Trauma Therapy

Trauma

Have you been feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or like something from the past is still affecting your life today?

Trauma doesn’t always come from a single catastrophic event. Sometimes, it’s the slow erosion of safety over time—or unmet needs that leave us feeling unseen or unprotected.

Life is filled with a range of experiences—some joyful and loving, others terrifying and overwhelming, and many that fall somewhere in between. How we navigate these experiences depends on factors like our upbringing, genetics, temperament, and early attachment to caregivers.

I believe we all emerge from childhood with a blend of strengths and competencies (some hidden), coping mechanisms, and, inevitably, some wounds. It’s impossible to live without encountering pain, heartbreak, or hardship—no one is immune to life’s challenges.

And yet, I believe we are all capable of healing from past wounds. We can reclaim parts of ourselves, grow beyond survival, and connect more fully with who we truly are—and were always meant to be.

Understanding Trauma: It’s Not Just the Big Events

Trauma is anything that overwhelms the nervous system beyond its capacity to cope. What feels traumatic to one person may not register the same way for another—there is no universal metric. We live in a culture that often urges us to “just get over it,” which can feel invalidating or shaming. The body's response to trauma is not a choice.

Trauma is not defined by the event—it’s defined by how your nervous system experienced it.

While trauma is often associated with large-scale events—natural disasters, accidents, mass violence, or war—it can also be deeply relational. Developmental trauma, which stems from early relationships (especially with caregivers), often cuts the deepest. When the people who were supposed to love and protect us instead neglect, criticize, abandon, or harm us, it becomes profoundly disorienting.

Examples of developmental trauma include neglect, physical or sexual abuse, abandonment, emotional invalidation, family separation, exposure to addiction, and more.

If we had caregivers who were attuned and supportive, we likely developed internal strengths and resilience. But if our early environment was chaotic or threatening, our nervous system adapted for survival. These early survival strategies, while once essential, often become outdated and no longer serve us in adulthood.  These old unconscious patterns can limit our capacity for connection and joy in the present moment.

How Trauma Might Be Showing Up in Your Life

Unhealthy patterns, emotional overwhelm, or a sense of disconnection from reality can be signs of unresolved trauma. These are not signs of weakness—they’re your nervous system signaling that support is needed.

Someone experiencing trauma may struggle to distinguish the past from the present, often reacting from a survival mode that developed long ago. These patterns may include:

  • Hyperarousal:  when your nervous system feels ‘amped up’.  You might experience anxiety, restlessness, irritability, or a sense of being on edge or unsafe (hypervigilance)
  • Hypoarousal:  when your nervous system feels numb, frozen, or ‘shut down’ (e.g. dissociation, depression, emotional flatness)
  • Flashbacks, avoidance, or out-of-proportion responses to minor triggers

These reactions are not character flaws—they're protective strategies formed under stress.

In therapy, we gently explore these patterns, develop awareness around how they show up in the present, and begin to experiment with new, more empowered responses—all within a safe and supportive relationship.

Why Trauma Affects People Differently

No two people experience trauma the same way. Factors like genetics, attachment history, the age at which the trauma occurred, and the duration or repetition of the experience all influence how someone is affected. Early trauma, in particular, can interrupt key developmental processes.

But here’s the hopeful truth: healing is possible.

How I Help Clients Heal from Trauma

Trauma therapy has come a long way. The old model of cathartically reliving trauma often did more harm than good. Today, we know that true healing requires addressing trauma on multiple levels—thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, and relational experiences.

While talk therapy can be supportive, it’s often not enough on its own. Neuroscience and somatic therapies have shown us how trauma is stored in the body, and we now have more effective ways to help the nervous system complete what it could not resolve at the time of the trauma.

Effective trauma treatment engages the full spectrum of human experience:

  • Cognitive (thoughts and beliefs)
  • Emotional
  • Somatic (bodily sensations, movements and impulses)
  • Spiritual

Trauma therapy typically unfolds in three phases:

Stage One: Safety and Stabilization

Before processing trauma, we focus on creating safety—both internally and externally. This stage includes:

  • Gathering a complete psychosocial history
  • Identifying strengths, internal/external resources, and coping skills
  • Learning strategies to regulate the nervous system
  • Building trust, connection, and rapport

This foundational work allows us to create a therapeutic relationship that becomes a source of healing in itself. Often, the therapy relationship can provide the kind of emotional attunement and repair that was missing early on.

Stage Two: Processing Trauma

In this stage, we begin to process trauma using approaches such as:

  • EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) —a structured method to reprocess unresolved events, negative beliefs, and body sensations affecting your present-day experience.
  • Somatic therapy (drawing from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Hakomi)— tracking physical sensations and body impulses mindfully in the present moment.
  • Attachment-based techniques—approaches that focus on healing early relational wounds by building safe, attuned connection within the therapeutic relationship.
  • Parts Work (informed by Internal Family Systems)—a way of connecting with different ‘parts’ of ourselves that hold emotions, beliefs, or roles shaped by trauma ( such as a critical part, a scared child part or a protector part).

Together, we explore the traumatic material by accessing images, beliefs, emotions, and physical sensations. We work with the “younger parts” that hold the survival strategies— and help them resolve and update their responses.

Healing often occurs when we can revisit traumatic memories with the internal resources and support that were missing at the time. The goal is not to relive trauma, but to resolve it—so that the nervous system can finally recognize that the danger has passed.

Sometimes, this process unfolds quickly. Other times, it requires patience and time, with new layers emerging throughout therapy.

Because developmental trauma occurs within relationships, healing must also happen within the context of safe, supportive relationships. I may offer supportive words or healing messages as we make eye contact—a gentle, reparative experience that honors what was needed but never received.

Stage Three: Integration and Transformation

As trauma resolves, new self-concepts, beliefs, and strengths begin to emerge. We turn our attention to present-day goals, dreams, and relationships—with the past no longer steering the ship.

In this stage, we integrate the healing that has taken place and focus on living more fully, freely, and authentically. It’s here that transformation becomes visible—old patterns fall away, making space for new choices, deeper connection, and renewed possibility.  We focus on your dreams and goals for a future that is now filled with infinite potential.

Moving Forward

Healing is possible—and you don’t have to do it alone.

Whether you’re just beginning to explore your trauma or have done years of inner work, trauma therapy—as described above—can lead to deep, lasting resolution and transformation.

If this resonates with you, I invite you to reach out.  Together, we can begin the healing process.