Trauma & PTSD
Survival was never meant to be a permanent state.
Chani Gerstel, LPC, provides trauma-informed therapy for women and teens at A Wholesome Me in Toms River, New Jersey. The practice welcomes clients from Lakewood, Jackson, and nearby Ocean County communities.
Trauma has a way of living beyond the moment it happened. It shows up in the body, in relationships, in the way you move through the world, in the sense that something is always slightly off even when life looks fine from the outside.
Whether your trauma was a single overwhelming event or something that built slowly over years, your nervous system responded the only way it knew how. At A Wholesome Me, I work gently and skillfully with what your mind and body have been holding, helping you process what happened and reconnect with a sense of safety that feels real, not just practiced.
You might recognize yourself here if you:
- ♡Experience flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, or nightmares
- ♡Feel on edge, hypervigilant, or easily startled
- ♡Go numb, shut down, or disconnect when things feel overwhelming
- ♡Struggle to feel safe in your body or in relationships
- ♡Carry a sense of shame, self-blame, or the feeling that something is fundamentally wrong with you
- ♡Have tried therapy before but still feel like the trauma is living just beneath the surface
Healing from trauma is not about forgetting what happened. It is about no longer being defined or controlled by it.