Trauma Therapy in Columbus, Ohio with Telehealth Available
When life feels like it’s happening to you
Your past may still be shaping your present
Trauma often shows up as a quiet sense that something is off inside you. You may see the good in your life but still feel a pull toward fear or self-doubt. You may try to trust your instincts, yet notice your body signaling danger even when you’re safe.
For others, trauma feels like numbness, a disconnect, or moving through life from a distance. You might question whether what you lived through “counts,” or tell yourself others had it worse. Yet your system still reacts. It still braces. It still carries what it couldn’t process at the time.
Healing begins when what feels confusing inside you finally has space to be understood. If you feel caught between what you know and what your body remembers, trauma therapy can help.
What trauma can feel like in your daily life
Trauma creates patterns that once protected you but now keep you stuck. You may recognize yourself in one of these experiences.
You feel too much
Emotional flooding. Urgency. Feeling on edge. A sense of danger that comes out of nowhere. Intensity that feels out of proportion.
You feel too little
Numbness. Fog. Living on autopilot. Difficulty connecting. Feeling unreal or far away from yourself.
Relationships feel hard
Difficulty trusting. Shutting down or getting overwhelmed in conflict. Feeling abandoned easily, reacting faster than you can understand.
Your body feels unsettled
Sleep issues. GI issues. Headaches. Chronic tension. Symptoms that don’t have a clear medical cause.
Self-worth feels shaky
Believing something is wrong with you. Putting others first until it hurts. Feeling unworthy of love or care. Struggling with boundaries.
Trauma’s imprint on your inner world
When something overwhelming, confusing, or chronically unsupported happens, your nervous system adapts to help you survive it. Sometimes that looks like staying on high alert. Sometimes it looks like going numb. Sometimes it feels like pushing down is needed to keep the peace.
These responses are intelligent; they’re how you learn to stay safe. But over time, they can keep you reacting to the present as if the past is still happening. Trauma therapy helps you understand these patterns, soften the intensity around them, and create space for new ways of responding.
How trauma therapy works with me
Step One: Learning what your system is carrying
We start slowly, noticing the patterns, emotions, and body sensations that still feel active. You do not need to retell every detail. Together, we get curious about what feels unsettled or unfinished.
Step Two:Building steadiness before going deeper
Before touching the roots of your distress, we strengthen your inner support — grounding skills, emotional regulation, and ways of staying connected to yourself when activation comes up. Safety first, always.
Step Three:Working with your underlying wounds
Using approaches like Internal Family Systems, somatic awareness, and (when helpful) EMDR, we explore the parts of you that learned to protect you. We help younger or overwhelmed parts feel understood instead of alone.
Step Four:Letting the shift show up in your daily life
As internal patterns change, you begin to feel more grounded, more connected, and more able to trust yourself. We notice these changes together so they can take root in relationships, in decision-making, and how you move through your days.
Trauma therapy with me is relational and attuned
I don’t rush your process or push your nervous system faster than it’s ready to move.I treat trauma therapy as a partnership between your body, your mind, and the parts of you that learned how to protect you.
I listen closely to your pace. I stay in the moment. I follow your lead rather than what a protocol says we should do.
Many clients tell me they feel grounded, understood, and not alone in their internal world. They describe the work as gentle, intuitive, and clarifying. A place where something inside them finally has room to breathe.
Healing often moves in spirals. You circle back, but not in the same way. Each return brings more insight and internal space. Over time, the patterns loosen, and you begin to feel more like yourself.
Together, we create a relationship where your inner world feels met rather than managed.
Experiences trauma therapy helps address
You might feel drawn to trauma therapy if you’re working through:
Childhood trauma or emotional neglect
Attachment wounds that keep repeating
Anxiety that feels rooted in past experiences
Relational trauma or ruptures
Chronic shame or self-doubt
Numbness or dissociation
Physical symptoms connected to emotional stress
If you recognize yourself in these patterns, your system may be ready for change.
Methods I use
EMDR
Helps your system process experiences that remain stuck so you can respond from the present.
Internal Family Systems
Supports the parts of you that carry pain or fear so you can move toward internal harmony.
What trauma therapy can help you reclaim
Trauma therapy can help you:
Feel more regulated and less overwhelmed
Develop steady, sustainable ways to cope
Rebuild trust in your instincts
Cultivate relationships that feel safe and supportive
Experience more self-worth and self-compassion
Live with greater alignment and confidence
When your inner world feels safer, your external world begins to shift.
Live a life that feels like your own
Find your inner strength and resilience.
FAQS
Trauma therapy questions you might have
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Trauma therapy helps you work through experiences your system has not fully processed. It supports the parts of you that learned to protect you and helps your mind and body respond from the present instead of the past.
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Trauma is anything that was too much, too soon, too fast, or not enough. It is not defined by the event but by the shifts that happened inside you. It often shows up as emotional reactivity, numbness, shame, difficulty regulating feelings, people-pleasing, or fear of abandonment.
These shifts can be experienced in a variety of ways, including:
Low self-esteem
Flashbacks/nightmares
Difficulty focusing
Difficulty regulating your emotions
Fear of being alone, fear of being abandoned
People pleasing and difficulty setting boundaries
Anticipatory fears/phobias
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The length of therapy depends on your history and your goals. Some clients come for a few months. Others stay longer. After your intake, I can offer a clearer sense of what your process may look like. I also enjoy doing intensive work with motivated clients who would like to accelerate the therapy process rather than meet for weekly sessions.
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EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is a psychotherapy technique primarily used to treat trauma-related disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but it has also been applied to other mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, and phobias. You can read more about EMDR on the dedicated EMDR page.