Giving birth is something that many women say they don’t want to remember, but it’s different for you. You get anxious whenever you think about the experience you had giving birth. It was one of the scariest experiences of your life. You believe the traumatic birth was your fault. You feel your body failed you, and you blame yourself for it. . You have been told your whole life that your body was made to give birth and to trust it. Not only do you not trust your body anymore, but you feel like it betrayed you. How is it possible that your body that was made to give birth could let you down? You felt so out of control through the birthing experience and didn’t feel heard. You were afraid for your baby’s safety and felt so vulnerable because all of it was out of your hands. It’s over now, but your mind keeps returning to the experience, wondering what could have gone differently.
Symptoms of Birth Trauma
While everyone has different experiences with birth trauma, these are some of the common symptoms of birth trauma that women report.
Feeling that the trauma is happening all over again
Panic attacks or anxiety around the birth
Nightmares about the experience
Intrusive thoughts and memories
Difficulty sleeping
Irritability
Avoiding people and places that remind you of the birthing experience
Birth trauma therapy can help stop the panic
You don’t deserve to keep feeling this way. I know it can be really scary to face the experience you had giving birth. It’s hard for you to admit how much this experience has impacted you. You want to be seen as having it all together and don’t understand why you can’t just let it go. You’ve thought about it enough that you think you should just be over it. I have worked with women who have felt the same way you do. They struggled with having confidence in their abilities to give birth again, and the thought terrified them. The women I have worked with have been able to find greater peace and calm their anxiety by processing their birth trauma through therapy. They’ve even gone on to give birth again and not feel like their past birth trauma ruined their experience.
I know it’s scary to even think about, but I want you to know I will never ask you to do anything you’re not ready for or uncomfortable with you.
During your birth trauma, you probably felt nobody was there to help you, explain what was happening, or give you a choice throughout that experience. You don’t have to worry about repeating that experience in therapy. You will have a voice and a choice in everything. You will be able to feel ok again.
Birth trauma therapy can help you cope
Birth Trauma Therapy will be at whatever pace you feel comfortable with. We don’t have to dive into the birth trauma right away. In fact, I wouldn’t want you to do that. I want you to be able to feel safe and to feel comfortable with me as your therapist before anything else. Therapy first will focus on making sure you are in a stable enough place to begin working on the experience itself. I want to ensure you have the support and coping skills in place first.
EMDR Therapy for Traumatic Birth
EMDR therapy is a powerful therapy tool that helps people process their traumatic experiences. The traumatic birth experience you had might have left you with negative beliefs about yourself, others, and the world. You may struggle with dealing with a cycle of negative thoughts and are left feeling bad about yourself, anxious, and hopeless. EMDR therapy can help you find lasting relief from birth trauma and help you feel empowered to give birth again if you wish. This therapy changes how your brain processes the birth trauma and helps you not feel as stuck in the experience anymore. This is the most life-changing therapy I have ever been able to utilize, and I love helping my clients find freedom from traumatic experiences.
Online Therapy in Utah for Birth Trauma
It’s hard enough to work through past trauma, but it makes it even more challenging when having to take time from your schedule to commute somewhere. Most importantly, when you are processing trauma, you want to feel like you are in a safe and comfortable environment. Many people feel the most comfortable doing this work in the comfort of their homes in their sweats and covered in blankets. This is why I offer online therapy in Utah. This is a safe, convenient, and effective way to process your trauma without having to leave the comfort of your home.
Online therapy also means we can work together wherever you are located in the state of Utah. I work with clients in Logan, Salt Lake City, St. George, Cedar City, Heber, and more.
Begin birth trauma therapy in Utah
You don’t have to keep relieving that painful birth experience over and over again. Counseling can help you calm all the negative thoughts circling around in your head. This Utah Counseling Clinic has a trauma therapist specializing in birth trauma in Utah. To begin counseling, follow these steps:
Meet with a birth trauma therapist
Begin trauma therapy
Other mental health services offered at Maple Canyon Therapy
Birth Trauma isn’t the only counseling service offered at this Utah Counseling Center. Other mental health services offered at Maple Canyon Therapy are EMDR therapy, anxiety therapy, eating disorder therapy, body image therapy, and binge eating disorder treatment in Utah.