The pain was something he couldn't get rid of…
When Daniel first walked into therapy, he didn’t know what he was hoping to find.
He had already decided that nothing could ever truly help him, but he was desperate for support. Daniel had spent years trying different approaches. He tried scores of medications, talking to friends, and pretending he was fine. Daniel tried to approach his family for support, but they told him that he was just sad, overreacting, or dramatic.
They told him to just push through and smile. Daniel tried these things for years. But the heaviness remained, pressing down on him in ways he couldn’t explain. It wasn’t just sadness. It was a hollowing. A slow erosion of self. Some days, it felt like he was watching his life from behind glass, disconnected, absent.
Other days, the thoughts crept in, quiet but insistent: What if I just disappeared? Would it matter?
Eventually, everything felt numb. Daniel found himself relying on self-harm and illicit drugs just to feel something. Deep down, he knew that these tactics might end up going too far and lead to tragedy.
Individual therapy became Daniel’s last hope to feel like he could heal from his invisible scars. A combination of somatic experiencing and traditional talk therapy allowed him to finally feel like he was heard for the first time.
Daniel did not feel like he was being judged, scolded, or told what to do. Instead of being guided through a myriad of “feel better” techniques, Daniel learned more about his emotional triggers. He was finally able to acknowledge the behavioral and mental patterns that kept him trapped in his depression.
Over time, Daniel noticed very subtle changes in his demeanor and thoughts. For the first time in many years, he no longer thought about suicide every day. Eventually, he began to feel less tired and much more authentic.
Daniel was finally able to set strong boundaries with his family, which allowed him to participate in more events. He was able to reconnect with past friends, return to his hobbies, and work towards a happier life that seemed so out of reach.
At the in Integrative Trauma Collective, we focus on deep personal understanding and long-lasting healing through a combination of individual and somatic therapeutic approaches.
Our team specializes in a psychodynamic approach to therapy.
At the heart of psychodynamic therapy is the belief that our past experiences shape the way we move through and experience the world.
Psychodynamic therapy is about making the unconscious, conscious. It’s about uncovering the patterns that have quietly dictated your life. Our patterns that feel impossible to break, emotions that overwhelm us, or the feeling of being stuck, are not random. Many of our struggles have roots in past experiences. They were shaped by relationships, early experiences, and the ways we learned to protect ourselves.
And yet, what once kept us safe can also keep us trapped. However, it can be so difficult to let go of these protective factors and build new ones. We will help. It’s not just about understanding these patterns but about shifting them. Awareness is powerful, but healing happens when we integrate that awareness into our lives in a way that fosters change. Let’s break down how this process unfolds.
Breaking maladaptive patterns is an important step towards deeper healing
“Over time, previously adaptive coping mechanisms can become maladaptive, which leads to a disconnection with intimacy, lower self-worth, and less personal fulfillment.”
Breaking Maladaptive Patterns
One of the most profound aspects of psychodynamic therapy is learning how our early coping strategies and patterns continue to shape our lives. Many of us grew up in environments where expressing certain emotions was not safe.
Maybe we learned that anger, sadness, or vulnerability led to rejection, so we suppressed it. Perhaps our needs were overlooked, leading us to believe that the only way to be loved was to accommodate others at the expense of ourselves, so we became emotionally guarded.
These adaptations were not failures, because they kept us safe. However, coping mechanisms work until they don’t. These subconscious protective patterns we develop in childhood often follow us into adulthood because they worked well-enough to keep us safe.
Psychodynamic therapy provides the space to identify these patterns and understand their origins. This process is not about blaming the past but about recognizing its influence. Once we see the ways our history has shaped our present, we gain the power to choose differently.
However, breaking long-held coping strategies can be difficult and scary.
Breaking patterns means stepping into discomfort and sitting with emotions that we avoided for years. This means recognizing and accepting parts of ourselves that we may be ashamed of.
Perfectionism, people-pleasing, self-isolation, and emotional detachment are just some examples of these strategies and not fundamental flaws within us. When these strategies no longer serve a healthy function, it is time to change them.
In therapy, we don’t just tear these defenses down. We explore them. We understand them. And when you are ready, we find new ways of being—ones that align with who you truly are, not just who you had to be.
True healing occurs in safe and secure connection with others.
The Role of Connection
True healing goes beyond intellectual understanding, it requires emotional integration. We need to this to experience what has long been buried. Many people come to therapy believing that simply understanding their pain means they can move past it.
While insight is an important first step, emotional healing demands more than simply knowing why we feel a certain way. It requires experiencing those emotions in a way that is safe and supported. This is why the therapeutic relationship is so important.
In psychodynamic therapy, the therapist-client relationship becomes a space where old wounds are not just acknowledged but actively worked through in real time.
If trust was broken in the past, therapy offers the possibility of experiencing a relationship where trust can be rebuilt.
If vulnerability once led to rejection, therapy provides a space where vulnerability is met with acceptance and understanding.
Through this process, we learn to understand, tolerate, and express our emotions in healthier ways. Many of us have spent years avoiding uncomfortable emotions like anger, sadness, or grief.
In therapy, we learn that emotions are not dangerous. Instead, emotions are simply signals, guiding us toward what needs attention. As we build emotional resilience, we begin to experience emotions as they arise, rather than pushing them away or feeling consumed by them. Over time, this shift allows us to engage with life with awareness, authenticity, and choice.
Trauma takes away our choice. Healing, requires finding our ability to choose again.
The Power of Choice
Healing is not about becoming someone new but about returning to yourself fully, wholly, and with the freedom to choose the life you want to live.
Many of us move through life on autopilot or stuck in survival mode. We may find ourselves reacting rather than responding, caught in patterns we don’t even realize are shaping our decisions. Psychodynamic therapy helps us step out of these unconscious cycles and into awareness.
This awareness can help us embody our internal strength. This strength allows us to set boundaries where none existed, to engage in relationships that nourish rather than deplete, and listen to our own needs instead of prioritizing the expectations of others.
This is what true empowerment looks like. Not forcing ourselves to be different but allowing ourselves to be who we truly are.
Your story does not end with trauma, with pain, or with patterns that keep you stuck. Your story is still being written…
Psychodynamic therapy is not about quick fixes. It is not about eliminating pain but about learning to navigate it with strength and clarity. It is about stepping out of survival mode and into a life that is intentionally yours.
This is not a journey you take alone.
In our work together, we will move at a pace that feels safe, exploring the past without becoming lost in it, understanding its influence without letting it define you.
Healing is possible, not because the past disappears, but because you learn how to carry it differently.
Your story does not end with trauma, with pain, or with patterns that keep you stuck. Your story is still being written. And through this work, you reclaim the power to choose what is best for you.