I don’t think I’ve ever talked here about why I specialized in trauma. It’s the main focus of my weekly work, the foundation of so many hour-long discussions, and a field I’m passionate about helping people recover from. So I figured—why haven’t I shared more about what drew me to it?
The defining moment happened early in my counseling career when I was still figuring out the role—skirt-wearing, hair flat-ironing, hoop earring-loving. Back then, looking and acting the part was most of what I had. I remember two clients distinctly, each from backgrounds very different from mine. One had witnessed gang violence from the back seat of their dad’s car; the other had suffered unthinkable abuse—beaten with a belt, burned with cigarettes, locked out of the fridge for days.
In those sessions, all I could manage was a head nod. Internally, I felt horrified and helpless—someone who was supposed to be helping but was completely lost. Trauma, back then, felt like a black hole, a dark ocean I had no business swimming in.
Something in me woke up from that helplessness. I knew there were researched treatment approaches for trauma, and one that drew me in was Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). On the third day of training, a colleague and new friend, Resa, practiced EMDR on me. A distressing memory I’d carried since my teens was somehow shifted. Driving home in my little Scion, replaying the once-crippling memory felt…neutral. Even better than neutral—I felt empowered.
That experience lit something in me. I felt my own resilience, in real time, and I knew I was on to something.
Now, five years later, I’ve since become certified in other trauma modalities. Each new method is like an addition to my Swiss Army knife, letting me help people navigate their own healing and piece together their lives with courage and strength.
Today’s work felt particularly rewarding. Instead of spiraling down the drain together, my client and I were like Batman and Robin—casting that beacon over Gotham to let the world know we’ve got this.
How grateful I am to do what I do.
I hope you are well, and I’ll see you here tomorrow.
Love, Jaclynn
Going On 40 