Frequently asked questions

The short, simple answer: no. ​ The longer, nuanced answer: living life with trauma is a painful experience. You get trapped in cycles of negative emotions and intrusive thoughts that stop you from living your best life. ​ Moving past trauma is uncomfortable because it forces you to look at things you’re trying desperately to avoid. In therapy, you learn a new way to relate to those events. That process is so much less uncomfortable than the pain you were experiencing from trying unsuccessfully to escape the pain. Essentially: you’re already being bothered by these memories. If we look them in the face, we can get them to stop bothering you. ​ Ultimately, your goals and your results are our first priorities and what we do together is up to you.

If you are already working with a prescriber and taking medication for your symptoms, we’d like you to continue with that treatment exactly until you start to feel better from your work with us. ​ Once you start feeling better or having symptom relief in therapy, we may have a conversation together with your prescriber about lowering your dosage or going off medication entirely, depending on your preference and your current level of symptoms. Many of our clients do choose to go off medication once they have eliminated their diagnosis and find that they don’t need it anymore. There is one important exception to the above policy: If you are taking an as-needed anxiety medication, you might find that it will interfere with treatment. We actually WANT you to feel all the feelings fully in this moment. So medication that interrupts those feelings is going to teach your brain the things we’re trying to undo. Because of this we would likely discuss with you and your prescriber not taking that medication on treatment days or during the treatment period. Again, that would be in discussion with both you and the prescriber, and any decision we would come to would be together for your best long-term success.

This is a really reasonable question and we’re so glad you’re asking it! We can’t know in advance of meeting and treating you exactly how long it will take you to get better, but usually people see improvement within weeks for trauma treatment, and complete treatment (as in they don’t need therapy any more) within months. When we meet with you, coming up with your goals and personal timeline of check-ins on progress will be part of the plan. You have a right to see measurable results.