Healing Trauma – You Don’t Have to Do it Alone

With compassion and evidence‑based tools, I help your brain process and move forward from painful memories

Trauma doesn’t define you—and your brain is equipped to heal. Whether you’re dealing with PTSD, dissociation, anxiety, complex trauma, or overwhelming thoughts, I provide supportive in‑person and virtual therapy to help you reclaim your life.

I have designed my therapeutic approach to help you break free from the grip of painful memories and emotional triggers.

I utilize a tailored approach weaving EMDR, EMDR 2.0, Flash-Technique, 4-Blinks, Brainspotting, the Poly-Vagal Theory, and other trauma-informed methods, to assist your brain and body in processing and metabolizing your trauma memories, reducing their power over your life.

Whether it’s a single traumatic event or years of compounded experiences, my personalized approach guides you toward healing, helping you reclaim peace, clarity, and emotional freedom.

For more details on how trauma therapy can help and more information on PTSD, there is more extensive information below:

I see my clients having a renewed sense of hope after treatment--no longer having the event(s) that happened cause the level of suffering they did when starting treatment.

Treating Clients with PTSD

When clients have experienced a traumatic event or series of traumatic events, a special approach is required from a therapist who is trained in trauma-specific modalities and who understands the nuances of surviving traumatic incidents and living with PTSD, complex-PTSD or even dissociative symptoms.

The good news is, your brain has the capacity to heal because of the phenomenon called neuroplasticity (or your brains ability to reorganize).

Not only was I trained in a graduate clinical social work program that was 100% trauma focused, but I have also worked with hundreds of clients who have survived unimaginable traumas.

Single incident trauma treatment responds very well to EMDR and I have helped hundreds of clients regain their life. They have walked in depressed or anxious because of the event they went through and after treatment, they left renewed and more positive about life.

Some examples of single-incident trauma that past clients have sought treatment for include:

Treating Clients with Complex-PTSD

When clients have experienced multiple traumas, a special approach is required from a therapist who is trained to read cues in your body language, provide safety, and is willing to walk with you, at your pace. Your brain has the capacity to heal because of the power of neuroplasticity. I have successfully worked with thousands of hours providing clinical care to those who have survived unimaginable traumas.

During this time, I have also gained experience in effectively treating clients with severe and complex reactions to their trauma memories, including both the assessment and treatment of dissociative symptoms.

Using a combination of protocols and interventions, I have been able to gently help access the most traumatic memories that, once cleared, start opening up possibilities for clients. This is not straight forward and takes patience, intuition, caution and care.

Clients who may not be able to handle or regulate with other clinicians have sought treatment from me. My first priority is always grounding clients to the present and through this, past clients have demonstrated an increased capacity to handle distressing emotions and feelings and memories.

I have done extensive work with clients who don’t have the capacity to seek safety in their body by bringing inventive and creative ways of creating a sense of safety in the present.

From utilizing extensive, genogram trauma treatment planning, to the integration of music and art-based EMDR, to somatic bridges to access implicit memories, ego-state work, child parts work, metaphor work and even (when appropriate) humor, I am willing to dig into my toolbox of treatment protocols to help you live a better quality of life. Its not uncommon for a client who is highly dissociative to leave a session lighter and more grounded with a better understanding of their system and behaviors.

Below are some actual reasons past clients have sought treatment. Please note that this list may be triggering. Please take a deep breath if you feel triggered so that you can ground yourself. The list is intended to show my competency in treating a myriad of reasons someone may develop PTSD, C-PTSD or Dissociative Symptoms.

• Treatment for a car accident that caused a fear of driving or being in a car
• EMDR after witnessing a friend or family member suicide
• Trauma treatment after witnessing death
• Sexual assault survivors: men, women and LGBTQ folks
• Survivors of violent assault
• EMDR after a home invasion
• Living with PTSD from repeated police raids on home
• Therapy for those who have lived through a natural disaster, hurricane, or earthquake
• Road accident therapy
• Medical trauma EMDR
• Overcoming/coping with Misophonia through root analysis and desensitization of triggers and root cause
• EMDR for childbirth trauma
• Life threatening illness or diagnosis EMDR
• Post-suicide attempt EMDR
• EMDR for Betrayal: relationship, work, family
• Little “T” Trauma: displacement due to job loss, loss of family, etc…

• Childhood traumas, including witnessing violence in house
• Incest survivors and witnesses of incest
• Sexual assault
• Institutional abuse survivors: adult survivors of abuse by the “Troubled Teen Industry” (TTI)
• Childhood emotional abuse and neglect
• Survivors of torture: childhood and adult
• Sibling abuse survivors and witnesses
• Domestic violence survivors
• Emotional neglect by caregivers, spouses, family
• Abandonment: childhood and adult
• Religious trauma, including ritual
• Human trafficking trauma survivors and victims
• Immigration trauma: adult and childhood immigration, including current events
• Natural disaster trauma: survivors of Hurricane Andrew, Haiti Earthquake, Surfside Condo Collapse, Hurricane Ian
• Wartime trauma: military members both active and retired
• Wartime trauma: civilian survivors of war
• Medical traumas, including misdiagnosis, newly diagnosed, terminal and chronic diagnoses, and practitioner abuse
• Bullying at home, in school or at work
• Vehicular accidents and the aftermath
• Witnessing death by violence and suicide
• Healthcare trauma: secondary/vicarious trauma
• Betrayal trauma: work and relationship
• Historical and intergenerational trauma
• Long-term survivors of HIV living with survivors guilt
• Survivors guilt: those in recovery from substance abuse
• Ex-incarcerated individuals with repeated prison trauma
• Persons in recovery from severe addiction: processing traumas from when in active addiction
• Work with first generation Americans who experienced discrimination and maltreatment
• Transgender clients processing repeated discrimination, including sexual assault, medical discrimination, family discrimination

"At the moment of trauma, a created state knows nothing except the experience of the trauma." (Watkins & Watkins, Ego States Theory &  Therapy, 1997, P 204)

PTSD – What is it and how is it formally diagnosed?

PTSD is an acronym for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and from the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, 5th Edition (DSM-5) (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). We now use the DSM-5-TR.

Diagnosis for PTSD is given to clients one month after a traumatic event. Prior diagnosis is called “Acute Stress Disorder: 3 days through one month.)

Per the DSM-5 (p. 274),

“PTSD is the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to one or more traumatic events…The clinical presentation of PTSD varies. In some individuals, fear-based re-experiencing, emotional, and behavioral symptoms may predominate. In others, anhedonic [(lacking pleasure)] or dysphoric mood [(uneasy or unsatisfied)] states and negative cognitions may be most distressing. In some other individuals, arousal and reactive-externalizing symptoms are prominent, while in others, dissociative symptoms predominate. Finally, some individuals exhibit combinations of these symptoms.” (5th ed.; DSM-5; p, 274; American Psychiatric Association, 2013)

PTSD can be chronic, meaning clients may have experienced repeated exposure to traumatic events, or the result of a single incident (e.g.: a car accident, witnessing a violent event, or surviving a sexual assault).

There are 8 criterion for PTSD: A-H. In order to be formally diagnosed with PTSD one must meet each of the 8 criterion. A is exposure to or witnessing the traumatic event; B is having symptoms that are intrusive (or distressing); C is actively avoiding reminders of the trauma; D represents negative changes to mood or cognition as a result of the trauma; E represents changes in your arousal levels or the way you react in situations as a result of the trauma; F relates to duration of the time since the event; G relates to distress caused in areas of functioning; and, H reminds the clinician to make sure that your symptoms are not caused by another condition or substance/prescription use.

Additionally, it is possible that you may also be experiencing feeling detached from your body or that your surroundings are not real, like living in a fog. If so, this indicates a specifier is added to your diagnosis.

If you are suffering from witnessing or surviving a traumatic event or events, reach out to a PTSD specialist today.


American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

I have been told time and time again by current and past clients that my patience and willingness to meet trauma survivors where they are, willing to recalibrate when needed, is what has been most helpful in finally experiencing some peace.

Over time, and through therapy, past clients came to see that when their body and brain finally comprehended that the events that happened to them were over, healing was finally possible and symptoms of PTSD reduced, creating relief. This happens not as a race to the finish line but as a well-paced marathon.