Therapy for PTSD & Complex Trauma

Have you spent years in talk therapy and reached a point where you understand your history perfectly, yet you still feel a persistent sense of being overwhelmed, hyper-vigilant, 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, specialized 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.

Trauma-Informed Practical Psychotherapy Framework 

Present-Focused: This work centers on your current life situation, immediate challenges, and active symptoms rather than focusing exclusively on childhood history. 

Integrative: Practitioners rarely stick to just one school of thought. They actively blend tools from different frameworks—such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for symptom relief and interpersonal tools for relationship building—to best fit your specific needs. 

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

Skill-Building: A major component involves "homework" where you practice coping mechanisms, mindfulness techniques, or communication strategies between sessions. 

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 a method of psychotherapy that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These studies have consistently found that EMDR effectively decreases/ eliminates the symptoms of PTSD for the majority of clients, as well as alleviating other associated symptoms such as anxiety. 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. This allows for processing traumatic memories without feeling distress.  

FT may be used as an adjunctive intervention to make a variety of trauma-informed psychotherapies quicker and better tolerated. Learn more about the Flash Technique.

• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Unconscious attitudes are brought to consciousness where they can be examined, understood, and changed. This gentle therapy helps clients to process thoughts, emotions and body-based experiences related to trauma in a safe and mindful manner. By learning to pay close attention to internal experience, people can decrease symptoms and reclaim authority over their lives. Learn more about Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.

• Somatic Experiencing (SE)

The Somatic Experiencing approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma. Learn more about Somatic Experiencing.