A Therapist’s Perspective on Trauma and Change – Interview with Psychotherapist, Kimberly Krasowski
- Mar 23
- 6 min read
Kimberly Krasowski, LMHC, CAGS, CAATP, is a trauma-informed psychotherapist who helps individuals navigate anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, and the lasting impact of abuse. She believes healing happens when people feel safe enough to explore their experiences and reconnect with themselves. Her work is grounded in both clinical expertise and authentic human connection. Kimberly is the founder of Beacon EMDR and Mental Health Services, where she supports clients in creating meaningful, lasting change.
Kimberly Krasowski, Psychotherapist
What sets your therapy services apart, and why do clients choose to work with you for transformation?
What sets my therapy services apart is that I show up as a real human being in my office. I’m not a “blank slate” therapist who sits silently behind my notepad or computer, taking notes. I believe wholeheartedly in the power of human connection. I understand how healing it can be to connect to another person, so I bring authenticity to my work. I laugh with clients, I swear with clients, I’m open and transparent when it’s appropriate and warranted, and I’m direct when I feel the client really needs this.
My approach to working with others is deeply relational and humanistic. It’s extremely important to me that I understand my clients’ perspectives on their experiences. I want to meet them where they are, not where I believe they “should” be. I use a variety of modalities to tailor therapy to each person's needs.
My empathy and understanding for others are informed by my own life experiences. Like many people, I have met trauma face to face more times than I would like, but these traumatic moments helped shape me into the therapy provider I am today. I have a deep commitment to helping others grow from their pain, as I know beautiful things can lie ahead for us. Because of my experiences, I have a strong understanding of the complexities of trauma, abuse, and grief. Although I don’t discuss my life experiences openly, I believe my clients know I understand them on a deeper level from what I say. They often tell me they feel relaxed in my presence and immediately sense there is no judgment.
What does “doing the work” actually mean in therapy?
“Doing the work” means being willing to sit in session with your therapist and “get comfortable being uncomfortable”. It’s being willing to look at yourself honestly, feel difficult emotions instead of avoiding them, and practicing what you learn outside of therapy sessions in your daily life.
What impact have you seen on your clients’ lives after completing therapy with you, and how do you measure that success?
The impact that I’ve seen on my clients’ lives includes symptom reduction for sure, but has also involved genuine, lasting changes in various aspects of their lives. I think one of the major impacts is how they view themselves, others, and the larger world. Many clients come to me feeling overwhelmed with life, detached from their emotions, dysregulated, unsure of their identity, and confused as to how to move forward. At the end of treatment, there is often increased self-awareness, emotional regulation, and a stronger sense of who they are and their future goals. They’re better able to express their needs and are establishing healthy boundaries that foster self-respect. For those clients who are healing from abuse and trauma, there are notable improvements in nervous system regulation, and triggers are no longer as intense.
I evaluate progress through both outcome measures, such as formal rating tools for anxiety and depression, and through more nuanced, internal shifts clients experience. I listen for changes in language in how clients speak about themselves – whether they’re applying more self-compassion, increasing positive self-statements, and viewing situations from different perspectives.
Clients sometimes ask me, “When do I know that I’m ready to end therapy?” This is different for everyone! Ultimately, therapy ends when there have been significant improvements in how clients handle problems, they’re consistently using the tools they’ve learned, and they express confidence and trust in their abilities moving forward. They also verbalize an improvement in mood and overall outlook on life.
What role do you believe emotional regulation plays in the healing process, and how do you integrate that into your work?
I believe that emotional regulation is at the heart of the healing process. When someone has experienced trauma, their nervous system often shifts into survival mode. If there are repeated traumas or the person lives in constant physical and/or emotional chaos, their nervous system may stay in this survival mode, which involves hypervigilance, shutting down, or oscillating between the two. Before we can process trauma safely and effectively, the person’s body needs to relearn what it is like to feel in control, grounded, and present in this moment, as opposed to orienting to the past or future.
In my work with clients, I integrate emotional regulation throughout each phase of therapy, particularly in Phase 2 (the preparation phase) of EMDR. I help clients identify and strengthen their internal resources through learning and using grounding exercises, somatic tools, breathwork, and imagery tools, which help the person to build their capacity to feel emotions and remain present. Clients feel safe in the moment to experience the emotion without spiraling out of control or becoming derailed.
By the time we’re ready to start an EMDR processing session, clients have “tools” to use both inside and outside of therapy sessions. These tools help in the overall processing that occurs, but also help the client in their daily lives when opportunities test them (and we know life is going to test them). Emotional regulation builds the bridge between surviving and healing and thriving.
What do you believe people misunderstand most about trauma, and how does your work help shift those misconceptions?
One of the biggest misconceptions about trauma is that it’s caused by only catastrophic events. This is actually not the case. Trauma is less about the sequence of events that occurred and more about how the experience was stored in the mind and body. Two people can live through the same exact experience, have different perceptions of what occurred, and respond differently to the experience. Neither is wrong.
Another misconception is that trauma is something that a person “gets over” with time. Some people still subscribe to the old saying of “Time heals all wounds”. Many of my clients are frustrated that they experienced something in their younger years, they’ve “carried” the experience with them throughout their life, and it impacts them in the present day. Trauma is not a failure on the part of the person. The nervous system is doing what it knows it is supposed to do – keep the person safe; therefore, it keeps the person hypervigilant, or it shuts down. In my therapy sessions with clients, I normalize trauma responses for clients. We shift language from “What’s wrong with me?” or “I’m broken” to “What happened to me for my body to respond this way?”
Trauma-informed approaches, including EMDR, help clients in processing experiences in a way that enables the mind and body to integrate them more adaptively. It can be fascinating to watch the process unfold. Over time, clients report that their triggers are not as intense on a scale of 0-10. They begin to shift their mindset – where a negative cognition once held extreme power and control over a person, a positive cognition has been installed, ultimately allowing their behavior to be more adaptive moving forward.
Carl Jung, a psychologist, once said, “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become”. This quote has always been particularly meaningful to me, and I share it with others in the hopes of teaching that we are not defined by our traumas.
What is one small but powerful shift people can make today to improve their mental health?
One small but powerful shift people can make right in this moment is to start noticing how they speak to themselves or about themselves to others. Many people are extremely critical of themselves and say things through their inner monologue that they would never think of saying to a person they care about. A cognitive-behavioral approach to therapy emphasizes the importance of understanding how our thoughts impact our feelings, which then impact our behavior. The negative and hypercritical self-statements lead to anxiety and depression. We can build our self-awareness around when we’re making these types of statements and when we notice it, pause, and reframe the thought. The reframed thought doesn’t have to be glowingly positive; it just needs to be more adaptive and helpful. It can also be beneficial to ask yourself, “Would I say this to my child? To someone else I love?” By reframing, we’re giving ourselves more compassion. It’s a small adjustment, but this small adjustment can have a powerful impact!
What is something you have learned from your clients?
I’ve learned that many of the patterns that people struggle with make absolute sense in the context of what they have experienced. On the surface, behavior can appear dysfunctional, but as you dig a bit deeper, the behavior can actually be a response to adaptation.
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