You're high achieving woman, albeit anxious and a perfectionist, but that doesn't mean you don't struggle. You've been dealing with medical trauma, trying to figure out how to survive and thrive despite it. While other women you know are busy planning their next step, you achieve and smile, but behind closed doors, you're dealing with a lot of pain. You feel stuck in your medical trauma journey, and you're not sure where to turn.
This is why having a supportive community of other women who can relate to your experience can be beneficial. Joining one of the many women's support groups can seem intimidating because you might not share the exact diagnosis or the same medical trauma as other women. But that doesn't mean they can't understand and provide helpful tips. Do you have questions? Someone else might have an answer.
Having a Community to Explore With
When you take a chance by joining women's support groups, you allow yourself to have a community to explore with. You can explore how you can continue achieving and thriving whilst still facing and dealing with all the pain. Opening yourself up to this community of women who may not share the exact diagnosis but who have been through similar experiences can be enlightening.
It helps you figure out how to have a healthy romantic relationship. They can help you navigate your marriage now that you have this medical trauma to contend with. Even if your life plan is different than you planned, you don't need to feel like you're behind other people. You will hear about the lives of many women who are dealing with medical trauma and still thriving.
Learning How to Advocate for Yourself
What is also important to recognize in a women's support group is that you are not only receiving information but also teaching others. You can learn from other women in the group how to advocate for yourself with your doctors and how to ask others how they do that. You can also teach others in the group how you manage this medical trauma journey.
Gaining Acceptance of Your Medical Trauma
When you try to navigate your medical trauma yourself, it may feel difficult to even consider self-acceptance. It's hard to accept something you don't understand or that feels so foreign. But when you connect with other women, it can be easier to accept your body isn't the only one that's been through this. You can learn how to accept your medical trauma and not feel like you're giving up. Rather you are gaining the strength to accept where you are in your journey.
Leading these groups, there are therapists, such as a medical trauma therapist in Washington, DC, who can give you the tools to work on increasing that daily practice of acceptance. They will support you and the other women in the group with acceptance of your medical trauma while also encouraging you when it comes to taking steps toward growth. The trauma therapist will help you and other members by giving you tools and coping strategies to better understand and deal with your medical trauma.
Chronic Illness or Chronic Pain
Chronic illness or chronic pain can also be a part of your medical trauma journey. You may have had a child, went in for a procedure, or received an unexpected diagnosis. Finding support groups for young adults with chronic illness can really benefit you. You can connect with other women who are going through the pain or the illness and understand what comes with it.
For example, they will understand that you may not be able to do everything that you used to due to your medical condition. But they can also show you how ways to alter your activities or provide tips on how to be more understanding of yourself and your body. You don't have to smile and pretend everything is fine, women in the support group can understand and relate to your chronic illness journey.
Finding Connection
Going through medical trauma can be an isolating experience. That alone is overwhelming. For the new moms who had a traumatic birth, are going through postpartum depression, or postpartum anxiety, and trying to figure out this new identity of motherhood, is a whole other level. Medical trauma to any extent is isolating due to the fact not many people tend to talk about it. It's not easy to find people who can understand what you're going through and can relate. Perinatal and postpartum-related trauma and medical trauma can be especially isolating.
Having a support group of women going through the same or similar experiences is invaluable. It allows you as a new mother to have a community of other mothers to bond with but also to share and connect in their journeys. It's not only a place for support, it's a place where you can be heard and understood. As a new mom, you are going to be navigating a new identity, schedule, and new life. But you don’t have to do it alone. Having a community of other mothers, who share similar experiences can create profound healing and connection. Even if they didn't go through the same scenario you did, knowing another woman understands and is going through a similar experience can be cathartic.
Interested in Finding Support With Online Therapy for Women in Virginia?
You can still achieve and thrive with a medical trauma journey, and you don't have to do it alone. There are women's support groups waiting for you to join them. There are also medical trauma therapists in Washington, DC, like me, that want to support you along the way. Together we can work to heal, accept, and establish a new identity with your medical trauma. At Greater Washington DC and New York City CBT Counseling for Women, I specialize in helping women through medical trauma, birth trauma, and complex trauma to start healing. I want to join you on your journey and help you take the steps to not only survive but thrive. Follow the steps below to get started on your journey to healing.
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Other Mental Health Services Offered at Greater Washington DC and New York City CBT Counseling for Women
You've experienced medical trauma and deserve to feel better. Having a therapist for women in Washington, DC, New York City, Maryland, or Virginia to help you feel validated, heard, and understood can be beneficial. Hi, I'm Kelsey Bates! I specialize in women’s health, which means I offer several mental health services geared toward helping women cope with medical trauma. At Greater Washington DC and New York City CBT Counseling for Women, I offer an array of therapeutic services for anxiety, depression, and PTSD in both Individual and Group counseling settings. I also specialize in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy in addition to CBT.