San Antonio Trauma Therapist

Trauma-Informed Counseling

A woman rests her elbows on a window sill with her head down and her hands on her head.

Trauma is one of the most common things that humans experience, yet there’s so much confusion about it. Some common misconceptions about trauma:

  • Just because you have trauma from an event, doesn’t mean you have PTSD.

  • You don’t have to be in the military to have PTSD.

  • Trauma isn’t just from life-threatening situations.

  • Not everyone who experiences a horrible event will be traumatized.

I provide trauma-informed counseling, which takes into account the impact of trauma on an individual. Trauma-informed counseling ensures the client has whatever they need to feel safe and understands how trauma makes our brains work sometimes. It’s a lens that counselors use to view their clients.

What is the definition of trauma?

Trauma isn’t the event that occurred to you, but the impact that event had on your mind, brain, and body. The event can be anything that made you feel unsafe. Traumatic events reorganize our brain and affect how we perceive things. Symptoms of trauma can include intrusive memories and flashbacks; avoiding the topic; ongoing emotions like fear, blame, shame, or anger; trouble sleeping; or self-destructive behavior.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

A man speaks while moving his hands across a small glass table from a woman listening intently. There are glasses of water, glasses, and a notebook on the table.

When working with clients who have experienced distressing events, I primarily use a type of counseling called Internal Family Systems, or IFS.

IFS believes that our psyche is composed of multiple “parts” or subpersonalities. It’s as if there are multiple members of the same family that live inside you. There are exile parts, which hold the feelings that are uncomfortable to feel, such as shame, grief, and humiliation. And there are protector parts, which lock away exiles to protect the whole.

For example, a person may have an exile who is holding shame from childhood abuse. They may feel lonely, afraid, and lost. They are also playful, joyful, and open to love.

That person may prevent the exile from coming to light by shutting people out when they get close, engaging in excessive drinking, or over-working to meet unrealistic expectations. These are the protectors.

There are no bad parts in IFS. All behaviors are viewed as natural ways to stay safe in our environment. There are only parts in extreme roles. The goal is to move these parts into preferred roles. IFS takes the stance that a client is greater than their issues and does not reduce a client to their diagnosis.

There’s a ton of research showing the benefits of IFS to treat trauma, depression, addiction, and more. It was granted “evidence-based” status by U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in 2015.

“All of us are born with many sub-minds―or parts…They are individuals who exist as an internal family within us―and the key to health and happiness is to honor, understand, and love every part.”

— Richard Schwartz, Creator of IFS