Trauma-Focused Therapy

Heal from painful experiences that continue to impact your present. Trauma-focused therapy uses specialized, evidence-based approaches to help you process traumatic memories and reclaim your sense of safety and peace.

Understanding Trauma

Trauma occurs when an event overwhelms your ability to cope, leaving you feeling helpless, terrified, or threatened. Trauma isn’t just about what happened to you but about how those experiences affected your nervous system, sense of self, and ability to feel safe in the world. What’s traumatic for one person might not be for another, and your experience is valid regardless of how others might perceive the event.

Common traumatic experiences include physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, witnessing violence or death, serious accidents or injuries, natural disasters, medical trauma, childhood neglect, betrayal by trusted people, combat or war exposure, or experiencing discrimination and oppression. Even experiences that seem minor to others can be traumatic if they overwhelmed your coping resources at the time.

Trauma symptoms can persist for years after the event, affecting your relationships, work, physical health, and sense of self. You might experience intrusive memories or nightmares, hypervigilance and exaggerated startle response, emotional numbness or disconnection, difficulty trusting others, shame and self-blame, or physical symptoms like chronic pain or tension. These aren’t signs of weakness but natural responses to overwhelming experiences.

Our Approach to Trauma Healing

Safety First

Before processing trauma, we establish internal and external safety. This includes developing coping skills for managing intense emotions, creating a support system outside therapy, addressing current safety concerns if present, and building capacity to stay grounded when memories arise. You’re always in control of the pacing, and we never push you to discuss things before you’re ready.

Processing Traumatic Memories

Once you feel stable, we use specialized techniques to help process traumatic memories:

• Narrative Exposure: Gradually create a coherent story of what happened, helping your brain file it as past rather than present
• EMDR Processing: Use bilateral stimulation while thinking about the trauma, allowing your brain to reprocess the memory naturally
• Somatic Processing: Work with body sensations and incomplete defensive responses to release trauma stored physically
• Cognitive Restructuring: Challenge self-blame and negative beliefs that developed from trauma

Integration and Growth

As memories lose their charge, focus shifts to:

• Rebuilding trust in yourself and others
• Developing healthy relationships
• Reconnecting with parts of yourself disconnected by trauma
• Finding meaning and post-traumatic growth
• Creating a life not defined by what happened to you

Healing Is Possible

You don’t have to carry the weight of trauma forever. With specialized trauma therapy, memories that once controlled you can become simply part of your past. You can learn to feel safe again, trust again, and create a life not defined by what happened to you. Healing doesn’t mean forgetting, but it does mean freedom from constantly reliving painful experiences.

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Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Master skills for managing intense emotions, improving relationships, and finding balance. DBT combines validation with change strategies, helping you build a life worth living even when emotions feel overwhelming.

What Is DBT?

Dialectical Behavior Therapy was originally developed for people with borderline personality disorder but has proven effective for anyone struggling with emotion regulation, impulsive behaviors, relationship difficulties, or self-destructive patterns. DBT teaches concrete skills for managing distress, regulating emotions, improving relationships, and staying present.

The dialectical part refers to balancing opposites: accepting yourself as you are while working to change, validating emotions while developing new coping strategies, and recognizing truth can exist in multiple seemingly contradictory perspectives. This both/and thinking replaces rigid either/or patterns that keep people stuck.

DBT is structured and skills-based. You learn practical techniques through four modules: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. These aren’t abstract concepts but concrete tools you practice and use in daily life.

The Four DBT Skill Modules

Key DBT Skills

TIPP for Crisis Survival

Fast-acting skills for intense distress:

• Temperature: Change your body temperature with cold water to quickly calm down
• Intense Exercise: Burn off emotional energy through physical activity
• Paced Breathing: Slow breathing to activate your parasympathetic nervous system
• Paired Muscle Relaxation: Tense and release muscles while breathing

DEAR MAN for Asking Effectively

Structure for interpersonal requests:

• Describe the situation objectively
• Express your feelings and opinions
• Assert what you want or need
• Reinforce the positive consequences
• Mindful: Stay focused on your goal
• Appear confident
• Negotiate if needed

Opposite Action

When emotions don’t fit the facts or acting on them would be harmful, do the opposite of your emotional urge. If you’re angry but the anger isn’t justified, act kindly. If you’re anxious about something safe, approach rather than avoid. This isn’t suppressing emotions but changing behavior to change the emotional state.

Who Benefits from DBT

• Borderline personality disorder
• Emotion dysregulation and mood swings
• Self-harm or suicidal thoughts
• Impulsive or self-destructive behaviors
• Chronic feelings of emptiness
• Intense relationship conflicts
• Difficulty managing anger
• Eating disorders with emotional components

Build a Life Worth Living

DBT provides concrete skills that create real change. You’ll learn to ride emotional waves without drowning, survive crises without making things worse, and build relationships that work. These aren’t vague concepts but practical tools you can use immediately when emotions threaten to overwhelm you. With consistent practice, skills that once felt impossible become second nature.

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Internal Family Systems Therapy

Discover the different parts of yourself and learn to lead them with compassion. IFS helps you understand internal conflicts, heal wounded parts, and access your core Self to create internal harmony and healing.

Understanding IFS

Internal Family Systems views the mind as naturally multiple, composed of different parts or sub-personalities, each with its own perspective, feelings, memories, and role. This isn’t pathological but reflects how the psyche organizes itself. Everyone has parts, and these parts developed to help you survive difficult experiences and meet needs.

You might recognize parts in yourself: the critic that judges harshly, the people-pleaser that can’t say no, the perfectionist that drives you relentlessly, or the part that shuts down when overwhelmed. These parts often conflict with each other, creating internal struggles. One part wants to take a risk while another insists on playing safe. One part is angry while another feels guilty about the anger.

IFS doesn’t try to eliminate parts but helps you understand them, heal the wounds they carry, and lead them from your core Self, the essence of who you are characterized by compassion, curiosity, clarity, and calm. When you’re in Self, you can work with parts effectively rather than being overwhelmed or controlled by them.

The Three Types of Parts

The IFS Therapeutic Process

Getting to Know Your Parts

IFS therapy begins by identifying and getting curious about different parts. Rather than judging parts as bad or trying to eliminate them, you learn about their concerns, fears, and positive intentions. Even destructive behaviors come from parts trying to protect you in the only way they know how.

Accessing Self

The goal is to differentiate from parts and access Self, your core essence that can lead the internal system. Self-energy is characterized by the 8 Cs: calmness, clarity, curiosity, compassion, confidence, courage, creativity, and connectedness. When you’re in Self, you naturally know how to work with parts effectively.

Unburdening Exiles

Once protective parts allow access, you can work directly with exiled parts carrying trauma and pain. Through a gentle process, exiles release the burdens they’ve carried, often for decades. When exiles are healed, protective parts can relax because there’s nothing left to protect against.

Internal Leadership

As exiles heal and protective parts relax, Self naturally takes leadership of the internal system. This creates:

• Reduced internal conflict and self-judgment
• Better emotional regulation
• More compassion for yourself and others
• Clearer decision-making
• Greater sense of wholeness and integration
• Freedom from extreme behaviors

Heal Your Internal Family

You contain wisdom, compassion, and healing capacity in your core Self. IFS helps you access this inherent wholeness and use it to heal wounded parts and lead your internal system effectively. When parts are understood, unburdened, and led by Self, internal harmony replaces internal war. You become integrated, with all parts working together toward wellbeing rather than against each other in endless conflict.

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Couples Therapy

Strengthen your relationship, improve communication, and navigate challenges together. Whether you’re facing a crisis or simply want to deepen your connection, couples therapy provides tools and insights to build a healthier partnership.

Why Couples Therapy?

Every relationship encounters challenges. You might be experiencing the same arguments on repeat, feeling disconnected or like roommates rather than partners, struggling with trust after infidelity or betrayal, navigating major life transitions together, dealing with differences in parenting approaches or financial values, or feeling unheard or misunderstood despite trying to communicate.

These struggles don’t mean your relationship is doomed. They’re often signs of deeper patterns and unmet needs that, once understood and addressed, can strengthen rather than destroy your bond. Couples therapy provides a neutral space where both partners can be heard, patterns can be identified, and new ways of relating can be practiced.

You don’t need to wait until the relationship is in crisis. Many couples seek therapy not because things are terrible but because they’re good and they want to keep them that way, prevent small issues from becoming big ones, or deepen intimacy and connection.

Our Approach to Couples Therapy

We integrate evidence-based approaches tailored to your specific needs and relationship dynamics. Therapy typically involves weekly sessions where both partners attend together, though individual sessions may be incorporated when helpful.

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)

The most researched couples therapy approach. EFT helps you understand the emotional bonds and attachment needs driving relationship patterns. When partners feel securely attached, they can weather conflict and maintain intimacy. We help you identify negative cycles, access vulnerable emotions beneath anger or withdrawal, and create new bonding moments that strengthen your connection.

Gottman Method

Based on decades of research into what makes relationships succeed or fail. The Gottman Method focuses on:

• Building love maps: Knowing each other’s inner worlds
• Nurturing fondness and admiration
• Turning toward each other instead of away
• Managing conflict constructively
• Making life dreams come true together
• Creating shared meaning and purpose

Imago Relationship Therapy

Explores how childhood experiences and unmet needs from your family of origin influence partner selection and relationship dynamics. You attract partners who can help you heal old wounds, but without awareness, you often recreate old patterns instead. Imago therapy helps you understand these unconscious dynamics and transform them into opportunities for mutual healing and growth.

Common Issues We Address

• Communication breakdowns and recurring arguments
• Infidelity and trust repair
• Sexual intimacy concerns
• Financial disagreements
• Parenting conflicts
• In-law and extended family issues
• Cultural or religious differences
• Life transitions (marriage, parenthood, retirement)
• Deciding whether to stay together or separate

Invest in Your Relationship

Your relationship is worth fighting for, and couples therapy gives you the tools to fight fair and fight together rather than against each other. Whether you’re in crisis or simply want to strengthen your bond, therapy can help you create the partnership you both deserve. The couples who thrive aren’t those without problems but those who learn to navigate problems together with respect, compassion, and commitment.

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Holistic Healing

Heal mind, body, and spirit together. Holistic healing integrates psychological therapy with attention to physical wellbeing, spiritual practices, and lifestyle factors, recognizing that true wellness requires addressing all dimensions of your being.

The Holistic Approach to Wellness

Holistic healing recognizes that you’re not just a collection of symptoms to treat but a whole person with interconnected physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions. Problems in one area inevitably affect others. Depression impacts physical health, chronic pain affects mood, spiritual disconnection influences motivation, and lifestyle choices shape mental wellbeing.

Traditional therapy often focuses exclusively on psychological symptoms while ignoring how sleep, nutrition, movement, relationships, meaning, and connection contribute to mental health. Holistic healing addresses all these factors simultaneously, creating comprehensive wellness rather than just symptom reduction.

This doesn’t mean rejecting evidence-based therapy or medication when appropriate. Rather, holistic healing integrates these interventions with attention to lifestyle, spirituality, and the wisdom of your own body and intuition.

Dimensions of Holistic Healing

Holistic Healing Practices

Mind-Body Integration

Approaches connecting mental and physical wellbeing:

• Somatic therapy and body awareness practices
• Yoga and movement therapy
• Breathwork and pranayama
• Progressive muscle relaxation
• Mindful eating and nutrition counseling

Spiritual and Meaning-Making Practices

Exploring purpose and connection:

• Values clarification and life purpose work
• Meditation and contemplative practices
• Nature-based healing and ecotherapy
• Ritual and ceremony when culturally appropriate
• Gratitude and compassion practices

Lifestyle Medicine

Addressing foundational wellness factors:

• Sleep hygiene and circadian rhythm optimization
• Anti-inflammatory nutrition patterns
• Regular movement and exercise
• Stress reduction techniques
• Social connection and community involvement

Integration with Conventional Treatment

Holistic healing complements rather than replaces:

• Coordination with psychiatry for medication when helpful
• Collaboration with physicians and other healthcare providers
• Evidence-based psychotherapy as foundation
• Respect for both Western and traditional healing modalities

Whole Person, Whole Healing

True healing addresses every dimension of your being. Holistic healing recognizes that you’re more than your symptoms, honoring the wisdom of your body, the yearning of your spirit, and the complex interplay of factors shaping your wellbeing. By integrating evidence-based therapy with attention to physical health, spiritual meaning, relationships, and lifestyle, holistic healing creates comprehensive wellness that’s sustainable and deeply fulfilling.

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