Rebecca Castle-Waller

LCSW

I work with badass women with trauma to help them become more present in their life and their relationships. You feel trapped by your own success. Your whole life, you were the one who stepped up and took care of everyone else. You took care of your parents and your siblings in your chaotic home growing up. You took care of your kiddos during your abusive marriage. Now you're taking care of everyone at work. It's exhausting. Especially because you're doing all this while trying to mask your flashbacks, nightmares, jumpiness, emotional sensitivity, and numbness. When you tell people what's happened in your life and where you are now they say "Oh, you're so strong! I can't believe you're still alive." You know they mean well, but it still feels like a slap in the face. You didn't choose to be strong, it was be strong or else. Strength by coercion. You feel chronically disconnected. Disconnected from your body. Disconnected from your emotions, they are so unpredictable. Disconnected from your loved ones who don't fully understand what you've been through. Disconnected from your intuition, that still small voice has been ignored for so long it's hard to even find it again. Disconnected from your life. You look around and tell yourself, "My life now is so much better than it was before and I'm still so broken, what's wrong with me? Why am I afraid to be happy? Why do I feel myself drifting further from my life instead of closer?"

You are in charge. You get to say what we talk about, when we talk about it, and what you want out of therapy. It's completely within your rights to come into my office and say, "We will never be talking about my mother, I'm anxious, I want tools to help with that and then I'm gonna bounce." and I completely respect that! I love a good boundary! When it comes to trauma, healing your trauma is hard work, but if you survived the wounding you sure as heck will survive the healing. The work is so worth it. If I had a nickel for every time a client told me a variant of, "Holy cow, I never thought I would be able to set that down. I thought I would have to carry that forever." I would have several jars of nickels. Also, in the gentlest possible way, it's better to heal your trauma now before your body forces you to address it. There is no wrong time for therapy. You are not too broken. You are not too old. You are not too healthy, you are not too unhealthy. Come as you are.

EMDR and CPT: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy are the two therapies recommended by the World Health Organization for the treatment of trauma in adults. They are highly effective and evidence-based; the role of these therapies is to help heal the trauma by helping the traumatic memories become just that, memories. In the past. Not here and now and distressing in the present. Discernment Counseling: In discernment counseling I work with a married couple where one person is asking for divorce and one person wants to work on the relationship. Over the course of 5 sessions (maximum) I meet with the couple and provide space for each partner to think deeply so you can increase confidence in the future direction of your relationship. Gottman Couples Therapy and Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy: I enjoy helping couples where one or both partners have experienced trauma to help create a refuge of love and connection in a chaotic and traumatic world. I do that by helping couples understand each other's internal worlds better and building skills to help couples connect more openly and lovingly.