Ready to get out of survival mode and feel safe in your own body again?
We’re here for those who feel hyper-vigilant, emotionally exhausted, or burdened by past experiences that continue to intrude on the present. Let us help you process stored trauma, regulate your nervous system, and reclaim a deep sense of peace and agency.
Specialized PTSD and trauma therapy offered in-person in Denver, CO, and virtually throughout Colorado and California.
What is trauma and PTSD?
Trauma is not defined solely by the event itself, but by how your nervous system processed and stored what happened. When an experience overwhelms your ability to cope, your brain and body can remain stuck in a threat response long after the danger has passed.
Trauma and post-traumatic stress present across a spectrum of experiences and symptoms:
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PTSD typically develops after exposure to a single catastrophic event or acute threat where safety was severely compromised. It keeps your autonomic nervous system trapped in high alarm, causing intrusive memories, vivid nightmares, distressing flashbacks, and severe emotional avoidance. Over time, this constant hyper-arousal exhausts your energy and makes everyday life feel profoundly unsafe.
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Unlike single-event trauma, C-PTSD originates from chronic, repeated interpersonal trauma where escape was difficult or impossible—such as ongoing emotional abuse, severe neglect, or long-term domestic instability. This sustained stress deeply shapes your core identity, making it difficult to regulate intense emotions, maintain a positive self-image, or feel safe in close relationships.
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Developmental trauma occurs during critical formative years when a child’s fundamental needs for safety, attunement, and emotional consistency are unmet by primary caregivers. These early wounds often follow you into adulthood, manifesting as chronic boundary challenges, an intense fear of abandonment or engulfment, and a persistent belief that you must earn your right to be loved.
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This form of trauma stems from a sudden, unexpected event—such as a motor vehicle collision, violent assault, natural disaster, or physical crime—that shatters your sense of daily predictability. Even if life was stable prior to the event, your nervous system can struggle to integrate the shock, leaving you with an exaggerated startle response, panic in similar environments, and lingering fear.
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Systemic trauma is the cumulative psychological and physical impact of living within oppressive systems, enduring chronic discrimination, or facing cultural marginalization. When paired with intergenerational trauma—where unhealed grief, hardship, and survival behaviors are passed down through family generations—it creates a complex layer of stress that impacts both individual and community well-being.
Common Symptoms of Trauma & PTSD:
Trauma stores itself directly within the physical body and cognitive loops, holding your entire system in an ongoing state of defense. You might be experiencing trauma if you recognize these patterns:
Hyper-Vigilance & Guarding: Scanning every environment for danger, sitting with your back to the wall, or feeling incapable of letting your physical body fully relax.
Intrusive Memories & Flashbacks: Feeling as though past events are recurring in the present moment, triggered by subtle sensory cues like scents, tones of voice, or specific locations.
Emotional Numbness & Dissociation: Feeling disconnected from your physical body, floating through your day, or feeling unable to access genuine joy and connection.
Body Disconnection: Feeling unsafe inside your own skin, experiencing chronic unexplained physical pain, or holding constant tension in your jaw, neck, and shoulders.
Avoidance Patterns: Structuring your life to avoid specific places, people, conversations, or internal feelings that might trigger distressing memories.
Irritability & Reactivity: Experiencing sudden spikes of rage, intense panic, or an exaggerated startle response to minor daily disruptions.
Deep Shame & Self-Blame: An internalized belief that you are fundamentally damaged, unlovable, or somehow responsible for the overwhelming events of your past.
If any of these sound familiar, you aren’t alone and you don’t have to navigate this yourself.
What does therapy for trauma look like?
Healing from trauma does not require you to dive straight into terrifying details or relive your worst experiences. We prioritize safety and stabilization first, ensuring your nervous system leads the pace. Our collaborative process breaks down into clear, intentional phases:
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We begin by establishing a secure therapeutic relationship and introducing immediate somatic tools to ground your body and calm acute distress.
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We identify your specific triggers, nervous system responses, and protective coping styles, establishing clear boundaries for our clinical work.
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We build your capacity to recognize shifts between fight, flight, freeze, and fawn states, giving you real-time control over your physical reactivity.
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We work together to dismantle internalized self-blame, guilt, and shame, replacing them with self-compassion, agency, and authentic self-worth.
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At a pace your body can tolerate, we utilize evidence-based modalities to safely process unintegrated memories without re-traumatizing your system.
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We reintroduce gentle, safe somatic awareness, helping you feel grounded, present, and comfortable inhabiting your physical body.
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We build a long-term blueprint focused on healthy relationships, meaningful purpose, and navigating future stressors with steady confidence.
How We Treat Trauma:
Our practice was built on years of high-tier clinical experience across intensive, acute, and specialized outpatient settings. We know that trauma responses are not flaws, but brilliant survival mechanisms developed to protect you when life was unsafe.
Our philosophy centers on somatic safety, intentionality, and clinical excellence. We bridge the gap between high-level institutional expertise and warm, personalized outpatient care. We don't view recovery as "fixing what is broken," but as helping you cultivate the self-compassion, somatic resilience, and emotional capacity to feel at home in your body and at peace in your life.
Specific Theories and Interventions
We bring a robust, evidence-based clinical toolkit directly to your sessions. Rather than forcing you into a rigid model, we integrate:
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Trauma-focused CBT helps you identify and re-evaluate unhelpful cognitive patterns—such as internalized self-blame, distorted beliefs about safety, or expecting catastrophic outcomes—that often take root following a traumatic experience. By examining the connection between your thoughts, feelings, and behavioral responses, you learn to challenge harsh self-talk, safely process distressing trauma narratives, and rebuild a grounded sense of personal control.
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ACT shifts the goal of therapy from endlessly running away from painful trauma triggers to expanding your psychological flexibility and emotional capacity. Through mindfulness and values-clarification, ACT teaches you how to untangle yourself from intrusive fear loops and make room for uncomfortable feelings, empowering you to move toward a rich, purposeful life aligned with what matters most to you.
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Because trauma fundamentally alters the body's autonomic baseline, somatic interventions focus on calming a hyper-vigilant nervous system directly through physical grounding tools, breath regulation, and body awareness. These practices teach your body that the danger has passed, shifting you out of chronic "fight, flight, or freeze" states and helping you safely rebuild a sense of physical ease inside your own skin.
FAQs
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No, absolutely not. Effective trauma therapy does not require you to recount every painful detail. Modalities like TF-CBT and somatic therapy allow your brain and body to process stored trauma without forcing you to verbally relive the event, ensuring you never feel overwhelmed.
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Trauma is not defined by how "bad" an event looks from the outside, but by how your nervous system responded to it. If an experience left you feeling helpless, overwhelmed, disconnected, or constantly on edge, it was traumatic for your system—and you deserve support.
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Yes, absolutely. Whether we meet in person at my Denver office or virtually across Colorado and California, we use the exact same evidence-based approaches.
Extensive research confirms that virtual trauma treatment is highly effective. Conducting trauma therapy from your own comfortable environment in Colorado or California can actually help your nervous system feel safer, making somatic grounding tools easier to integrate into real life.
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Single-event trauma stems from one isolated incident (like a crash or natural disaster). Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) develops from repeated, long-term stress—often in childhood or ongoing relationships—affecting how you view yourself, manage emotions, and trust others.
Get in Touch
Whether you have a question, an idea, or just want to say hello, feel free to reach out—we’re here to help.
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