Online Birth Trauma Therapy in Pasadena, CA.
Your picture of what it would be like to have a baby is so different than the realities you’re having to face. You may be feeling disconnected from yourself and others, overwhelmed with emotions, and fearful or on edge after a crisis, a loss or a traumatic childbirth.
The reality of building a family is that while there’s love and joy, there may also be unexpected problems, things that you could never have prepared for. It’s not uncommon to struggle emotionally 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.
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 approach and evidence-based 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 Polyvagal Theory. Therapy helps with birth trauma by:
Restoring a sense of safety and control, and befriending 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 and others, and the world to more positive, hopeful ways of thinking and approaching your life.
Postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder impacts about 9% of women/birthing people following childbirth, and many more find some aspect of their experience disturbing or traumatic.
Reproductive trauma (also called birth trauma or perinatal trauma) can come from any experience that you felt was frightening, felt life threatening or that overwhelmed your ability to cope. A 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)
- as you’re trying to conceive
- during pregnancy
- in labor and childbirth
-postpartum and early parenthood
-postpartum experiences; trauma may come from the way you were treated or a lack of communication. Anything that left you feeling out of control or helpless, unsafe, or afraid can be a source of trauma.
What is birth trauma?
Common Reasons to Begin Therapy for Birth Related Trauma
There is no one “right” reason or time to begin birth trauma therapy. If trauma—recent or past— is making the family building stage of life difficult, specialized trauma therapy can help.
Common therapy goals and themes that I often hear in my practice include:
To process recent trauma and reduce symptoms of trauma that are interfering in your life
To enter a new pregnancy or round of fertility treatment with more confidence and optimism
To feel grounded in the decision to have another child-without the element of fear
To not be so easily triggered in everyday parenting moments-to decrease anxiety and feel more connected, calm and confident
To reduce trauma reactions when faced with triggers- for example images of babies, hearing birth stories, or news of a friend’s pregnancy or new baby, medical appointments, or physical sensations in your own body
To process unresolved childhood trauma that has resurfaced - to end the cycle of trauma as you begin to create your own family
To better understand your feelings and reactions and grow in a positive way
Exploring how trauma and early parenthood are impacting your identity
To find relief from fear and anxiety, so that you can feel more relaxed and find more enjoyment in life again
FAQ:
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.
