Trauma Therapy
Trauma isn't only the thing that happened. It's what your nervous system learned from it and kept doing afterwards — long after the danger passed. That's why it can feel so unreasonable from the inside. The reaction is out of proportion to the present moment because it isn't responding to the present moment.
What trauma looks like day to day
Not everyone arrives with a single identifiable event. Trauma also shows up as feeling permanently braced, going numb or far away under stress, sleeping badly, reacting to small things at a size that surprises you, avoiding whole categories of situation, or the sense of being frozen, stuck, or never quite good enough.
Some of what I see comes from severe, obvious events. Plenty comes from things people are quick to minimize — 'it wasn't that bad.' The nervous system doesn't rank experiences the way we do.
How I work with it
I use four methods, chosen for the person and the moment rather than applied as a fixed protocol: EMDR, Flash Technique, EFT and Matrix Reimprinting, and Brainspotting. All four engage the body and brain directly rather than working only through conversation, which is why they often move things that years of talking hasn't.
We don't start at the deepest point. We start by building steadiness — with Attachment-Focused EMDR and Resource Tapping — so that when we go toward the hard material you have somewhere solid to stand.
Formats
Weekly 50-minute sessions, extended 75-minute to 3-hour sessions, and multi-day intensives. In person in Albany; online throughout California and Texas.
What I work with
- Post-traumatic stress and complex trauma
- Childhood trauma and attachment wounds
- Accidents, assaults and other single incidents
- Medical trauma, grief and loss
- Anxiety with trauma underneath it
- The long tail of difficult family dynamics or bullying
Not sure whether what you're carrying counts?
That's a good question for a free 15-minute consultation.