Trauma Therapy

You Don't Have to Keep Carrying This

Trauma doesn't always announce itself. Sometimes it shows up as a constant low-level anxiety you can't explain. A relationship pattern you keep repeating no matter how hard you try to stop. A sense of numbness where feeling used to be. A body that braces before it's even threatened. A story you've told yourself for so long — "I'm too sensitive," "I'm broken," "I should be over this by now" — that you've stopped questioning whether it's true.

It is not true. What you're carrying is real. And you don't have to carry it alone.

Trauma therapy is not about reliving the worst moments of your life. It's about gently, carefully, at your pace — helping your nervous system learn that it's safe enough to let go. That the threat has passed. That you are more than what happened to you.

What Trauma Actually Looks Like

When most people think of trauma, they picture a single catastrophic event — a car accident, an assault, a natural disaster. And yes, those experiences cause trauma. But in my practice, I work most often with what clinicians call complex trauma — the kind that accumulates over time, in relationships, in families, in systems that were supposed to protect us but didn't.

Complex trauma can come from:

• Childhood emotional, physical, or sexual abuse or neglect
• Growing up with a parent who struggled with addiction, mental illness, or unpredictable behavior
• Relational trauma — repeated betrayal, control, or harm by an intimate partner
• Systemic and identity-based trauma — racism, homophobia, transphobia, religious harm
• Workplace trauma, including abuse of power and chronic dehumanization
• Medical trauma — frightening diagnoses, traumatic procedures, or feeling dismissed by providers
• Grief and loss, especially when sudden, violent, or disenfranchised

You don't need a diagnosis to have experienced trauma. You don't need a story that sounds "bad enough." If something happened that overwhelmed your capacity to cope — that changed how you see yourself, others, or the world — that is trauma, and it deserves care.

How I Work with Trauma

My approach to trauma therapy is grounded in several evidence-based frameworks, woven together based on what each person actually needs.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is one of the most powerful tools I use. It works by helping the brain process stuck traumatic memories — not by talking about them over and over, but by activating the brain's natural healing system through bilateral stimulation. Many clients are amazed by how much can shift in a relatively short time. I completed advanced training through the EMDR Institute, and it remains one of the most transformative approaches I've encountered in my clinical work. Learn more about EMDR →

Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT) helps clients understand the connections between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that trauma has shaped — and gently begin to rewrite those patterns.

Somatic awareness — attention to where trauma lives in the body — runs through all my trauma work. The body keeps the score, as they say, and healing that doesn't include the body often doesn't fully land. I'll never push you to do anything physical, but I will invite you to notice what's happening in your body alongside what's happening in your mind.

Above all, trauma therapy with me is paced by you. We build safety before we go anywhere difficult. We resource before we process. You are always in the driver's seat.

What to Expect

The first few sessions are dedicated to getting to know you — your history, your patterns, what brought you in, and what you're hoping for. We don't rush toward the hard stuff. In fact, we spend a significant amount of time building what I call your "window of tolerance" — the tools and inner resources that will allow you to approach difficult material without being overwhelmed by it.

As we move into deeper work, sessions might include processing specific memories, exploring the beliefs trauma instilled, working with parts of yourself that developed to cope and protect you, or simply sitting with difficult emotions in a contained, supported way. Every session ends with grounding — you won't leave my office spinning.

Trauma work is not linear. Some weeks feel like breakthroughs; others feel like you've taken a step back. That's not failure — that's healing. I'll help you understand what's happening and trust the process even when it's hard.

You Deserve to Heal

One of the most common things I hear from clients who have experienced trauma is some version of: "I know other people have it worse." Maybe someone told you that. Maybe you told yourself that. Either way, it's a lie trauma tells — a way of keeping you from getting the help you deserve.

Your pain is real. Your history is real. And healing is possible. I've seen it happen, again and again, in this office — with people who walked in convinced they were too broken, too far gone, too complicated. They weren't. Neither are you.

If you're in Pasadena or anywhere in California, I'd love to talk. The first step is a free 15-minute consultation — no paperwork, no pressure, just a conversation.

Related Specialties

• EMDR Therapy — a powerful, evidence-based approach to processing traumatic memories
• PTSD Treatment — specialized care for post-traumatic stress disorder
• Religious Trauma — healing from high-control communities and spiritual abuse
• LGBTQ+ Affirming Therapy — identity-based and systemic trauma with affirming support
• Anxiety Therapy — when trauma shows up as chronic anxiety, hypervigilance, or panic