Online Trauma Therapy for Women & Birthing People in Pasadena, Los Angeles and throughout California
Living with the effects of trauma can be emotionally and physically exhausting, and leave you feeling like you’re in a constant tug of war with yourself. But it’s often difficult to recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma.
So what should you be looking out for?
You’re waiting for the next bad thing to happen.
Bad memories seem to be caught on repeat and you’re unable to keep replaying them.
It’s difficult to respond to situations the way you want to and your emotional reactions feel so intense, out of your control.
You’re constantly on edge, and it’s virtually impossible to avoid painful reminders of what happened.
You feel disconnected from yourself and others, unsafe in your body, questioning your reality.
These are all signs that something in your past may need to be addressed.
My ApproachMy focus is to help you heal from what you’ve been through so that you can be more focused and present for what’s most important in your life right now.
Overcoming trauma is a complex and deeply personal journey, and it’s possible with the right support, resources and self care practices.
I offer trauma and attachment focused therapies, tailoring treatment to your unique experiences and needs. This includes building coping skills to help you calm yourself and cope with distress, exploring and understanding how past experiences and relationships are affecting you now, and therapy based on neuroscience to reduce the effects of trauma.
Therapy modalities I use include:
When old trauma makes a reappearance on your journey to parenthood...
The perinatal period is also a time when past trauma often resurfaces, and memories of your own bad childhood or other disturbing experiences come rushing back.
Trauma comes in many forms, large and small.
Large T Traumas are the most easily recognized kinds of traumatic events, defined as out of the ordinary events that are life threatening, result in injury or have the potential to threaten your physical well-being, or that of someone you love (your partner, your baby). Some examples of Large T trauma are life threatening medical crises or injuries, experiencing combat/living in a war zone, child abuse, sexual abuse, car accidents and natural disasters.
Small t traumas are not life threatening but highly distressing personal events and are usually harder to understand as “counting as trauma”. Small t traumas do, however, overwhelm your ability to cope and are deeply disturbing. Research is showing that the cumulative effect of small t traumas can cause more harm than experiencing one Large T trauma because of the layers of emotional suffering that build up over time. This is where the term “Complex trauma” is used. Some examples of small t traumas are childhood physical/emotional neglect, social isolation, conflict with people you love, bullying, bigotry/discrimination (BIPOC/LGBTQIA) and divorce.
AN INTRODUCTION TO EMDREMDR: An evidence- based therapy to help you recover from traumatic experiences, PTSD & Complex-PTSD
EMDR or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a therapy developed to help people heal from the symptoms and distress caused by traumatic or disturbing life experiences. EMDR has been extensively researched and found to be effective for the treatment of PTSD and other effects of trauma.
Common Questions
Research shows that EMDR therapy during pregnancy can reduce distress and PTSD symptoms, help diminish fears of childbirth and build confidence about going into labor and delivery.
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EMDR helps to diminish the effects of a traumatic experience, reducing trauma symptoms that can interfere with caring for yourself and your family. EMDR works to provide relief from trauma symptoms including nightmare, flashbacks, depression, intrusive thoughts, and fears.
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Perinatal trauma is any traumatic or disturbing event that occurs around the time of conception, pregnancy, during childbirth and postpartum. Common experiences that families find traumatic including fertility challenges/treatment, pregnancy loss, termination and TFMR, NICU stays, medical complication during pregnancy/postpartum and the death of an infant. But the most important thing determining whether your experience was traumatic? If you feel your experience was traumatic then it was.
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You may have felt scared, helpless or unheard and unseen during labor and delivery. Afterward, it’s common to feel shocked, numb or disconnected, to feel guilty or angry about what you went through. The most important factor determining if giving birth was traumatic is how you feel about it. If you feel your experience was traumatic, then it was.
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EMDR helps to diminish the effects of a traumatic experience, reducing trauma symptoms that can interfere with caring for yourself and your family. EMDR works to provide relief from trauma symptoms including nightmare, flashbacks, depression, intrusive thoughts, and fears.
Hi there, I’m Holly Evans.
I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), specializing 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.
Sessions are available online throughout California.
LGBTQ+ affirming
LET’S TALKSchedule a free 20-minute consultation.
I’d love to talk to you about how I can help.
