EMDR and Hypnosis for Trauma & Grief in California
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LGBTQ-affirming psychologist helping adolescents, adults and couples heal from trauma and grief. I use EMDR, Ericksonian hypnosis, Flash Technique, Solution-Focused Therapy, EFT, and CBT.
Lisa S. Larsen, PsyD
(she/her/hers)
(CA Lic. #PSY 19046)
Grief and Depression
Acute and complicated grief can feel like depression, or resemble it. If you had clinical depression before you lost someone or something important to you, it can make grieving even more burdensome and heavy. Yet grief and depression are two different mental states. Grief is a normal, natural response to loss, while clinical depression is a mental illness. When you're going through this, it helps to see a mental health professional to help you navigate your symptoms and understand what's going on.
When you lose someone important to you or suffer other significant losses, it can feel devastating. Yet grief can also signal the transition into a new phase of your life. Often, grief is a normal reaction to other big changes in life like divorce, separation from your children or friends, moving to a new place, retiring, or changing jobs. It can knock you off balance and make you feel confused and lonely. Loss is a normal part of life, but sometimes it can get complicated by things outside our control. When it gets complicated, it can really interfere with your ability to work, go to school, socialize, and feel okay again.
Complicated grief usually comes from death, but you might also develop prolonged or traumatic grief from other potential causes. This is in addition to losing someone you love to murder, suicide and fatal overdoses, miscarriages or stillbirths.
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You could develop complicated grief from a family member going into foster care or juvenile detention, deportation, abandonment, or rejection by family or friends because of your gender identity or sexual preference. You could lose your sense of safety by being bullied at school or work. Grief might also result from losing your career, marriage, health, or home. There are many ways you could develop traumatic stress, complicated grief, depression or anxiety. Grief can look like depression and vice versa, but with grief the symptoms are specific to the loss and not global like depression. Click here to learn more about the differences.
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Especially in times of turmoil in global and personal affairs, it can feel like a punch to the gut. Relationships can be hard to re-establish too. I can provide support and useful information to make the transition less painful and to bring meaning to your loss. Please call 661-233-6771 to learn how we can work together to get you unstuck from grief and depression.