Trauma Therapy in Livermore, CA + Online Across California
Shaping Your Life Now, at Your Own Pace
connection you choose
$145 per 50-minute session
Online (CA) + in person in Livermore
You know the danger has passed, but somehow your mind and body haven’t gotten the message. Maybe your heart races at a sound, you go quiet or numb in the middle of a conversation, or you suddenly snap at someone you love. Maybe you can name exactly what happened and why. Maybe you can’t, and that makes it even harder to make sense of it all.
Trauma can show up as disconnect: from your body, from your feelings, from yourself, or from the people closest to you. You may have learned to get through things by closing yourself off, staying on guard, or being the one who holds everything together and manages it all, perfectly. These were intelligent ways to survive. But they can also leave you feeling like you’re living at a distance from the life you want. Or even from joy.
Sometimes it can feel as if different parts of you want different things. Maybe one part reaches for closeness while another part pulls away the moment that connection is made or deepened. Maybe a part of you yearns to be acknowledged, yet, when it happens, you find yourself downplaying your role or leadership. Perhaps you have a hard time maintaining stability in jobs or relationships even as you want to build roots.
When these parts pull in different directions, it can feel confusing and exhausting. But the parts themselves aren’t problems to fix. Learning to see them, and how they protected you, can shift your relationship to them. Over time, you can gain new ways of working with them.
My approach is trauma-sensitive, neuro-affirming, and somatic, which means we pay attention to your nervous system as well as your story. You decide how much of your history you tell and when. We move at your body’s pace, building steadiness first so that hard material feels more manageable. Trauma work can also bring up sensations or emotions that you aren’t expecting, and you may feel uncomfortable before you feel more ease. We’ll work through those experiences together.
I’m trained in EMDR, an evidence-based therapy for trauma and PTSD, and I’m completing a complex trauma training with Janina Fisher. I also incorporate parts work. Because I believe trauma can affect us in complex ways and deserves ongoing study, I have been pursuing somatic and trauma-focused trainings since 2017. Here you can see my full list of trainings.
It’s hard to work with people and not, in some form, be working with trauma. I see this work as foundational to everything I do, whether I’m supporting someone with anxiety or living with a chronic condition, a child and their parents, or partners finding their way back to each other. Wherever you’re starting from, you don’t have to put it all into words before we begin, and we’ll work at a pace that feels right for you.
Who I can help
People whose past still shows up in their body, sleep, or reactions
People who feel numb, on edge, or disconnected from themselves
People whose childhood experiences have shaped how they relate to others
People whose trauma is tangled up with a chronic condition or medical experience
People who have tried talking it through and still feel stuck
If you don’t see yourself reflected above but you’re curious about working together, feel free to reach out for a brief chat. If I’m not the best fit for you, I’ll work with you to find someone who is.
FAQs
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We start by building our relationship and a working sense of safety. I frequently ask what has or hasn’t worked for you in the past so that we build on your experience and your strengths. I often include some education about how trauma works because understanding it can help your nervous system settle. Anything I suggest, whether it’s a somatic practice or a coping resource, I explain first. You can say yes, no, or “let’s change it.” Afterward, we’ll talk about how it felt for you. If EMDR is something you want, we’ll work toward it together. You’re in control throughout.
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It’s hard to start, and I want to acknowledge that. It’s also meaningful that you’re here right now, reading this page; perhaps you have some curiosity. I wonder if it can also be hard to be where you are right now, especially if trauma is making daily life feel constrained or if it’s hard to get through your day without being triggered. Either choice is hard. But by starting, you can open the possibility that something will change. Maybe you’ll feel better. Maybe you’ll have more capacity to breathe a little easier, sleep a little easier, go to the grocery store, or go to the movies. And through it all, I’ll be right here with you.
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No. You decide how much of your history you share and when. We’ll start with what’s showing up for you now, including what you notice in your body, thoughts, or feelings, and go from there. You can also say “no” or “pass” at any point, whether it’s to a question I ask, a suggestion I make, or anything I get wrong.
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We name something as traumatic when it overwhelms our ability to process or integrate it. It might be a single event or something that happened over a long period of time. Importantly, how we responded wasn’t a conscious choice. Whatever happened was too much, too fast, or too soon at that time, and our bodies and minds took care of us the best they could. text goes here
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Trauma isn’t always a single event. It can be ongoing or repeated within significant relationships, and it can happen during childhood. Clinicians often call this kind of trauma complex trauma, and when it begins early in childhood it’s sometimes called developmental trauma.
If you adapted early on to experiences like ongoing neglect, harm, or a lack of safety while your sense of self was still forming, those adaptations helped you survive, and I’m so glad they did. You’re here now, building a world of your own. Yet those adaptations can leave effects that show up less like a single memory and more like anxiety, difficulty forming close relationships or feeling safe and seen in them, numbness, or anger. Maybe you can’t shake the sense that you’re not enough, or deep-seated feelings of shame. Maybe self-compassion feels out of reach.
If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s more going on beneath the surface, we can explore it together, at your pace.
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Yes. I see clients in person in Livermore, CA, and online if you’re located in California, whichever works better for you. If you’re not sure which fits, we can talk it through on a free consultation call.
“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”