Trauma-informed therapy requires specific training and skills, because trauma’s effects can be so pervasive and complex.

Trauma-informed therapy pays particular attention to the mind-body connection and the available capacities (at any given moment) of a traumatized nervous system.

A “traumatized nervous system” most fundamentally describes a nervous system that has adapted to overwhelming threat or stress. Its adaptations prime it to detect (as early as possible) early warning signs of familiar dangers, so that it’s more ready to prepare for safety or defense.

I want you to know right now, this doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. This means your nervous system has been doing exactly what it has evolved to do — to keep you as safe as possible, given what it has learned from life experience.

Yet research has shown that moments of triggering cause real, impactful changes in the brain. When triggered, our critical thinking capacities get inhibited or even completely shut off, so that the brain’s survival functions take priority. Evolutionary wisdom has taught our human brains that critical thinking could slow us down from reacting quickly, and in some cases this is actually true.

However, a traumatized nervous system is chronically anticipating and scanning for threat, because it has learned to believe it needs to always be ready to seek safety and survival strategies. This means trauma survivors might often find that their critical thinking capacities are inhibited or shut down. Their triggered reactions can then strongly influence their perceptions, decisions, and impulses. Traditional talk therapies may not consider this crucial piece of survivors’ needs and experiences.

As a trained trauma therapist, I’ll partner with you to attune to what your nervous system is telling you / us it’s needing. We’ll be intentional in listening for what feels safe enough and within your capacities. You’ll always be asked for your consent, and you’ll never be forced into change or judged. We’ll notice what pieces of education or which skills will seem to best support your needs. We’ll build your capacity for mindful, supportive relationships with all burdened parts of you. You’ll learn to bring more and more healing to those hurt places in you. Your drive for healing and growth will be in the driver’s seat with my full support and advocacy. You’ll grow clearer about what’s impacting you and how you might like to respond, and what tools are available to you.

Did you know there’s a powerful instinct in you that wants you to heal, grow, and feel more whole? It’s always been there, and it’s likely had a central role in inspiring your curiosity about your mental health healing.

Much like how our bodies know how to heal a wound, your psyche and nervous system know how to mend and heal. Sometimes we need to address ways aspects of the personality, psyche, and nervous system have gotten stuck in self-protective stances that might be counterproductive to the healing process that wants to happen.

Somatic therapy is rooted in ancient practices of embodiment and self-inquiry, especially from Eastern contemplative and spiritual traditions. Somatic therapy leverages and cultivates our capacity for mindful inquiry and awareness into the fullness of our experiences as embodied human beings. There’s a great deal of information exchange and communication happening inside of us at all times, and much of it manifests subtly through somatic / bodily inner experiences.

Oftentimes, unconscious psychological material gets reflected in our posture, breath patterns, tension and constriction in our muscles, habits, movement impulses, quality of voice, eye movements, and much more. When we more fully understand the subtle and complex interactions and communications throughout mind-body unity, we are more equipped to recognize what might be interfering with that natural healing force (or organicity) within us. We are then more equipped to cultivate and promote it.

With somatic therapy, you could learn to recognize and unpack even more about aspects of you and your inner experiences. Imagine having insights and tools that help you listen more fully and attentively to more of your whole being, at any given moment. You might become clearer about what’s impacting your current emotional and psychological state. You might have built a toolbox for ways of helping your nervous system and body calm down, stay connected and present, and/or stay more regulated. You might even feel more empowered as you move through the world, with more knowledge and clarity, and perhaps even more sense of choice available to you.

“Parts work” approaches to therapy recognize that we are composed of systems within us – like our nervous system, our circulatory system, and our respiratory system. Did you know we also have a “personality system?”

All systems are composed of components or parts, and systems tend to want to maintain a certain homeostasis. Traditional therapies might not recognize or consider the parts who are less readily visible. They also might over-align with some aspects of clients’ personality systems, while inadvertently alienating other aspects of clients’ personality systems. This tends to un-balance clients’ personality systems, resulting in “rebound” reactions or resistance to therapy. The unbalanced system tends to get even more unsettled, and it desperately tries to re-gain that familiar homeostasis or status quo.

Until the needs and concerns of enough parts of the system are sufficiently addressed and understood, the system as a whole cannot shift in a lasting way. Parts work approaches can help you mindfully and safely work through deeply entrenched inner conflicts and wounds within you that cause recurring stuckness, emotional difficulties, compulsive / addictive / self-sabotaging tendencies, dissociative experiences, and relationship difficulties.

Internal Family Systems (or “IFS”), the most well known parts work modality in the mental health field developed by Richard Schwarz, has become a leading modality of treatment for trauma survivors.

Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (or “TIST”), a parts work model developed by Janina Fisher, blends IFS concepts with cutting edge neuroscience research (especially Structural Dissociation Theory) and somatic frameworks from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.

I practice both IFS and TIST, and I am a TIST-certified (completed Level 3) practitioner and senior trainer for other clinicians.

Over the years, I’ve witnessed these powerful approaches profoundly help clients make sense of highly conflicting and confusing tendencies and aspects of themselves. Clients have become equipped with tools to use their minds and hearts to bring healing and resolution to longstanding emotional wounds. These modalities have helped my clients feel significantly less afraid to face particular aspects of themselves. My clients have felt more in charge of their lives and themselves. I’ve also witnessed clients forming their own roadmaps to guide them towards fuller and lasting healing and change.