ABOUT THE CENTER
Just like the lotus we too have the ability to
rise from the mud, bloom out of the darkness and radiate into the world
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
The Center is guided by the six principles of Trauma-Informed Care to create a culture that enhances safety and is sensitive to the impacts of trauma. We stand for:
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Trauma Understanding – with thorough knowledge of trauma and traumatic stress, we provide compassionate and well-informed guidance toward wellness.
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Safety & Security – we help you increase stability in your daily life so that core physical and emotional safety needs are met, and you can minimize your stress reactions and focus your resources on wellness.
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Cultural Humility & Responsiveness – we are curious to understanding your cultural differences and we respond to them sensitively, so that you feel validated and your wellness is enhanced.
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Compassion & Dependability – we provide a compassionate and dependable relationship, enabling you to re-establish trusting connections with others that fosters mutual wellness.
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Collaboration & Empowerment – we collaborate to identify and plan for opportunities to make choices about positive changes in your life, so that you feel empowered and you can promote your own wellness.
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Resilience & Recovery – we focus on, highlight, and celebrate your strengths and clear barriers toward wellness, so that you foster your growth and resiliency.
We incorporate a solid understanding of the neurological, biological, psychological, and social effects of trauma, as well as a recognition of the impact that trauma can have on individual lives, interpersonal dynamics, and paths to recovery into all aspects of our services. Through trauma-sensitive services and trauma-specific/focused individual therapy, groups, and workshops, we deliver person-centered treatment focused on all around wellness.
TREATMENT APPROACH
Our approach to treatment is informed by the Stages of Trauma Recovery (Herman, 1992), thus we're sensitive to meeting you where you're currently at in your recovery process, and working with you on developing a treatment plan to guide you through the stages of trauma recovery into a meaningful life path.
Stage One
People affected by trauma tend to feel unsafe in their bodies and in their relationships with others, and they can easily be triggered in a way that regulating and soothing emotions in everyday life becomes a struggle. We work with clients at this stage to stabilize and increase a sense of safety in their life so they can speak to their experiences and emotional overwhelm in later stages without reacting from a place of vulnerability and fear.
Stage Two
Tasks increase from safety and stabilization to processing trauma, which involves overcoming the anxiety and/or fear associated with memories of trauma so they can be integrated into your life narrative, rather than being wholly defined by trauma. Pacing and guidance from a supportive therapist during this stage ensures that you do not become “stuck” in avoidance or overwhelmed by emotions. We use empirically-supported treatments during this stage with clients to explore and mourn the losses associated with trauma, while providing space for clients to grieve and express their emotions.
Stage Three
During this stage, we work with you to redefine yourself in the context of meaningful relationships, create a new sense of self and a new future, and recognize the impact of trauma on your life while taking concrete steps toward empowerment and self-determined living. We help clients during this stage decrease shame and alienation, develop a greater capacity for healthy attachment, and work toward personal and professional goals. We collaborate with clients to overcome fears of normal life, healthy challenge and change, and barriers to intimacy.
Recovery is not defined by complete absence of thoughts or feelings associated with trauma but living with it in a way that it isn’t controlling your life. As your life becomes reconsolidated around a healthy present and a healed self, trauma feels farther away, where it is not a daily focus and you are not controlled by trauma's impacts.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, alone, or stagnated in your recovery, contact us to discuss how we can support you in successfully moving beyond these challenges toward a satisfying and meaningful life.
"If we are to strive as human beings to gain more wisdom, more kindness and more compassion, we must have the intention to grow as a lotus and open each petal one by one.”
Goldie Hawn
A MESSAGE FROM THE FOUNDER
Christine Valdez, Ph.D., ABPP
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about the Center. I founded the Center after years of experience working with a variety of trauma survivors, and noticing a common thread throughout their experiences. I often hear narratives of years of suffering with little hope that treatment will, or can be, effective. I've noticed a resignation to live in suffering, while being overwhelmingly exhausted with finding ways to just survive in existence. After seeing the transformation that is possible with empirically-supported trauma-focused/specific therapies, I was inspired to open this Center where clients felt, not only understood for their lived experiences, but helped to effectively make positive, long lasting change- to relieve their suffering, improve their lives, and feel better.
My experience as a clinician, educator, and researcher with over a decade of experience in the field of trauma brings a unique perspective to treatment. I have worked with a variety of trauma survivors, from survivors of childhood abuse and neglect, domestic violence, sexual assault, to survivors of traumatic loss, torture, spiritual trauma, immigration trauma, combat trauma, and those exposed to community violence. The treatment options available at the Center were chosen because they work, for a variety of survivors, with unique backgrounds and experiences, and they can work for you.
Thank you for being here and starting the journey toward recovery. You no longer have to just survive, you can thrive.
With warmest regards,
Christine