What to Expect from Your First Session with a Trauma Therapist in Houston

Therapy is super common these days, however it’s absolutely normal if you feel apprehensive or nervous before reaching out to a therapist. After all, there is a level of trust you have to have in this stranger. But once you find the right therapist for you, you have a world of healing ahead of you.

I encourage you to vet your therapist well before diving in with them.

If you have been carrying around the baggage of trauma, I strongly encourage you to find yourself a trauma therapist in Houston. Why? because not all therapists are trained to work with trauma.

And the right trauma therapist will help you process, digest and finally get rid of the trauma that has been holding you back.

If you do not want to be in therapy long term, then I have a treat for you. I specialize in brainspotting therapy- an innovative, efficient and gentle way of healing your brain from trauma without having to do too much talking or retraumatizing yourself.

The Warm Welcome: Meeting Your Trauma Therapist in Houston

Once you have gone through a few therapists’ website or online profiles, select about 3 who resonate strongly with you. Ensure that their websites actually mention trauma and/or brainspotting.

Schedule a consultation call so that you can get your questions answered before your first session.

On to the first session

If you are signed up for virtual therapy (in my opinion, it’s just as effective as in person therapy), show up as you would if you were going into the therapist’s office.

Be comfy. Bring a notebook and a pen if you want to, and always bring some water in case you get thirsty. Some people show up in their bonnets, with a blanket or in their pajamas.

I’m cool with all of it.

Understanding Your Story: The First Step in Trauma Therapy

During our first session, we’ll be getting to know each other better. You’ll get a sense of how I talk, how I work and I’ll get your background story- so to speak.

I’ll be asking about your symptoms, physical and emotional health, family background, past experiences in therapy, your sleep, trauma experiences, social relationships, intimate relationships, and a lot more. This will help me tailor therapy for you. No cookie cutter here.

By the end of the first session, you will probably have a good sense for whether or not we are actually a fit. If you decide you want to continue on, then we’ll schedule another session. If not, I’ll hopefully help you find someone who is a better fit for you.

Towards the end of the first session, we will work together to pinpoint about 2 to 3 goals of therapy. You can pick whatever you want and it’s flexible. You can always change your goals.

Trauma therapy is a lot less scary than it sounds. It’s simply just a time to help you begin to clear out some of the traumatic memories that have been sitting in your body and your brain so that you can feel free and unhindered.

Introducing Brainspotting: How It Fits into Trauma Therapy

During the second session, it’ll be time to jump into brainspotting- a powerful technique for processing trauma.

In a nutshell, brainspotting is essentially gently going into the deep layers of your brain where trauma and strong emotions are stored, allowing you to access those emotions and digest them.

Because we are able to access deep layers of the brain, it reduces the total amount of time you’ll spend in therapy. It is powerful and efficient.

As we continue on our brainspotting trauma therapy journey together, I’ll continue to check in with you to see how you’re feeling. Are you sleeping okay? Do you have any physical symptoms? Tiredness maybe? Do you feel like you are beginning to clear out the trauma?

Are there any other areas you would like to touch on in session?

I am a pro at catering to the specific needs of women in Houston. Typically, in addition to trauma therapy, many of my clients want to work on building back their self esteem, learning how to establish firm, but kind boundaries with themselves and others, as well as establishing safe, healthy relationships. We can do all that.

Feeling Comfortable and Supported with Your Trauma Therapist in Houston

Remember that therapy is a process. You might not feel completely healed after the first or second session, but as you continue to be open to the process, you will feel relieved.

During the first few sessions, you are also getting to know your therapist better. It’s okay if you feel shy or awkward at first.

Brainspotting can feel difficult at first, but there is no type of healing that comes without a little bit of a challenge.

If you are looking for a quicker non-invasive way to heal trauma, consider connecting with a brainspotting trauma therapist in Houston.

Ready to start your healing journey with a trusted trauma therapist in Houston? Schedule your free consultation call with me for trauma therapy in Houston and take the first step toward reclaiming your life!

About Me

My name is Ibinye Osibodu-Onyali. I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist in California and Texas. I help women who are struggling with trauma, anxiety and insomnia.

I also help couples learn how to speak each other’s language, date each other again and manage conflict in a non-painful way.

Many of my clients are:

Highly sensitive people

High achieving women

People with insomnia

Couples who want to regain their friendship and trust

If you’re ready to take the next steps, click here.

Trauma Therapist Houston: How Brainspotting Can Help You Heal

Before we dive in, here’s a link to a video and blog post on “What is brainspotting?

what is brainspotting and how does it actually work?

It’s pretty simple. When you are having a conversation with someone, you’ll notice that their eyes move all over the place. Sometimes their eyes look up and to the right, other times, it’s down and to the left, and still, other times they might appear to be looking far away in the distance.

But it really is all about your brain processing.

During brainspotting therapy, your therapist doesn’t do a lot of talking.

What to Expect from Your First Session with a Trauma Therapist in Houston

They utilize your eye gaze to help your brain gently bring up important memories. Your therapist will ask you to focus on a specific point- the point at which your brain naturally wants you to focus on, so that it can process appropriately.

You are gently told to bring up the event or experience that you want to process. One of the ways I do this is with a pointer. I help you find the right spot for you to focus on- brainspotting therapists know how to do this.

What to Expect from Your First Session with a Trauma Therapist in Houston

I slowly bring the pointer across the screen (watch this video for the explanation. Start at 0:57 to see how I use my pointer). When I notice that your face makes certain reflex movements, I’ll stop the pointer. Then I ask that you continue to gaze at the spot while bringing up some of the experiences that brought you into therapy.

Another tool that I use in brainspotting therapy is biolateral music. Biolateral music is simply music that bounces back and forth- from left ear to right ear- in an unpredictable pattern, which allows your brain to process.

You will have headphones on, while the music is on very low volume, so you can still hear me talking and you can still follow my guidance. This entire process rewires your brain.

I won’t be doing a whole bunch of talking, my job is just to set it up, hold the space for you, and allow you to gently bring up those experiences that brought you into therapy.

On your own, you’ll be able to come up with all sorts of answers that you didn't know were inside you. The idea is that you already have the resources within you. You just need the right environment to bring them up.

It is you processing an event, your trauma, or your experiences, while looking at a certain spot. Where you look affects how you feel- is the premise behind brainspotting.

Brainspotting is useful for:

• People who have experienced trauma.

• People with anxiety or fear.

• Athletes, performers and musicians who are stuck.

• Entrepreneurs who want to get rid of mental blocks that stop them from making decisions.

If you are ready to finally heal from past trauma, anxiety or difficult experiences, click here to schedule your free 15-minute consultation to find out if brainspotting is right for you. I am a Black therapist who provides online therapy for people who live in California and Texas.

About the Author

My name is Ibinye Osibodu-Onyali. I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist in California. I help women who are struggling with anxiety and insomnia. I also help couples learn how to speak each other’s language, date each other again and manage conflict in a non-painful way.

Many of my clients are:

Highly sensitive people

High achieving women

People with insomnia

Couples who want to regain their friendship and trust

If you’re ready to take the next steps, click here.

What exactly is Brainspotting Therapy?

So what exactly is brainspotting? Maybe you've heard of brainspotting before and you're curious about it, or maybe you have no clue what I'm talking about. Before we jump in, know that brainspotting is very different from EMDR.

Brainspotting is different from EMDR

In my opinion it is way better, but of course I'm biased because I am a brainspotting therapist.

The idea behind brainspotting therapy is very simple.

It is that when we go through trauma, stress, or difficult experiences, they can get locked into certain parts of the brain.

The experiences get locked into the reptilian or subcortical part of your brain where your emotions are processed.

This often happens to maybe protect your body from the difficult emotions. Because if you spent all of your time thinking about all the big, difficult things that have happened in your life, you’d be paralyzed by fear, anxiety or overwhelm. So then your brain locks those emotions into one place.

Perhaps your body might not be ready to process those emotions yet, so it just protects them in the reptilian brain. However this becomes a problem, when the memories begin to interfere in your life.

The effects of locking up your emotions

You find yourself avoiding emotions altogether, or having a hard time regulating your emotions. Or the memories of the difficult experience keep popping back up, and you have no idea what to do with them.

Through the process of brainspotting, your therapist will help you unlock some of those emotions, so that you can better process them and heal your hurt brain.

The tools of Brainspotting

Some of the tools that I use in brainspotting are a pointer and biolateral music to help you dig into the subcortical brain.

The benefits of brainspotting

Brainspotting therapy is just a simple tool to help you unlock the emotions, trauma and experiences that have been trapped in your brain, so that you can process then and free yourself from pain. You leave the sessions feeling like a load has been lifted off your shoulders, and the memories that have felt unbearably scary, get less and less scary.

Brainspotting can be helpful for:

• People who have experienced trauma.

• People with anxiety or fear.

• Athletes, performers and musicians who are stuck.

• Entrepreneurs who want to get rid of mental blocks that stop them from making important decisions.

Here is a link to anther blog post and video on how brainspotting works.

If you are ready to heal your brain and try brainspotting therapy, click here to schedule a free 15-minute consultation call. I provide brainspotting in Temecula, Murrieta area and brainspotting in Houston, TX. I see clients throughout Texas and California online.