All grief can be profound and life-changing. Traumatic grief refers more specifically to grief that occurs alongside trauma connected to the death or the circumstances surrounding it.

You may be grieving someone you love while also experiencing distressing memories, images, fear, guilt, physical reactions, or a sense that what happened is still very present.

The distinction isn't meant to suggest that one kind of grief is more painful or deserving of care than another. It helps us understand when both grief and trauma may need attention in therapy.

The death of a baby or child can affect your sense of yourself, your family, your body, your relationships, and the future you expected to have.

Therapy can give you somewhere to talk about both the person you love and what happened to them.

You can tell me about your baby or child. You can say their name. We can talk about what you miss, what you're angry about, what you remember, and what you wish other people understood.

When trauma is also part of the loss, we can work with those experiences without asking you to leave your grief or your relationship with your child behind.

EMDR may be helpful when traumatic memories surrounding a death continue to feel intensely present.

For example, your mind may repeatedly return to a hospital room, an accident, a phone call, something you witnessed, or the moment you learned that someone had died.

EMDR isn't intended to make you stop grieving or feel less connected to the person you lost. Instead, we can use it to address aspects of trauma that have become intertwined with the grief.

As a Certified EMDR Therapist with specialized training in traumatic bereavement, I'll help us determine whether EMDR is appropriate for what you're experiencing.

I provide individual therapy for traumatic grief and bereavement from my office in Newport Beach, California, as well as online throughout California.

My work in this area is informed by specialized training through the MISS Foundation's Compassionate Bereavement Care® Certification program, along with my training and certification in EMDR.

I work with adults following pregnancy and infant loss, the death of a child, sudden or unexpected death, traumatic or violent death, and other losses in which grief and trauma have become intertwined.

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Perinatal mental health therapy provides support for emotional and mental health concerns related to pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and the transition into parenthood.

You might come to therapy because you're experiencing anxiety or depression, intrusive thoughts, identity changes, relationship stress, a difficult pregnancy, birth trauma, or simply because becoming a parent has been more emotionally complicated than you expected.

I've completed advanced training in perinatal mental health and am currently pursuing PMH-C certification.

You don't have to be in crisis to deserve support during this period of your life.

Postpartum anxiety and depression can look different from person to person.

You may experience persistent worry, racing thoughts, intrusive thoughts, difficulty relaxing, sadness, irritability, guilt, disconnection, low motivation, or the feeling that you aren't quite yourself.

And you can be caring for your baby, getting things done, and appearing okay to everyone around you while still struggling.

You don't need to diagnose yourself before reaching out. We can talk about what you've been experiencing and determine what kind of support may be helpful.

Unwanted intrusive thoughts can occur during pregnancy and postpartum, and they can be incredibly upsetting.

Having a thought or image that frightens you is not the same thing as wanting it to happen.

If intrusive thoughts are frequent, distressing, or beginning to affect the way you care for yourself or move through your day, therapy can give you somewhere to talk about them without judgment and understand what may be contributing to them.

You don't need to make the thoughts sound less frightening before telling me about them.

Yes. I work with women following miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal loss, and other forms of pregnancy and infant loss.

These experiences can involve grief alongside physical recovery, medical trauma, difficult decisions, changes in relationships, and the loss of a future you had already begun imagining.

My work with pregnancy and infant loss brings together my specialized training in perinatal mental health and traumatic bereavement.

There is room here to talk about your baby, not only about how you're coping.

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EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is a structured psychotherapy approach used to work with traumatic and distressing experiences.

During EMDR, we may focus on aspects of a memory while using bilateral stimulation, often guided eye movements. This can help the brain process experiences that continue to cause significant distress in the present.

EMDR is more than simply moving your eyes back and forth. Preparation, understanding your history, identifying what we want to work on, and making sure you feel ready are all important parts of the process.

No. EMDR does not necessarily require you to describe every detail of a traumatic experience out loud.

I'll need enough information to understand what you're experiencing and provide appropriate care, but there may be parts of your story you aren't ready to put into words or prefer to keep private.

Before we begin processing, I'll explain what we're doing and what you can expect.

You remain an active participant in the process, and we'll work at a pace that feels manageable.

EMDR is well known for its use in trauma treatment, but it may also be useful when past experiences contribute to other difficulties in the present.

In my practice, I may incorporate EMDR when working with trauma, anxiety, traumatic grief, distressing memories, birth trauma, medical trauma, or experiences that continue to trigger strong emotional or physical reactions.

You don't need to know whether EMDR is the right treatment before contacting me. We'll first understand what's happening and decide together whether it makes sense for you.

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