Insights Together

Life does not feel or look like you hoped.

Difficult Life Transitions

This can look like a move to a new city, starting or looking for a new job or school, getting engaged, expecting a new child, or suffering a loss of any of these things. These transitions often challenge us to navigate new ways of relating to others in family, work, or community. Other times it is an internal type of transition, transitioning from adolescence to adulthood, reaching middle age or approaching retirement age, triggering new concerns and requiring new adaptations that can feel overwhelming and disorienting. Any one or combination of issues described below may emerge or increase in these cases.

Anxiety

This can be experienced as relentless pressure to do better, along with internal criticism and fear of the future. Worry is a key aspect of anxiety, that may or may not be accompanied by panic. Finding a work life balance may feel out of reach. Sometimes anxiety is felt in the body as headaches, stomachaches, or other somatic sensations. Because PTSD/C-PTSD are anxiety disorders, it is important to be aware that there may be relevant traumas.

Depression

Depression can be present in a variety of ways. Feeling shame or incapable, ruminating over what went wrong or how to do better, relationships being absent or alienating in some way, sleep troubles, unable to function as you wish, disturbed by your past, hopelessness, unable to enjoy oneself, and existential crisis. Not everyone always knows exactly what brings them to therapy, together we can get to the bottom of it and find a path for healing.

Grief

This is often as straight forward as someone special has passed. This can make functioning difficult due to the heaviness and longing for the missed loved one. Factors including how they died and contending with what life looks like going forward without them are important factors. Sometimes there is wrestling with mixed feelings over the person that has passed. Interestingly, grieving is often an important element to therapy regardless of what brought you. Coming to terms with what did and didn't happen in one's life can be key to healing.

Trauma: PTSD/C-PTSD

For some, the trauma is clear, a violent death or accident has occurred to them that is causing things such as avoidance, flashbacks, and distress. For others, it may have been witnessing a traumatic event. Maybe you've had a traumatic childhood history that calls for therapy, and something has happened recently where the pain has gotten worse, or you've found more stability in your life but are finding yourself unable to enjoy it. Trauma that was very repetitive, such as childhood physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect, is considered a complex trauma, C-PTSD.