Pamela J. Kraus, LCPC, MBA
Healthier Relationships with Yourself, with Others, and with Life’s Experiences.
When you struggle and feel unsatisfied, it can be confusing, daunting, and even isolating. You may have sought help that didn’t result in the changes you were seeking. However, you are here now, in this moment, holding hope and continuing to seek what you want for yourself. That matters. A lot.
As humans, we have an innate desire to live a life aligned with who we are at our core. We aren’t necessarily aware of it, but adaptations we’ve made to survive and cope with our past, can stand between us and our authentic selves.
I engage in “depth-oriented” therapy, as opposed to focusing solely on behaviors, thought patterns, or solutions. That is, I don’t work from a CBT, DBT, or Solutions Focused approach. I believe that working through the underlying trauma and trauma adaptations that keep you feeling stuck has a much higher chance of successfully producing real growth. We all have had some degree of trauma in our lives, but we may not realize it; trauma comes in many shapes and sizes, and it may not be what you think of as “trauma.”
I don’t offer a “quick fix.” Therapy is hard work, and it takes time. My promise to you is that I will do my best to be steadfastly present with you, to help you to connect to your inherent worth, to increase your capacity for having fulfilling relationships, and to experience your life with more compassion for yourself and others.
“ I don’t have any magic to give you. I’m here to lead you back to a place where you can remember your own.”
Areas of focus:
- Complex Trauma (C-PTSD) – Trauma, resulting from developmental, relational, attachment wounds and unmet core needs
- Addiction and Recovery
- Dysfunctional relationships and family dynamics (challenges of co-dependency, maladaptive family/couple systems), unhealthy /lack of interpersonal boundaries
- Interpersonal conflict and communication challenges
- Low-self-worth and self-shaming
- Feeling lost or that you don’t know who you really are
- Depression and anxiety
- Grief (not only related to death but related to the sadness of what was, and what wasn’t, at earlier points in your life)
- Shock Trauma (traumatic events that, unprocessed, can cause symptoms of PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome)).
Who I Help:
I provide individual therapy, couples therapy, and family therapy to adults, parents, and their adult children. I see many clients who are, or have family members, referred from more intensive types of care, including outpatient, in-patient and residential treatment for mental health and/or substance use challenges.
How I Help:
I help my clients’ connect more fully to themselves.
What we’ve experienced in the past impacts how we relate to ourselves and engage in relationships today. I support my clients’ own discovery of how once-essential adaptive survival patterns are now keeping them from what they most want for themselves.
We work together to increase self-awareness and the capacity to live a more authentic life. So often, clients tell me, “it is what it is”, “this is just how I am”, or, “this is just who I am.” As clients shift toward experiencing that more is available to them, to who they are and can be, deeper understanding, self-compassion, and relief emerges.
Discovering and processing the impact of past trauma begins with being open and curious about how it is showing up in the present. We work together to understand how adaptations to trauma color the lens through which you experience yourself, others, and the world around you.
"Trauma is a psychic wound that hardens you psychologically that then interferes with your ability to grow and develop. Trauma is not what happens to you, it's what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you.”
Pamela J. Kraus
I’m passionate about helping my clients address unresolved complex trauma (developmental, relational and attachment trauma.) These challenges may be contributing to a negative sense of self, relationship struggles, or other difficulties in their lives.
I am a NARM Master Therapist™ (NeuroAffective Relational Model™ of treating complex and developmental trauma) and an EMDR Certified Therapist (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). A portion of the clients I work with are challenged (in their own or others’ lives) by addiction and/or engaged in the journey of recovery.
Pamela J. Kraus
I’m passionate about helping my clients address unresolved developmental and relational trauma. These challenges may be contributing to a negative sense of self, relationship struggles, or other difficulties in their lives.
I am a NARM Master Therapist (NeuroAffective Relational Model of treating complex and developmental trauma) and an EMDR Certified Therapist (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). I work with many clients who are challenged (in their own or other’s lives) by addiction and/or engaged in the journey of recovery.
NARM is a cutting-edge approach to healing yourself and opening to the possibility of more fulfilling relationships and greater internal ease in meeting life’s events and challenges. By addressing the impact of “environmental failure” (in caregiver and other significant relationships, lack of secure attachments, neglect which led to core needs not being met, etc.), over the years of our development), NARM is a uniquely effective approach for achieving healing.
[LEARN MORE ABOUT NARM] – link to https://narmtraining.com/what-is-narm/
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an approach for helping you process “shock trauma” that may be holding you back from living your healthiest and most fulfilled life. EMDR focuses on changing the way that your brain stores memories of a traumatic event, so that its impact on your life is reduced and your relationship to yourself and the event no longer hold the same power inside of you and in your life.
Providing support and compassion for healthier choices around substance use and addiction recovery.
I have many clients who whose lives have been and/or are affected by substance use. I work with clients to address issues around boundaries, co-dependency, sobriety, and recovery. In my experience, where there is addiction, there is the legacy of trauma. Importantly, addiction treatment and recovery groups help many people, but they aren’t designed to address and help heal the underlying trauma impact that is inevitably present.
