People who have experienced trauma often develop an acute ability to endure discomfort, whether it's emotional, mental, or physical. Having navigated through profound adversity, their capacity to withstand pain and uncertainty becomes heightened over time. While this resilience can serve them in surviving difficult situations, it can also create a paradox—what was once a survival mechanism becomes a pattern of tolerating unhealthy dynamics, stifling growth, and preventing healing. This ability to endure, honed through hardship, can sometimes mean accepting stress, imbalance, and disconnection in relationships or everyday life. Yet, recognizing this tendency is the first step in breaking the cycle and reclaiming the power to prioritize well-being and growth.

Feeling inadequate or "not enough" eventually becomes exhausting. Like many, you are tired of struggling with a poor self-image and self-doubt. Your dreams and life goals are taking a backseat to the constant striving without success. Your life would be more meaningful if you could finally feel like you are enough. Low self-esteem happens for many reasons, and how you talk to yourself also impacts self-esteem. If you want to change your negative self-talk, therapists have various tools to help you achieve that goal.

You can improve your mood and enhance your emotional well-being by learning to shift negative self-talk. Once you learn some of these valuable skills in therapy, you may begin to notice how your negative self-evaluation has led to anxiety, sadness, depression, and low self-esteem. Shifting the way you speak to yourself is not easy, it takes practice. What follows are some helpful strategies to help you on your journey to improve your self-esteem.

If you’re curious about how EMDR psychotherapy can help you resolve trauma, negative experiences and other challenges, please enjoy this short YouTube video that includes the voices of patients who now experience freedom and hope as a result of their EMDR treatment. Not just for trauma resolution, EMDR psychotherapy is an effective treatment for a variety of concerns. You can learn more about EMDR, or find an EMDR therapist by visiting EMDRIA.

Are you wondering if EMDR Therapy is a good fit for your therapeutic needs? Whether you are new to therapy, or you’ve had experience with psychotherapy and would like to take your healing to the next level, what follows are some challenges that EMDR has been shown to successfully treat:

If traditional talk therapy has left you feeling discouraged with your healing progress, EMDR might be the solution that finally leads to symptom reduction. Many psychotherapists who are skilled with EMDR therapy are successfully working with their patients online using virtual EMDR. Many of us discovered that we could begin or continue EMDR Therapy virtually during the pandemic.

As a specialist in trauma therapy and an advanced level II EMDR practitioner in New York City, I have been helping patients heal and address challenges through online EMDR therapy. Many feel better after just a handful of sessions and will say “why didn’t my therapist tell me about this sooner?” Not everyone is trained in EMDR, but those who practice this modality know just how effective EMDR therapy is. EMDR is most commonly known to resolve PTSD and trauma. It’s also very effective for getting to the root cause of anxiety, depression, chronic sadness, addictions, compulsions, eating disorders, fears, phobias, grief, performance enhancement, and so much more.

EMDR therapy uses a process called Bilateral Stimulation to facilitate healing. Virtual EMDR therapists help patients process trauma using self-administered BLS by tapping on the knees, butterfly hug tapping or online software that stimulates rapid eye movement such as remotEMDR. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) focuses on reducing the impact that episodic distress, anxiety, fear, depression, phobias, triggers, negative emotions and traumatic memories have on your life.

Whether you’re researching EMDR because you find yourself unable to fly or visit the dentist, or you have suffered a traumatic event, EMDR can help you heal and move forward with your life. I am a trauma-trained specialist which means that I utilize this powerful method of healing whenever possible. I’ve trained in many modalities, and stray occasionally, but I always return to EMDR, because it is powerfully effective and transformative for my patients. EMDR is a cutting-edge, evidence-based trauma treatment that can free you from emotional and relational patterns of suffering. The effects of trauma, including anxiety, depression, PTSD, addictions, suicidal thoughts and dysfunctional relationships can be impactful and debilitating. Most who have attempted to resolve trauma through therapy would agree that traditional talk therapy is not always helpful. As an integrative psychotherapist in New York City, I offer an integrative approach using EMDR while blending other forms of highly-effective therapies into sessions. In addition to EMDR, I often utilize Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Somatic Experiencing (SE) to help unearth the root cause of anxiety, depression, addictions and trauma-related symptoms. I’ve had success using this integrative approach with my patients.

Healing Trauma: How Holistic Psychotherapy Can Help You Reclaim Safety, Stability, and Emotional Freedom

Trauma changes the brain—but healing does too.

At Holistic Psychotherapy & Wellness NY, we understand that trauma—whether it’s a single overwhelming event or a history of chronic, developmental adversity—can fundamentally alter your nervous system, sense of safety, and ability to trust yourself and others. But we also know that with the right therapeutic support, the brain and body have an extraordinary capacity to rewire, rebuild, and recover.

Trauma Rewires The Brain—But So Does Healing

When traumatic experiences go unprocessed, they can keep the nervous system stuck in survival mode. Over time, the brain creates protective loops that perpetuate hyperarousal, emotional numbing, flashbacks, and a persistent feeling that the world is unsafe. These patterns are reinforced through repeated rumination, re-telling, and avoidance, deepening the grip trauma has on daily life.

The good news? Neuroplasticity—the brain’s natural ability to form new neural connections—allows us to release old trauma loops and build pathways rooted in safety, connection, and regulation. Therapy can support this transformation by offering resourcing, co-regulation, and reparative experiences that tell the body and brain: it’s safe to heal now.

“It’s Not Safe To Be Well”: The Hidden Belief That Keeps Trauma Alive

Many trauma survivors come to therapy with a surprising inner conflict—they deeply want to heal, yet feel resistance to feeling “well” or “whole.” This resistance is often rooted in a subconscious belief: if I relax, I won’t be ready for danger. Healing may feel unsafe, even threatening.

This belief is a survival strategy. After all, if you’ve been harmed before, staying hyper-vigilant can feel protective. But this chronic stress response blocks access to joy, connection, and rest. At Holistic Psychotherapy & Wellness NY, we work gently to explore and reprocess these beliefs so that you can begin to experience wellness without fear.

What Does Trauma-Informed Healing Involve?

Each healing journey is unique. Whether you’re struggling with the effects of childhood trauma, sexual trauma, emotional abuse, medical trauma, or PTSD, our practice supports you in cultivating safety—internally and externally—before processing painful memories.

We offer therapy for trauma using modalities like: