EMDR and Hypnosis for Trauma & Grief in California
_edited_edited.jpg)
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)
Inclusive Couples Counseling and Relationship Therapy
Is this you? Do you keep having the same argument, the same relationship dynamic (you pursue and they distance, or vice versa)? You get triggered to withdraw or frantically worry that you'll be left by your partner? Do things from the past get triggered in your interactions with your partner?
Your relationship is one of the most important parts of your life, yet you might believe it should not take the same attention and care you give other aspects of your life. You might wish that happily ever after means that you don't have to tend to your relationships. Inclusive couples therapy can help you repair relationship problems, as well as remember why you got together in the first place.
​
Many things can threaten your relationship's health
Have you faced a significant loss and you're wondering how to connect despite your grief? There are some losses that really hit hard, like losing a child or other family member. Similarly, enduring a traumatic incident can make it challenging to relate in a healthy way. Both trauma and loss can make you want to withdraw or want and need a specific type of support, which you might not have a way to request from your partner. If one or more of you suffers from complex PTSD (C-PTSD) and old stuff from your family of origin keeps getting in the way of being close, it may feel exhausting to keep the relationship going.
Maybe your relationship is taxed because you are a member of the LGBTQ+, kink, or polyamorous communities and you don't have the usual support that more socially accepted relationships enjoy. All this creates stress and disharmony between you and those you love, which also impacts those around you--children, other family members, friends, pets. We are wired to connect with each other, so we feel each others' joy and pain.
​
If you are in a same-gender relationship or with someone who is transgender, you might also face isolation and lack of support from your family and community. That can add stress to you and your partner on top of everything else. If you're in a consensual non-monogamous relationship, you might also face stigma and misunderstanding from others. This might compound your stress too.
Find each other again with inclusive couples counseling and relationship therapy
But there was a time when your relationship felt good, or at least good enough for you to want to be together. You may have forgotten what it was that drew you to your partner(s), but you can find it again. You might have lost some hope that you could get along again, but that's okay... we can get through that together. The benefit of working on your relationship with help from the outside (moi) is enormous, when you consider the costs of being lonely, isolated, without support, and of divorce and custody legal proceedings.
Don't you deserve to feel that connection again, to be in harmony with your partner again? If so, please call me at 661-233-6771.
I think in relationships, you create an environment with your own work on yourself, which you offer to another human being to use to grow in the way they need to grow. Parents are environments for their children, lovers are an environment for their partners. You keep working – you become the soil – moist and soft and receptive so the person can grow the way they need to grow, because how do you know how they should grow?--Ram Dass
