Therapy for PTSD and Complex Trauma

Trauma therapy here works on two levels: the story you can tell, and the response your body still carries. Many people arrive able to describe their history clearly and still feel persistently overwhelmed, on alert, or shut down. 

This disconnect occurs because challenging experiences are not just stored in your thoughts. They are held as a persistent biological impression within your system. Understanding your story is a necessary start, but recovery requires resolving the internal patterns that keep your past in the present. 

By working at the intersection of where your history meets your current physiological state, I help you update how your system responds to the world today. 

Trauma-Informed Practical Psychotherapy  

My practice combines the immediate, action-oriented tools of practical therapy with a deep understanding of how trauma alters the brain, nervous system, and behavior.  

The therapeutic relationship is a collaborative partnership. Every step of the process is transparent, meaning expectations are clear and there are no surprises. This helps build a foundation of trust from the very first meeting.  

Because this framework values real-world utility, treatment focuses on a blend of somatic (body-based) and behavioral tools rather than relying solely on standard talk therapy:

• Somatic Tracking and Regulation: I use exercises from modalities like Somatic Experiencing or Sensorimotor Psychotherapy to teach you how to recognize a trauma trigger in your physical body (e.g., a racing heart, muscle tightness) and safely calm down your nervous system. 

• Grounding Exercises: These are techniques used to pull you out of a flashback or panic attack and root you back into the present moment.

A Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy Framework 

Present-Focused: The work centers on your current life, immediate challenges, and active symptoms, rather than beginning and ending with childhood history. 

Integrative: No single method fits every history. I draw deliberately from across frameworks, using CBT when symptom relief comes first and interpersonal work when relationships carry the strain, so treatment takes the shape of the person in the room.

Goal-Oriented: Treatment typically operates within a defined timeframe with clear, collaborative benchmarks for success. 

Skill-Building: Between sessions, you practice what we develop in the room, from mindfulness to steadier ways of communicating. 

Trauma and Navigating the Modern Environment

In our current high-stakes, digital world, a sensitized nervous system rarely has the opportunity to settle. My work specifically addresses how constant overstimulation exacerbates these internal patterns. The goal is to move beyond protective stagnation and help you cultivate a steady, resilient presence that can navigate both your internal world and the demands of your professional and personal lives with clarity and efficiency.

A Layered Approach

I use a suite of evidence-based, neurobiologically informed modalities tailored to your specific recovery goals. Each approach serves a distinct functional purpose in resolving how your system holds the past. 

• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is an extensively researched psychotherapy for trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), recommended in the treatment guidelines of the World Health Organization (2013) and the American Psychological Association (2017). Learn more about EMDR.

• The Flash Technique (FT) 

The Flash Technique is a minimally intrusive option that does not require clients to consciously engage with the traumatic memory, and the published case series report processing with minimal distress. Learn more about the Flash Technique.

• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy brings posture, gesture, and movement into the session as information about what the body learned during trauma. Working with those patterns directly, rather than through words alone, opens a second route to change. Learn more about Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.

• Somatic Experiencing (SE)

Somatic Experiencing addresses the physiological residue of overwhelming events, the bracing and shutdown that outlast the memory itself, and is particularly useful for PTSD and early attachment injury. Learn more about Somatic Experiencing.