Trauma therapy in Cedar City & Online trauma counseling across Utah
Find relief from trauma.
Discover self compassion and joy in life.
Stop white-knuckling life
Do you often struggle with feelings of loneliness? Perhaps you switch between being completely overwhelmed and feeling numb. Hiding your true thoughts, emotions, and needs has become second nature. You may have memories that disrupt your focus and affect your mood, making it hard to engage with the world around you. Trusting others feels risky, so you’re cautious about forming new connections. While self-protection can shield you from harm, it can also leave you feeling isolated and disconnected. Trauma, whether recent or past, creates emotional distance from ourselves and others, making it difficult to feel fully alive and connected.
Types of Trauma I Help Clients Heal From:
Specific Events: These may include traumatic incidents such as sexual assault, divorce, or physical injury.
Chronic Stressful Interactions: Repeated painful interactions over time—like ongoing social rejection, family conflict, or neglect—can deeply affect emotional well-being and sense of self.
Absence of Key Emotional Needs: Sometimes, trauma isn’t what happened, but rather what didn’t—like a lack of acceptance, emotional safety, security, or love in childhood or important relationships.
“Humans suffer from an endless number of emotional problems and challenges, most of these can be traced to early developmental and shock trauma”
—Laurence Heller
Healing from Trauma: Rediscovering Connection, Joy, and Self-Compassion
Healing from trauma isn’t about reaching perfection or “fixing” yourself. True trauma recovery is about reclaiming your sense of aliveness, nurturing meaningful connections, and finding curiosity and joy in everyday life. It’s about embracing presence rather than striving for constant calm. Trauma therapy provides a path to feeling grounded, connected, and genuinely at ease in your life. Instead of staying in survival mode, trauma therapy helps you reclaim experiences that were once inaccessible due to pain and overwhelm.
How Trauma Therapy Works
Are you tired of just "getting through" life? Many people minimize the emotional pain they carry, often "white-knuckling" their way through each day. Unlike physical injuries, which are visible and often treated immediately, emotional and interpersonal trauma can feel invisible and isolating, making it difficult to seek support. By exploring this page, you’re already taking a courageous first step toward healing.
Trauma therapy can help you:
Move beyond "autopilot" and start feeling more connected to yourself and your life.
Learn to feel emotions without being overwhelmed, helping you respond thoughtfully rather than react automatically.
Become aware of the nuanced ways that you’ve kept yourself safe in the past.
Shift your relationship with past experiences to open up new choices beyond merely enduring.
Transition from survival mode to a life filled with authenticity, joy, and meaningful connections.
Why Trauma Therapy Doesn’t Mean Reliving the Past
In trauma therapy, the focus isn’t on reliving traumatic events. Instead, we focus on:
Examining current thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in a safe, supportive environment.
Understanding how past experiences impact your present, so you can gain more control.
Learning to feel emotions without being overwhelmed, creating space for genuine self-connection in the mind and body.
Experiencing a safe therapeutic relationship, with the potential of processing relational dynamics in the moment, which can build awareness of relational patterns and help clients move towards secure attachment.
This approach empowers you to reshape the influence of your past, giving you greater control over your present and future.
Specialized Trauma Therapy Techniques I Use:
NARM and EMDR: I have advanced training in NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) to address both shock and developmental trauma, including complex PTSD and relational trauma.
Mindfulness and Somatic Techniques: I integrate mindfulness and somatic practices to help clients process their trauma in an embodied way, promoting deeper healing and awareness.
Attachment-Focused Therapy: By coming from a relational and attachment informed lens, I support clients in developing more secure, fulfilling relationships with themselves and others.
As a licensed therapist in Cedar City and online across Utah, I am here to help you move through trauma and live a fuller, more deeply authentic life.
Therapy for trauma can help you...
Quiet the interal noise & create space for yourself.
Stop silencing yourself.
Get to the heart of symptoms.
Confidently feel your emotions & experience your life.
Reconnct to your heart.
Find peace, joy, laughter, and connection.
Frequently asked questions about trauma therapy
FAQs
-
The duration of trauma therapy varies for each person, as everyone's wounds and resources are unique. How long it takes depends on what you bring to therapy—both your internal strengths and the challenges you're facing. In general, the processing of deep trauma takes time, patience, and trust in yourself and your therapist.
Trauma therapy helps you practice feeling emotions in ways that don't overwhelm you. Once you trust yourself to manage difficult emotions, the work becomes less intimidating. Remember, in trauma therapy, going slow is going fast. Jumping into processing major trauma before you’re ready can be retraumatizing, like diving into the deep end of a pool without knowing how to swim. Instead, we take things step by step, gradually working from the shallow end to deeper waters with support and guidance.
-
Trauma therapy is challenging because trauma deeply affects how you see yourself and interact with the world. The pain and emotional impact can be profound, making it overwhelming to confront. Trauma can also affect your ability to trust, both in others and in yourself, which is crucial for the healing process.
Before diving into the core of traumatic experiences, it's essential to build a foundation of trust with your therapist and, more importantly, within yourself. This process can be difficult, especially when trauma has disrupted your sense of safety and self. Trauma therapy is a 'here and now' process, meaning that learning to feel safe in the present moment is a vital part of healing. Overcoming these barriers is what makes trauma therapy hard, but it's also what makes it transformative and ultimately rewarding.
-
Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) is a form of trauma that results from repeated, long-term exposure to relational and emotional trauma, often where the individual has little control or hope of escape. Unlike PTSD, which can develop after a single traumatic event involving a life-threatening situation, C-PTSD arises from ongoing experiences that threaten one's sense of self.
These threats can come from various sources, such as chronic emotional neglect, repeated invalidation of feelings, growing up in a tense or conflict-ridden environment, or experiencing ongoing abuse. While single incidents might seem small on their own, the cumulative impact of these experiences can lead to lasting trauma.
Symptoms of C-PTSD often include difficulty managing emotions, feelings of worthlessness, and a distorted self-image. Individuals may struggle to form and maintain healthy relationships and often experience a constant sense of fear or hypervigilance.
-
Yes, trauma therapy can be effectively conducted online. Using secure video conferencing, you can receive the same confidential and effective support from the comfort of your own home. Online therapy is especially helpful for those in remote areas or with busy schedules.
-
NARM (NeuroAffective Relational Model) is a therapy approach focusing on the connection between mind and body. Unlike traditional trauma therapies that focus on the traumatic event itself, NARM addresses the impact of trauma on your identity and relational patterns, helping you reconnect with your authentic self.