Melissa W Cooper
California # 141326
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
Understanding PTSD
What is Trauma?
Trauma is any deeply distressing or disturbing experience that overwhelms your ability to cope, leaving long-lasting emotional, psychological, or physical effects. It can be developmental (experienced in childhood and shaping your life long-term) or vicarious (experienced indirectly through hearing or witnessing the trauma of another.
Common Symptoms
Anxiety
Depression
Flashbacks
Difficulty Trusting Others
Struggles with Regulating Emotions
Two Main Types of Trauma
Acute: Resulting from a single, time limited event such as a car accident, natural disaster,, or sudden loss.
Chronic: Caused by prolonged or repeated exposure to traumatic events, such as ongoing abuse, neglect, or living in a war zone.
Who Experiences Trauma?
Trauma can affect anyone. While everyone reacts differently to traumatic events, they generally involve the creation of a feeling of helplessness, fear, or intense distress. Those feelings can arise from experiencing or witnessing accidents, natural disasters, life threatening events, death of a loved one, childhood neglect or sexual abuse and disrupt your sense of safety, identity, or well-being.
As a trauma therapist, my role is to provide a safe, supportive environment where you can process your trauma, understand how it affects your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, and work towards recovery. My goal is to guide you towards healing and growth, helping you integrate your traumatic experiences into your life in a way that fosters emotional well-being and resilience. Therapeutic techniques I use to address the complex ways trauma impacts the mind and body are a combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR), Somatic Practices, and Depth (Jungian) Practices.
