Dr. Karol Darsa is a licensed psychologist specializing in the treatment of trauma. She is the founder and executive director of Reconnect Integrative Trauma Treatment Centers, which she established in Los Angeles in 2014. Dr. Darsa co-created The Invisible War Recovery Program, an intensive trauma treatment program for veterans suffering from military sexual trauma. The program was inspired by the Academy Award-nominated documentary The Invisible War. Katie Couric featured Dr. Darsa on her nationally syndicated show, and Dr. Darsa was also featured on an episode of The Doctors where she helped a woman who’d lost her legs in a traumatic car accident by providing treatment at her trauma treatment center in Los Angeles.

In today’s episode, Dr. Darsa shares her journey into this field, and what inspired her book, The Trauma Map. She started her career 22 years ago working with foster children as a social worker. The work impacted her deeply, and over the years she learned how to be empathic but not to get that involved so that she could remain impartial not get burned out. She noticed there wasn’t a center or clinic that offered only trauma work, and eight years ago she decided to open her own center. Dr. Darsa’s vision was to create a place where people could come in every day and work on their trauma, where they could begin to understood the importance of how trauma affected them. She’s created a holistic approach to healing, and through her approach people begin to really see themselves as whole. As Dr. Darsa shares, when you treat someone as a whole person, they’re able to understand the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual components of trauma, and how it all works together. She aims to reduce any sense of self-blame, and remind her patients that they’re doing their best, through education and care. Her goal is to create an environment that allows you to feel cared for and loved, to help people become more connected to themselves, and if she can help more people to be less self-blaming and more self-loving, she would fulfill her sense of purpose and passion in life.

“My goal is to give them this village, my goal is to help them feel the care and love that they have not received in their childhood. This is what inspired me to open my center, the Reconnect Integrative Trauma Treatment Center.”

— Dr. Karol Darsa

Tune in on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7bZHrtjAzbksbLWNaak1NM

Tune in on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stories-of-inspiring-joy/id1510488632

To learn more about Dr. Darsa, her work, and her book visit her website ReconnectCenter.com. and on Facebook Karol Darsa Reconnect or Reconnect Center and on Instagram: thetraumamap or reconnectcenter and you can find The Trauma Map: Five Steps to Reconnect with Yourself is available via Amazon

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here.