At Intentional Healing Counseling & Coaching, we offer a safe non-judgmental environment where all people are welcome. We strive to create an atmosphere where you feel seen, heard, and respected as a human being.
As a trauma-informed and trauma-recovery focused practice, we wish to help clients understand how painful past learnings, whether big “T “or little “t” traumas, can remain trapped in our bodies and minds in a raw unprocessed form, and how that can impact us in ways we may or may not be consciously aware of.
Unlike simple stress, trauma changes your view of your life and yourself. It
shatters your most basic assumptions about yourself and your world — “Life
is good,” “I’m safe,” “People are kind,” “I can trust others,” “The future is
likely to be good” — and replaces them with feelings like “The world is
dangerous,” “I can’t win,” “I can’t trust other people,” or “There’s no hope.”
― Mark Goulston MD
Our team will be with you as you explore the thoughts and emotions that may be blocking your path forward. We will support you as you figure out the road to your truest self-the self where you are most comfortable in your skin and feel most aligned with your core values.
When past trauma pops into the present moment, we likely don’t even realize its old material invading our present experience. It can be triggered by anything, including an emotion, a thought, an image, a smell, or a sensation in our body. This trigger can cause us to feel pulled way out of our comfort zone, and we often are not aware or prepared to handle it. This can result in feelings of panic, feeling shutdown or numbed out, or the sudden desire to run away from whatever caused the trauma response. Trauma shifts how we think and perceive ourselves, situations, and impacts our lens as we relate to others in our world. A moment in time that was encoded as trauma can cause our thoughts of self to get stuck in negative cognitions that simply aren’t accurate.
Common Experiences & Responses to Trauma
- Emotional Dysregulation
- Numbing
- Hyperarousal
- Sleep Disturbances
- Low Self Esteem
- Grief
- Fatigue
- Poor Concentration
- Cognitive Errors
- Excessive or Inappropriate Guilt
- Idealization
- Intrusive Thoughts and/or Memories
- Trauma-Induced Hallucinations or Delusions
- Flashbacks
- Nightmares
- Dissociation
- Depersonalization
- Derealization
- Self-Harm & Self-Destructive Behaviors
- Anger
- Sadness
Common Mental Health & Medical Diagnoses Associated with Trauma
- Acute Stress Disorder
- PTSD
- C-PTSD
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Panic Attacks
- Substance Abuse/Addiction
- Widespread Inflammation in Body
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Autoimmune Disease
- Hypertension
- Stroke
- Weight Gain
How Trauma May Cause Difficulty in Daily Life
- Maintaining Positive Self Care
- Maintaining Employment
- Trusting Self
- Feelings of Self Blame
- Trusting Others
- Maintaining Friendships and/or Relationships
- Memory
- Sex Life
- Ability to Cope with Change
- Enjoying Leisure Time
“We work with three levels of information processing – which goes along with the three levels of the brain. We work with the cognitions and belief systems that are formed after trauma, which involves the cortex. We also have to work with the emotions, like rage and terror – that has to do with the limbic system. Then, we also have to work with the body because that’s where trauma impacts.”
– Pat Ogden, PhD
Trauma Informed Therapy
Trauma therapy draws from multiple treatment modalities, but one that is used most often is Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR), which is a highly successful treatment for trauma that uses knowledge from neuroscience to help the brain reprocess traumatic memories. EMDR standard therapy is available, as is Early Trauma EMDR for adults with preverbal attachment trauma. Early Trauma EMDR is also available for babies and toddlers who experienced trauma in gestational period and/or birth. Multiple trauma informed treatment modalities can and likely will be utilized in our work together. Intensive and traditional sessions are available. For further information on EMDR therapy options, click here.
Trauma-Informed Parent Education & Coaching
Trauma-informed coaching is not trauma treatment.
Instead, it means approaching children and parents with an awareness that development, relationships, experiences, environments, stressors, and nervous-system responses can influence behavior and connection.
Maddie’s work is grounded in early childhood development, social-emotional development, attachment, connected parenting, and an understanding of behavior as communication.
Young children do not always have the words or developmental capacity to explain what is happening inside of them. Their behavior may communicate overwhelm, frustration, uncertainty, a need for connection, a wish for independence, difficulty with transition, or a skill they have not yet developed.
Understanding what may be underneath behavior helps parents respond to both the behavior and the developing child.
A trauma-informed approach also recognizes the experience of the parent. Parenting can bring forward our own expectations, emotions, stress responses, family experiences, and ideas about what parenting “should” look like.
Coaching provides a nonjudgmental place to become curious about those experiences while developing practical, developmentally appropriate ways of responding to your child.
Maddie does not diagnose or treat trauma or mental health conditions. Her role is to provide evidence-based parent education, developmental understanding, practical guidance, and coaching that helps parents better understand their children and strengthen connection within their families.