, long after the event is over. Healing trauma is possible and it’s never too late to begin the recovery process.
Hi there, I’m Holly Evans.
Has your journey into parenthood been complicated and hard? You’re in the right place.
I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), Certified EMDR therapist, and Consultant in Training and I specialize in trauma recovery and perinatal mental health. I offer EMDR and trauma focused therapies to support people who’re facing struggles with depression, anxiety and the effects of trauma during the perinatal period (from trying to conceive and fertility journey, through pregnancy and postpartum).
Sessions are available online to anyone living in California.
LGBTQ+ affirming
When you’re ready to talk…
Reaching out for help is a big step and I want to make the process as comfortable and easy to understand as possible. To get started, just call or email me to schedule your free consultation. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
