Using techniques like Somatic Experiencing, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy and more, I’m here to guide you through your journey of healing.
If you are feeling weighed down by past traumas from childhood or adulthood, it’s common to feel trapped, leading to struggles with substance use, compulsive behaviors, depression, anxiety, and relationship challenges. But there is hope. Your brain is incredibly resilient, capable of healing and recovering with the right support.
Who Is Trauma Therapy Right For?
Trauma therapy is right for you if you’ve experienced an event — or an ongoing pattern of experiences — that left you feeling unsafe, overwhelmed, or fundamentally changed. This includes single incidents like an accident, assault, or loss, as well as complex or developmental trauma from childhood, addiction in the family, or long-term relational harm. You might be dealing with flashbacks, anxiety, depression, compulsive behaviors, or a persistent sense of being “stuck,” even after years of talk therapy. If your body reacts to stress in ways that feel disproportionate or hard to control — shutting down, panicking, staying on high alert — that’s often trauma living in the nervous system, and it’s exactly what this work addresses.
How Do You Treat Trauma?
I draw from several evidence-based, body-centered modalities, tailored to what you specifically need rather than a one-size-fits-all protocol. This includes Somatic Experiencing, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), NARM, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy for clients who are a fit for that path. Rather than only talking about what happened, these approaches also works directly with how trauma is stored in the body and nervous system — helping you process difficult memories, reduce reactivity, and build a genuine sense of safety, not just intellectual understanding of your trauma.
What Can I Expect From Trauma Therapy?
Sessions are collaborative — you set the pace, and we never move faster than what feels safe. Early sessions typically focus on building resources and stability: grounding skills, nervous system awareness, and trust in our working relationship. From there, we move into deeper processing work, using the specific modality that fits what you’re working through. Healing isn’t linear — it’s normal to have sessions that feel like steady progress and others that feel harder. Over time, most clients notice fewer symptoms, greater capacity to stay present in their bodies, and more ease in relationships.
Why Desert Heart Counseling?
I bring both extensive clinical training and lived understanding to this work — I trained at The Meadows, a nationally recognized trauma and addiction treatment center, alongside leading experts in the field, and I hold certifications in Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, and sex therapy. Trauma and sexuality are deeply connected, and few practices offer integrated expertise in both. My practice is affirming and inclusive of all backgrounds, identities, orientations, and relationship structures, and every client is met without judgment, at whatever pace their healing requires.
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EMDR
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a structured, evidence-based therapy that helps the brain reprocess traumatic memories so they lose their emotional intensity. Using guided eye movements or other bilateral stimulation, EMDR helps memories move from feeling “stuck” and overwhelming to feeling resolved and part of the past.
Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy focuses on the connection between mind and body, recognizing that trauma isn’t only stored in memory — it’s held physically, in muscle tension, breath, and nervous system patterns. Rather than only talking through what happened, somatic work helps you notice and release these physical patterns directly, building lasting safety in the body itself.
Trauma Stored in the Body
Trauma isn’t just a psychological event — it’s a physiological one. Overwhelming experiences can leave the nervous system stuck in patterns of fight, flight, freeze, or shutdown long after the danger has passed, showing up as chronic tension, fatigue, pain, or a persistent sense of unease. Addressing trauma at the body level, not just the narrative level, is often what allows lasting healing to take place.
Nervous System Regulation
Nervous system regulation refers to your ability to move flexibly between states of calm, alertness, and rest, rather than getting stuck in chronic stress or shutdown. Trauma often disrupts this flexibility, leaving people either persistently anxious and on edge or numb and disconnected. Learning to regulate your nervous system — through therapy, somatic awareness, and practice — is often the foundation that makes deeper trauma processing possible.
You don’t have to keep carrying this alone
Reach out today to schedule a free 15-minute consultation. No obligation — just a conversation about whether we might be a good fit.