Trauma Therapy

Whether it’s one or two terrible incidents or a lifetime of shitty circumstances, trauma can leave the body, mind, and nervous system feeling overwhelmed, making it hard to feel safe, connected, or fully alive. At Upward Roots, therapy provides a supportive, relational space to process these experiences and reclaim ease, trust, and resilience.

When Trauma Feels Like “I Can Never Catch My Breath”

Trauma can feel like living in a constant state of bracing, like no matter how hard you try, you can’t quite exhale. When we carry traumatic histories, the unpredictability of life can feel overwhelming and anxiety provoking, leaving us with a deep sense of being out of control.

With healing, trauma becomes part of a chapter in your life, not the whole book. Over time, those experiences can be held with more distance and compassion, allowing you to move toward the future with greater ease and flexibility.

Single-Event Trauma (PTSD)

When most people hear the word “trauma,” they think of big, overwhelming events: accidents, violence, medical emergencies, or sudden loss. These experiences can quickly overwhelm the nervous system, even when help is available in the moment.

Over time, you may begin noticing:

Unexpected flashbacks or intrusive memories
Constant hypervigilance and scanning the environment
Avoiding places, people, or sensations that remind you of the event
Feeling like your personality has changed
Struggling to trust that you’ll be okay

It can feel as though the world is suddenly sharper, scarier, and unpredictable. Therapy helps soften those edges so your brain and body can finally rest.

Ongoing Traumatic Stress (C-PTSD)

Ongoing trauma can create a sense of “Will this ever stop?” or “Why does it keep happening like this?” Instead of experiencing events one at a time, your brain starts predicting a worst-case scenario based on painful patterns from the past.

This may look like:

Feeling like the same painful story keeps happening again and again
Feeling an unfortunate validation when things go wrong (“See? I knew I’d fail.”)
Losing your sense of events on the timeline or your memories blending together
Chronic pain from prolonged fight-flight-freeze activation
A persistently negative bias that assumes rejection, abandonment, or disappointment

When momentary reactions stretch into a constant state of alert, it can feel impossible to be fully present. Trauma therapy provides the space to unravel the past and reconnect with the calm of the present moment.

Childhood or Developmental Trauma (C-PTSD)

Growing up with unpredictable or frightening caregivers shapes how we see ourselves and the world. Attachment patterns develop not because something is “wrong” with you, but because these were intelligent adaptations to unstable environments.

You may recognize yourself in:

Avoidant attachment: Believing you’re only valuable when you perform, and that emotions are unacceptable
Anxious attachment: Feeling unlovable, terrified of abandonment, or constantly seeking reassurance
Disorganized attachment: Being pulled toward people who also feel unsafe, or never relaxing because danger felt routine

Many people with developmental trauma also carry chronic pain that comes from years of having no safe place to rest, digest, or make sense of overwhelming experiences. Every child needs steady, emotionally mature adults to protect them and help them understand the world. When that support is missing, you learn to survive in whatever ways you can.

A common survival tactic is to create a protective Role Self that works hard to keep you safe but, over time, dulls your sense of who you truly are. Hopes for a full and thriving life shrink, and survival becomes the priority.

Some people cope by disappearing into fantasy worlds like books, gaming, or movies, seeking the safety, predictability, and belonging they did not have in real life.

Without inner-child work and compassionate permission to feel, play, and express needs, it becomes incredibly difficult to feel connected and secure in adult relationships. You may even notice moments when you feel like a child again, reacting to a partner as if they’re a caregiver from the past.

Trauma therapy helps you reconnect with the parts of you that were left alone for far too long.

Growth and resilience arise from a safe and supportive space

At Upward Roots: Relational Therapy, trauma therapy is rooted in the belief that your nervous system adapted wisely to what it was given.

When roots grow around rocks, unstable ground, or long seasons of drought, they do not fail. They adapt. Those adaptations are not wrong or pathological. They are intelligent survival responses. In our work, we do not rip out your roots or try to replace who you are. We gently tend to the places where growth was interrupted, strengthen what already exists, and loosen what no longer needs to hold so tightly.

What to Expect in Trauma Therapy Sessions

We will share leadership in setting goals and shaping the direction of our work. I often say:

“I will always have a Plan B for our sessions. And if you have a different Plan A, we will honor your more urgent need.”

My Plan B is to support you in discovering and healing the painful roots of patterns that no longer serve you, especially those shaping how you relate to yourself and others today.

Healing unfolds in seasons. Some sessions may feel like quiet, underground work that strengthens roots, creates stability, and restores safety. Other sessions may bring movement, expansion, creativity, or relief. There may also be times of rest and integration. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is wasted. Each season supports the next.

We will track your nervous system using Window of Tolerance and Polyvagal Theory, choosing regulation strategies that fit what is happening in real time. We may also use imagery to invite in what was missing, giving you the ability to say or do what was not possible or safe at the time.

Each session will begin and end with something that helps bridge what is working in therapy into your daily life, supporting increased confidence and restfulness in and out of sessions.

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Approaches That Meet You Where You Are

Together, we will explore approaches that help you move toward healing, growth, and a renewed sense of hope.

DARe (Dynamic Attachment Re-Patterning Experience) therapy bridges attachment theory and somatic psychotherapy, helping individuals repair attachment wounds while supporting post-traumatic growth. With simple, attuned skills, we’ll meet your core relational needs as they arise, offering corrective experiences to practice and build secure, nurturing, and resilient relationships.

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Reconnecting to Yourself After Trauma

My goal is not to erase your past. It is to help your brain and body remember it with less fear and more self compassion. Together, we update the stories your nervous system tells so it can register safety, connection, and support. Using imagery, movement, breath, posture, and deep relational attunement, we help your system shift from vigilance to groundedness, from surviving to thriving, and from fear to trust.

You deserve a life where your shoulders soften, your breath flows, and your body knows with confidence: I am safe now.

Let Us Help You Heal

My job is not to erase what has happened to you. It is to honor how your parts have kept you alive and to help them finally rest in the fullness of possibilities that is your life now.

We will tend to your roots with care, allowing what no longer needs to brace or protect to soften. Through imagery, movement, body awareness, posture, and conversation, we will support your brain in updating how it remembers the past so it can orient toward safety and connection now.

Healing does not happen all at once. It unfolds in seasons. And with the right conditions, your system knows exactly how to grow. Together, we will investigate and offer your Parts the right conditions to flourish.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Trauma Therapy

Trauma work at Upward Roots addresses the mind and body connection, especially in connection to patterns and relationships. I combine gentle, somatic informed approaches including EMDR, parts work, and nervous system regulation to help you process stored trauma safely. Your body holds onto emotions, it keeps the score, and together we can plant the seeds of releasing what isn’t yours to hold onto. The goal is to reduce the impact of triggers, reclaim safety, and build resilience in your life and relationships
It depends. Now that I've moved into offering Intensive Weekends for Trauma Recovery, I know it's possible for huge life shifts to happen in hours to a few days time. And, in the weekly 50-minute rhythm of therapy, my hope is that multiple times in each session there is a breath or stretch or thought that pops up that feels a little better than when you came in.

For single event trauma, we might work intentionally and with a narrow focus for several weeks or a few months. For a lifetime of small-t traumas, we might work for 6 months to multiple years to a point where while it feels weird for us to stop working together because I've seen so much of your life at that point, when you do leave therapy, your life is one that you could not have imagined possible when we first began. You're confident, assertive, setting boundaries, connecting deeply with friends, and you understand how to navigate your family relationships without feeling like you're a kid every time you go home. You're sleeping well, exercising, and balancing a social life, work, and solo time as well. Whatever your dream is for after therapy, a version of it is possible, and we will find it together as we listen and attune to what arises in our work.
That is 100% okay. I have heard this said many ways in different trainings. Some experts say we don't need to know anything about what we're working on, just that there is change happening. I ask for a snippet, and whatever that means for you that feels safe and perhaps even good to share, to have someone listen with care and interest, I'm all heart ears open. And whatever stays quiet inside, that's okay too.

As someone who freezes and loses my voice on occasion, I might check in if you're trying to share and if there's another part that is scared of what might happen if you say the thing, like if that would make it seem real again in the present. My checking in doesn't mean you have to share, I just want to get to know what/who is deciding what and what not to share.
Yes, mostly. When you have a diagnosed physical ailment with a structural explanation for the pain, we cannot make a broken bone or a clogged artery heal themselves through therapy, and we cannot cure an Autoimmune Disease. However, we can work to reduce the physical pain that is caused by the anxiety and frustration towards the primary pain.

And, if there is no known reason for your physiological pain, then perhaps it is stuck fight-flight-freeze energy, in which there may be a major reduction in symptoms such as less bloating, milder to no headaches, reduced insomnia, return of appetite, weight loss if the gain was a protective strategy.

We'll be open and curious, and when something becomes clear, we'll gently work with whatever shows up as it is willing and able.