Priya Loess, PhD

Feeling Overwhelmed?

If you feel like it’s hard to stay afloat, you are not alone. Times are stressful and we all could use help. If you have experienced trauma, life can be especially painful and difficult to navigate. You might feel unsafe in the world, unable to trust others, or sometimes don’t know how to trust and really know yourself. You may feel shame, depressed, or angry, or you may have terrible memories or images you just can’t escape. You may even freeze or feel like your emotions are out of control. While it can be overwhelming and hard to know how to even start healing from trauma, there is hope for change and therapy can help.

Experiences of trauma can lead to a wide range of mental health challenges including Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, depression, and anxiety. People who experience trauma also experience a significant amount of shame and self-criticism. Learning to be self-accepting, self-validating, and self-compassionate can help alleviate the suffering that come from these. Learning to trust ourselves and build healthy relationships with others is also an important component to the healing process.

Approach

Part of my approach includes helping you develop self-compassion and mindfulness. You may be surprised to learn that being self-critical is damaging and doesn’t actually help in the long run. It can erode our confidence and satisfaction in life. Instead, being self-compassionate means we recognize our mistakes as a normal human experience that we can learn from. To be self-compassionate means to treat yourself with kindness as you would treat a friend who is suffering. In addition, mindfulness practice can help us notice what is happening internally and externally, which allows us to make more empowered choices. Practicing mindfulness means learning to let go of judgment and feel more connected to the present moment, which is where we make the changes we need to make. Together, self-compassion and mindfulness help us find the space for difficult emotions in order to reduce our suffering and increase our ability to live fully in our lives.

If you are ready to heal from your trauma, I can help you feel more grounded in your mind and body. Being present in mind and body is often very scary and is usually avoided if you have experienced trauma. I will teach you skills to help manage the symptoms that interfere with daily life. For a deeper level of processing trauma, I offer evidence-based treatments, such as Prolonged Exposure, Written Exposure, and Cognitive Processing Therapy. Therapy will go at a pace that makes you feel most safe. Feeling safe and trust within the therapeutic relationship is a critical component to making therapy successful. My style is validating and non-judgmental. I will also guide you and challenge you when appropriate and necessary.

Orientation: My orientation is anchored in evidence-based practices, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). I regularly incorporate the practice of mindfulness and self-compassion into therapy. I also offer trauma processing therapies such as Prolonged Exposure, Cognitive Processing Therapy, and Written Exposure.
Modalities: Individuals

Specialties

I specialize in helping people recover from sexual assault and trauma. I also help people with other concerns including depression, body image, exploring gender identity, exploring sexuality, building healthy relationships, social anxiety, navigating culture and sense of self, coping with pet loss, life transitions, and understanding, regulating, and managing emotions.

I am committed to helping you make the changes you need to make, that are based on your values, in order for you to thrive in life.

Finding a therapist that you connect and feel safe with is one of the first steps in healing. If you need to explore issues related to sexual assault and trauma, depression, body image, gender identity exploration, sexuality, identity exploration, navigating cultural-identity, social anxiety, pet loss, emotion regulation, and think I might be a good match, feel free to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you.

Things I’ve Written

• Self-Compassion: Treating Yourself as You Would Treat a Friend
• The Effects of Sexual Assault on the Brain and Body
• Recovering from Sexual Assault
• Don’t Throw Out Your Cake! (and Other Self-Compassionate Practices)