How to Manage Change in Uncertain Times: Trauma Therapy Can Support You
The past week has marked a major shift in the history of our country, as we start a new presidency. With that change has come a swath of executive orders, immigration raids, and a freeze on federal funding, which has now been rescinded that would have impacted almost everyone in the country. When I think about certain marginalized populations, such as the LGBTQ plus community, immigrant populations, women, and non-dominant privileged groups, my heart empathizes with the undercurrent of fear and uncertainty that is permeating the feelings and actions of many. Some feel fearful that their schools or workplaces could get raided, or that their right to marry, or their right to live peacefully and authentically will not exist any more.
Some are taking action around these issues, such as same-sex couples rushing to the alter in fear that they may lost their right to marry, and schools and businesses creating trainings to protect children and families from raids. Many may be re-identifying safe spaces, allies, or even changing their behaviors in order to maximize their own safety. Some are creating a game plan that includes moving, changing jobs, where they choose to shop, or how they spend their time online. Trauma therapy can be a refuge to process difficult feelings of fear or insecurity.
As therapists at Counseling and Nature Therapy Center, we support engaging in a variety of behaviors that will make you feel more secure about your safety or your standing in an uncertain world. In the face of change that is harmful to us or those we love, we can feel even more acutely like we have less control over our well-being. If you are grieving, fearful, or uncertain about the changes that could impact human rights for yourself and those that you love moving forward, please know that you are not alone. There are safe spaces for you to process, talk through your fears, and to safely create a plan that could impact your well-being moving forward. Here are some steps to take to get more clarity for yourself to take action in ways that support you living your most honest and safe existence.
Identify Your Support Systems
The first thing that we can do to try to make ourselves feel more safe and more secure is to identify our support systems. Find out who you can trust, who you can lean on, and who might be able to either lend an emotional support or be there for you as you try to navigate the uncertainty that you're faced with. Your therapist, friends, and family are a good start.
2. Create a Safety Plan
The second thing to do is to identify what you can and cannot control. What is out of your control and what is in your control? If there are things that you can do that are within your control to make you feel more safe and more secure, by all means do it. If there are things that are outside of your control, lean on your support system and express our feelings of grief and give compassion to ourself when we are feeling lost and overwhelmed.
Create a variety of realistic plans, a plan A, a plan B, and a plan C, that could help support your goals, lifestyle or identity, even when we're not sure what might be around the corner. Know your legal rights and the rights of your loved ones. Know what threats to those legal rights could be imminent, and the legal processes required to actually be stripped of those rights. Take action that is within your power and safety. Advocate to keep your rights. If you are past the point of advocacy, identify ways of being in the world that will protect your safety. Change aspects of your life that are necessary. You can talk through all of this in confidence in trauma therapy.
3. Take Action
Going back to what is in and outside of your control. Are there ways to advocate for change in society? Now that you are aware of your rights and legal protections and how those might be under attack, are there ways you can advocate for change? Email, call or write your representatives, attend or organize a protest, donate and support charitable or advocacy organizations. If these actions start to feel unsafe, maybe you are pouring love and support into your community. Engaging in self-support also allows your cup to be filled for others. Self-care, managing your mental health, and giving yourself love and compassion can also help support those around you. Even small acts of love and care can go a long way.
For Teens: Navigating Change When Everything Feels Upside-Down
Change can feel huge when you’re a teen—switching schools, moving friend groups, feeling like the world around you is shifting. If you’ve experienced more than “normal” stress—say big losses, family upheaval, or identity changes—then what you’re going through may tie into deeper themes of healing and growth. That’s where trauma therapy can help—supporting you in sorting the emotional ground beneath your feet.
If you’re living in or around Frisco, Texas, know that counseling for teens is available and is designed especially for what you are living through. Here are three teen-friendly steps to manage change:
Anchor Yourself in What You Can Control. Maybe you can’t pick exactly how your home life shifts or who ends up in your classes—but you can pick one small daily routine (a walk, music time, texting a friend) that grounds you. In trauma therapy, we call this stabilizing your nervous system.
Name How You Feel. Big changes often bring complicated emotions: anger, confusion, grief, relief, guilt. It’s okay—and healthy—to give those words. In a teen counseling session, you’ll learn how labeling feelings helps them lose their power to run you.
Reach Out—Don’t Lock In. If you’ve been in trauma therapy or are thinking about it, one core idea is connection. Changing circumstances can make you feel isolated. A trusted friend, a school counselor, or a teen-therapist in Frisco can help you reclaim some certainty: someone who will listen, not judge.
For Parents: Supporting Your Teen When Change Looms
As a parent of a teen in uncertain times, you might feel the shift in the ground beneath your feet too—maybe it’s a new job for you, a move, remote school, identity questions, or community stressors. Your teen picks up on all of this, even when they don’t say it. If your teen is engaging in trauma therapy or you’re looking into counseling for teens in Frisco, Texas, your support can make a vital difference. Here’s how:
Offer Stability Amid the Shift. While you can’t always control what life throws your way, you can provide anchors: regular meals, a consistent check-in time, a safe space to talk. For a teen undergoing change, that consistency helps regulate the nervous system—it’s trauma-informed parenting in action.
Encourage Open Conversation—And Respect Silence. Let your teen know you notice the change, you’re ready to talk when they are—and you’re okay if they don’t want to talk. Sometimes the process begins quietly. In teen counseling, the space to either speak or not speak is respected.
Normalize the Use of Professional Support. If your teen is going into trauma therapy or you’re seeking counseling for teens in Frisco—communicate that this is a strength. It’s not a sign of failure or weakness. It’s a proactive step toward coping, healing, and thriving.
Mind Your Own Response. Teens watch—intently. When they see you adapt to change with compassion, when they observe you seeking help, taking breaks, processing emotions—they learn it’s okay. That modelling matters more than perfection.
