westchester-trauma-therapy — Westchester Trauma Therapy

for Women and Mothers

Hi! My name is Nicole Goudreau-Green (she/her), and I’m a Westchester Trauma Therapist. I specialize in therapy for women who’ve experienced childhood trauma and family trauma.

With trauma-focused therapy, I’ll help you regain your footing, experience relief and regain or develop trust in yourself and others.

Symptoms of trauma can feel really scary at times. Know that you can relief from these symptoms is possible. Therapy, and a healing, consistent relationship can be incredibly helpful in treating trauma. If you’re ready to start feeling better:

Schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation with me today.

Reasons You May Want to Consider Westchester Trauma Therapy:

if you’ve experienced trauma and are noticing the following symptoms: Difficulty trusting yourself and others

Shame and guilt around experiences in your present that logically you know are not your fault or in your control.
Low self-worth.
Feeling frozen or stuck when you experience emotions.
Feeling like you’re walking on eggshells or constantly looking out for danger (physically, relationally, etc)
Difficulty sleeping because of nightmares.
Difficulty concentrating, noticing long after your mind has wandered off.
Unwanted and disruptive memories of the trauma.

Perhaps you’ve managed to deal with the past fairly well up until recently. You’ve done your own exploration, maybe even worked with a therapist before. But stuff from your past, or present, is kicking up irritability, fear, and hopelessness. Maybe you’re having a hard time getting a grasp on anything and are feeling out of control.

My Approach to Trauma Therapy in Westchester

Through trauma focused therapy here in Westchester, I’ll help you: Learn to trust yourself and others again. Create space for emotions and thoughts in a way that doesn’t overwhelm you. Experience hope for the future. Reduce anxiety and fear so you don’t feel like you have to prepare for or expect the worst. Enjoy things you haven’t been able to be fully present for in the past because of dissociation or distractions.

The technical stuff:

My approach as a Trauma Therapist in Westchester draws from Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT). CPT and TF-CBT are evidenced based forms of therapy specifically developed to treat symptoms created by trauma.

CPT focuses on developing an understanding of how your habitual thoughts and beliefs have developed. We explore emotions surrounding these beliefs and thoughts, supporting you in moving through these emotions. There’s no way around it, and you won’t be doing it alone. Trauma- focused therapy is worth the energy and time you put into it.

What does trauma therapy with me actually look like?

First, we’ll get to know each other. In order to do the hard work of dealing with trauma, you have to have a foundation of trust and comfortability with me. We’ll explore you. The whole you. Not just the trauma.

We’ll uncover your strengths and skills, identify healthy and unhealthy habits of coping, and work toward your goals. Together, we’ll unpack the beliefs you hold about the trauma, your world, yourself and people around you.

I’ll support you in experiencing emotions you’ve avoided, that will allow space to heal. We’ll create new experiences and develop short and long-term strategies to manage symptoms.

Common Fears and Thoughts about Trauma Therapy:

As a Trauma Therapist serving Westchester (and beyond), I often hear these thoughts and fears around trauma therapy:

“If I talk about the trauma, it’s just going to make everything worse.”
“I don’t want to have to tell my story all over again.”
“Avoiding thinking and talking about the trauma has worked up to this point, what’s the point in changing that now?”
“If I let myself feel, I’ll fall apart.”

The fear and worry are valid, AND that doesn’t mean the thoughts stemming from these emotions are true. The reality of trauma focused therapy is:

When you talk about the feelings and thoughts originating from trauma, it makes life more manageable. Relationships become less stressful and confusing. Focus improves. Self-esteem increases and your ability to assess danger improves.
You don’t necessarily have to retell the trauma in detail all over again. Some details are important to explore to help you in reframing any unhelpful thoughts; but what’s even more important is exploring your past and current emotional and relational experiences.
Avoiding the trauma is actually what fuels the painful and intrusive symptoms. Avoiding keeps you in a fog and continues unhelpful, unhealthy coping habits.
Putting your emotions into words, talking about your thoughts, even those you're embarrassed about, is often relieving. Shifting from avoidance to awareness creates space in your life for more fulfilling relationships and experiences.
Feelings can often be experienced as intense and unbearable. Especially those related to trauma. When we are doing trauma focused therapy, the first focus is always building a trusting relationship and then skill building. This way, when you allow yourself to process the emotions more openly and fully, it feels less overwhelming.
I’m always going to support you, listen to you and pay attention to cues that you’re ready or not for the next step. We will work together in your healing journey. You don’t have to do it alone and my goal is to empower you, not push you.

Childhood Trauma

As a general definition, childhood trauma is a traumatic event that occurred during your childhood. Something that had the capacity to interrupt your development throughout childhood and It may have been a one time event or something on-going.

More specifically it may include (but definitely not limited to):

Emotional abuse
Neglect
Sexual Abuse
Physical abuse
Exposure to high intense emotion within your family unit over a prolonged period of time
Exposure to untreated symptoms of substance use or mental health of a parent
Exposure to war

Childhood trauma has a way of creeping into our lives indirectly and unexpectedly. It can influence the way we connect with others, lead to over-working, and cause problematic ways of thinking.

For years, the skills you’ve developed may have worked and even helped you flourish. But somewhere along the way they’ve become troublesome and no longer work. Those same skills can start to cause strain in your life. And the memories and feelings that you thought were under control, aren’t locked away in that box anymore.

Trauma therapy gives you a space to explore these thoughts, behaviors, emotions, beliefs, and more that you’ve been avoiding. I know it may feel scary, and I also know that you’re reading this for a reason and ready for a change.

Family Trauma

Over 10 years of my career, as a Westchester Trauma Therapist has been working with adolescents and families. It’s become apparent to me that when a child experiences mental illness and/or substance abuse, parents and family members can experience it as trauma. Developing anxiety, panic, irritability, difficulty concentrating, anger, hopelessness and more.

Witnessing a child (whether 5 or 25) experience symptoms of a mental health or substance use disorder is life changing. Feelings of loss, anger, guilt, shame and fear are common in response to this. Parents often report feeling:

Sad about the loss of the life they thought their child would have.
Guilty because they feel sad about this ambiguous loss. Thinking “I should be happy that my child is still alive.”
Angry or irritated with their child and guilty about these feelings.
Afraid something bad will happen if they aren’t constantly on top of things and don’t anticipate every possible scenario ahead of time.
Lonely and hopeless about the future for their child or themselves.
Afraid their child will overdose, attempt suicide or complete suicide.

Parenting a child with a mental health or substance use diagnosis can be incredibly overwhelming and ostracizing. You don’t have to do it alone. I am especially equipped to help you with my unique experience working from a trauma-informed and family therapy lens.

We’ll explore ways to help you manage the thoughts and feelings that come up. So they’re no longer interfering with happiness, work, relationships, sleep, etc.

step one

Contact me to schedule a free 15 minute pone consultation, or call for more information.

step two

We’ll set a time to talk briefly before the initial appointment. This is to determine if I’m a good fit in helping you reach your goals. If I am, we’ll move forward with an intake appointment. In this first 60-minute session, we’ll explore what has prompted you to come for therapy and go through some history. Then I’ll lay out a plan of how we can move in the direction of your goals.

step three

We’ll meet weekly (either in person or virtually) for 50-minute sessions. We’ll have regular check-ins about what’s working and what’s not, and adjust the plan as needed.