Speaking Trauma
After a sudden, traumatic death such as suicide, death due to drug use, homicide, or COVID, those bereaving are often left with both the heavy burden of grief and images that can feel haunting and overwhelming. Other feelings, such as guilt, anger, and profound sorrow can be accompanied by isolation and depression. When put together, these feelings can feel unbearable to hold alone.
Other types of losses, such as the end of a relationship, a job or changes in life circumstances can be equally painful, requiring those grieving to be heard and supported by someone who will not judge the difficult feelings that often come with loss. Learning skills to help navigate grief after loss and changes in life can make all the difference when trying to get out of bed each day.
If you would like a confidential, safe space to share your grief with an experienced trauma therapist, please call or email.
What We Do
For Adults
Professional support for adults struggling with grief and trauma. Get help learning to process your emotions.
For Couples
Everyone processes grief and trauma differently. Strengthen your bond as you navigate this journey together.
For Families
The loss of a loved one affects all members of the family. We help you understand and process the grief.
The Support You Need to Process Your Grief and Trauma
At Speaking Trauma, we give adults, couples and families the support they need to process feelings associated with grief and trauma. We discuss how to process emotions such as anger, guilt, and sorrow, as well as how to navigate the haunting images that often accompany a sudden or traumatic loss.
We help you strengthen your relationship with the deceased, bringing them into the healing process through imaginative conversations. If you’ve experienced a loss, know that help is available and you’re not alone. Reach out to Speaking Trauma today.
Meet Our Team
Laura Takacs
Thank you for your interest in working together.
With over 15 years’ experience helping people navigate trauma, loss, and grief, including processing the death of a loved one or changes in identity and core beliefs as a result of loss, people come to me to have conversations they are not able to have with others in their lives. I provide a safe, non-judgmental space to share painful and difficult feelings, such as anger and guilt, and allow a place and opportunity for clients to experience their grief in a way that feels authentic and real.
Because loss and the grief that follows is experienced by all of us at one time or another, I, too, have experienced profound grief after a loss. Because of this shared experience, I have always enjoyed working with others who have experienced loss, assisting them in navigating their grief to continue to live a life they want to lead.
I draw upon evidence-based practices, including CBT, Narrative and Exposure Therapy, and Mindfulness, while remaining client-centered. Understanding that exploring painful pasts or current losses can be frightening and overwhelming, therefore, it is important to me that my work is done at a pace my clients are able to manage, process, and control.
My professional career includes working with veterans and active military, first responders, refugees, torture survivors, teachers and school counselors, university and school-aged students, nursing facility staff and residents, and community members in emotional crisis and distress.
Hanna Kokko
Working with people around death, dying, grief, and loss has been a lifelong passion for me. Through both personal experience and professional knowledge, I have gained tremendous patience for the grieving process and have a deep compassion for both those who are ill and dying and the friends and family who survive them. Through my time as an individual and group therapist working with sudden and traumatic death, I have come to understand the sensitive and uniquely painful challenges that often accompany the loss.
My goals in helping you include creating a safe and empowering environment for you to express and work through your grief in the many ways in which it may arise. My interest in holding this space with and for you stems from personal experience as a client in need of grief therapy and recognizing the power of bearing witness to grief with someone who is caring, knowledgeable, and kind.
Some of my formal training includes a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington in Sociology and Psychology and a Master of Social Work degree from Seattle University.
When not working, I can often be found spending time with family, friends, and pets, walking in nature, and traveling.
Baylee Petersen
My own experiences with loss and grief, coupled with my professional experience working in Hospice, has underscored my capability of working with those grieving loss. Through these experiences, my approach to therapy has been profoundly impacted. As a 2nd year graduate student in Social Work, with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, my education has also contributed to my skill and understanding of how to support those who are grieving many types of loss, including, the loss loved ones, loss felt when changes in life occur, loss of identify, autonomy and feelings of safety.
I provide client-centered therapy drawing from a number of evidence-based approaches, including, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Internal Family Systems, Narrative and Exposure therapies and Mindfulness. Regardless of the approach I use, I am always focused on where my clients wish to go and encourage exploration of areas they may feel are difficult to approach, however, are ready to explore. For all clients, there is no judgment, the space I provide is always safe and we walk through the grief together.
When not working, you can find me with my family, in the outdoors or spending time painting.
