Childhood Trauma Therapy in Connecticut and Virginia

Unhealed childhood trauma will likely show up both internally and in your relationships and various environments. You may find yourself prone to overworking and burnout, attracting “toxic” people, struggling to rest, and repeating frustrating dynamics over and over again. Similarly, unhealed childhood trauma can also look like constantly feeling like you are walking on eggshells around certain people, having difficulty expressing your needs and ideas, having trouble sleeping and eating, and experiencing what feels like extremes in your emotional states: feeling numb at times and very energetic at other times, or resentful and frustrated at certain times and holding back your anger at other times. You may also doubt yourself and have trouble trusting your intuition or your own decision-making capabilities, and similarly you may struggle with low self-esteem, feeling like you don’t deserve kindness. You may find that it is difficult to connect to and identify your feelings, and this “bottling up” of your feelings can sometimes cause even higher levels of stress

Over time, unhealed childhood trauma can make you feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and experience difficulty not only in being kind and loving to yourself, but also in experiencing closeness and intimacy with loved ones who matter deeply to you.

When unaddressed, the long-term effects of childhood trauma can show up in both your emotional health AND your physical health.

Some of these effects can include chronic stress, difficulty expressing or managing anger, challenges and conflicts in close relationships, poor financial health, substance use, and chronic health conditions. Because childhood trauma causes stress from a young age, it impacts the body in a number of ways. When a person grows up living in survival mode, you may continually enter moments where you feel panicked or threatened, though later you may step back and wonder what you were so worried about. Entering this type of cycle over and over again can cause a number of impacts to your overall health and well-being. It is absolutely possible to learn new tools for coping, taking care of yourself, and feeling safe and cared for.

Yes, absolutely! One of the key ingredients to successful childhood trauma therapy is building a strong relationship, and that is definitely possible through online therapy. When we chat during our 15-minute consultation call, we usually go over how online childhood trauma therapy works and ensure it is the right fit for you. It is important to ask yourself: do you have access to a private space? Are you someone who prefers the convenience of meeting online versus needs a separate in-person space?

Through my secure, HIPAA-compliant video portal, meeting online is easy. As a trauma-trained practitioner, we continually pay attention to strategies that allow you to build connection to your body, sensations, and emotions, allowing you to heal and deepen your understanding of yourself. The exciting thing about meeting online is that it makes all of this possible AND more accessible!

It might be, and that can be something we chat about before you commit to anything. Sometimes, those who have experienced childhood trauma have trouble recalling something “specific” and instead mention feeling a lack of safety or security, even a feeling of danger in certain moments or in the presence of certain people. This can be because at a time when you were young, your body learned to cope in ways that were non-verbal, and this is your body’s way of remembering, even if it feels very confusing to you now. It could of course be other things too and we don’t want to rule those out either. This is why I offer a free consultation call before we begin working together to see if what I offer feels like it would work well for what you need in your healing process.

Yes, I do. Childhood trauma comes in many forms and while my focus area tends to be in mother wounding, I also provide childhood trauma therapy with those who, during childhood, experienced emotional neglect, abuse, abandonment or insecure bonds with family members, or family separation and immigration challenges. I also work with those who are children of emotionally immature and/or narcissistic parents.

It’s really disappointing to hear that you have been through judgment and harm from another therapist, especially when that space is supposed to feel safe so that you can grow. Therapy harm is unfortunately not uncommon, even in those with histories of childhood trauma who have sought therapy previously. In these cases, I do strongly recommend setting up a consultation phone call with me here so that we can chat about what you are looking for in childhood trauma therapy. It’s important that your needs and wounds are addressed in a way that offers and honors repair that is healing and justice-oriented for you.

My rate is $200 for a 50-55-minute session.

As an out-of-network provider, I provide something called a Superbill (sort of like an invoice, or a receipt) that you can submit to your insurance company for reimbursement. It may be helpful to verify with your specific insurance company what your out-of-network benefits look like and how much you will get reimbursed for this type of mental health service. Feel free to visit my FAQ page here to see a list of questions I recommend asking your insurance company prior to requesting reimbursement.

I offer online (or virtual) therapy sessions only through a HIPAA-compliant, secure video platform.

At this time, I can only see clients who reside in Connecticut or Virginia due to the limitations of my license.

I do not hold phone or in-person sessions for childhood trauma therapy.

When beginning childhood trauma therapy, I ask that clients meet weekly. This allows us to build a more solid foundation, specifically with safety and trust in our relationship, and stronger coping strategies. We can evaluate whether this continues to work well for you, and adjust the frequency as needed. Due to the collaborative and partnered nature of therapy, it's important that we navigate this together and figure out a cadence that works well for your needs.

Our first 1-4 sessions will likely look a little bit different from other sessions. In these first few sessions we will just begin getting to know each other. I may ask a few more questions about your history, your strengths, and your goals for your own growth.

After this initial period, sessions may begin with a check-in. Sometimes, this check-in can be verbal and sometimes it can be done through art or writing. When we arrive in our space together, I want to support you in feeling oriented and grounded to our space and time and attuned to what you need to feel present and supported. (We can also be creative with it!)

During the bulk of our session, we may focus on a few areas. We may be focusing on a specific need or issue that is going on in your present-day life. Alternatively, we may engage in IFS-specific processing, supporting you to connect to and understand the needs of your parts and how that activates your body in different ways. I may ask you questions like, “what are the qualities of that part?” “When did you learn that this was important for that” “Is there a color, texture, or sensation associated with this experience?” “What is it like to be telling me about this?”

All questions help you delve deeper into your internal experience, developing greater understanding, curiosity, and compassion for yourself.

As we close our sessions, we may have a “check-out.” I may ask where you are emotionally at the close of our time, or we may engage in an activity that helps you re-regulate or re-ground as you prepare to transition to the next stage of your day.

This is an important question, and one that we revisit often as we begin working together. Trauma therapy is not a quick fix, overnight miracle solution, BUT there are ways to know that it is working and helping you on your path to healing.

When we begin trauma therapy together, we start by setting a foundation of safety and building our relationship and trust as partners. This can look like getting to know a little bit about your history, as well as what is pressing to you and what you are noticing in the present.

We may focus on some tasks and activities that allow you to tune into your body with more clarity, helping you to understand what your brain and body are doing when you are more stressed versus more relaxed. This allows you to develop a toolkit for new coping strategies and tools that ground you.

Over time, we start to unpack some of the more in-depth parts of your past. Notice that we only do this once we have more trust, you feel more ready, and you have some tools in place to help you re-connect and regulate.

Through some of the trauma-based modalities I am trained in, we look at what gets in your way, or blocks you from some of your past hurts and build compassion towards that. We slowly delve into the more hurt parts of you.

We then give you resources and look at your strengths, connecting those to the tools you have and allow that to reframe those past wounds differently. You process your past with compassion and distance and then begin reparenting and looking at past versions of you with new perspectives and self-love.

In the beginning, knowing that trauma therapy is working can look as simple as becoming more observant of your surroundings, deepening your emotional vocabulary for yourself, and having increased curiosity about yourself and others. At other times, it may look like needing more rest and feeling more drained because you are tuning into your emotional world more deeply than before. Sometimes, this can feel more intense at the beginning of trauma therapy, and as we build skills that work for you, the intensity will even out over time.

I am so excited to work with you! Please reach out to me on my contact page or book a consult call with me here. I will respond within 48 hours.

Please note that all contacts between Fridays and Sundays will be returned the following Monday.

I can’t wait to meet you!