Healing from Trauma: Releasing the Past, Reclaiming Your Life

Trauma therapy helps you process and heal from painful experiences that continue to impact your emotional and physical well-being.

Unlike traditional talk therapy that focuses primarily on current symptoms, trauma therapy addresses the root experiences, whether Big “T” trauma (life-threatening events like abuse or assault), little “t” trauma (chronic emotional neglect, criticism, or unpredictability), or trauma of absence (not receiving the love and validation you needed).

Through approaches like EMDR therapy, psychoanalytic therapy, and the Flash Technique, trauma therapy helps your nervous system release the “stuck” patterns created by these experiences.

You’ll learn to feel safe in your body again, trust yourself and others, set boundaries without guilt, and respond to stress without shutting down or becoming overwhelmed.

Trauma therapy doesn’t erase the past; it breaks the hold it has on your present, so you can finally feel whole and free.

EMDR therapy for anxiety and trauma addresses both conditions simultaneously because they’re often deeply connected.

Trauma, whether from a single event or chronic childhood stress, teaches your nervous system to stay in constant alert mode, which manifests as anxiety.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) helps your brain reprocess the traumatic memories and experiences that created your anxiety response in the first place.

During EMDR sessions, you recall these experiences while following bilateral stimulation (eye movements, taps, or sounds), which helps your brain complete the processing it couldn’t do when the trauma occurred.

As the traumatic memories are reprocessed and lose their emotional charge, the anxiety that stemmed from them naturally decreases.

This is why EMDR for anxiety and trauma is so effective. It doesn’t just teach you to manage anxiety symptoms; it resolves the underlying trauma creating those symptoms.

Clients often report feeling calmer, more grounded, and less reactive to triggers that once caused overwhelming anxiety or panic.

Trauma-based anxiety disorders occur when unresolved trauma creates chronic anxiety patterns. These include generalized an

xiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, social anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), all of which can stem from traumatic experiences.

When you experience trauma, especially in childhood, your nervous system learns to interpret the world as dangerous.

Even after the threat is gone, your body continues operating in survival mode, constantly scanning for danger and triggering anxiety responses.

For example, growing up with emotionally unpredictable parents may create social anxiety in adulthood, or experiencing criticism for mistakes as a child may lead to perfectionism and generalized anxiety.

Understanding trauma-based anxiety disorders is crucial because treating the anxiety symptoms alone (through medication or coping strategies) often provides only temporary relief.

Trauma therapy using EMDR and psychoanalytic approaches addresses the root trauma, which can lead to lasting reduction in anxiety symptoms rather than just symptom management.

No, you don’t need to remember every detail to heal from trauma. 

Many people worry that trauma therapy will require them to recall or relive painful memories in excruciating detail, but that’s not how effective trauma therapy works.

In fact, some memories may remain unclear or fragmented, and that’s okay. Healing begins with what you’re feeling now: the anxiety, self-doubt, relationship difficulties, or emotional overwhelm you’re currently experiencing.

Through EMDR therapy and psychoanalytic work, we can address the impact of trauma even when specific memories are unclear.

Your body holds the memory of what happened, and we work with those feelings and patterns without forcing you to excavate memories you’re not ready to revisit.

Trauma therapy is about creating safety in your nervous system and releasing stuck patterns, not about perfect recall of the past.

This is one of the most common concerns about trauma therapy, and I understand why. You’ve already been carrying so much pain.

The truth is that effective trauma therapy should not leave you feeling raw, retraumatized, or emotionally flooded.

My approach prioritizes safety and stabilization first. Before we process any traumatic material, we establish grounding techniques, build your capacity to regulate your nervous system, and create a sense of safety in the therapeutic relationship.

With EMDR therapy, we can even reprocess trauma without requiring you to talk about it in extensive detail.

Some clients experience temporary emotional discomfort as old wounds surface, but you’ll always have tools to manage it, and we move at your pace.

The goal is integration, not destabilization. You should leave sessions feeling more equipped, not more overwhelmed.

Trauma therapy helps you metabolize pain safely, not relive it endlessly.

Yes, online trauma therapy is as effective as in-person treatment when conducted by a trained trauma therapist.

Research shows that EMDR therapy, psychoanalytic therapy, and other trauma-focused approaches work just as well in virtual settings as they do face-to-face.

I provide online trauma therapy to clients throughout New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.

Many clients actually prefer virtual sessions because processing trauma in the comfort and privacy of your own space can feel safer than sitting in an office or waiting room.

You have immediate access to your own coping resources after sessions, and there’s no commute during which you might feel vulnerable.

The therapeutic relationship, the foundation of healing, remains strong through video sessions.

Whether we meet virtually or in person, the depth of work, safety protocols, and treatment effectiveness remain the same.

The timeline for trauma therapy varies significantly depending on the complexity of your experiences and what you’re hoping to achieve.

Some clients working through a specific traumatic event may see substantial progress in 12-20 sessions with EMDR therapy.

Others healing from complex trauma (chronic childhood neglect, multiple traumatic experiences, or developmental trauma) often benefit from longer-term work,  six months to two years or more.

I also offer EMDR intensives that compress months of processing into 1-3 focused days, which can be particularly effective for specific traumas or when you’re facing time constraints.

Trauma therapy isn’t about rushing through healing; it’s about creating lasting change at a pace that feels safe for your nervous system.

During your free consultation, we’ll discuss what brings you to therapy and you’ll get a sense of my approach and style.

Once we begin working together, we’ll spend the first few sessions gathering background and then collaboratively develop a treatment plan tailored to your specific needs and readiness.

Progress often happens in layers rather than linear improvement.

PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) typically develops after a single or time-limited traumatic event, like an assault, accident, or natural disaster.

Symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, and avoidance of trauma reminders.

Complex trauma (C-PTSD) develops from prolonged or repeated trauma, often during childhood, such as chronic emotional neglect, ongoing abuse, or growing up with emotionally unpredictable caregivers.

C-PTSD includes PTSD symptoms plus additional challenges: difficulty regulating emotions, deep shame or worthlessness, problems with relationships and trust, feeling disconnected from yourself, and patterns of people-pleasing or self-abandonment.

Many high-achieving professionals carry complex trauma without realizing it. They’re successful externally but struggle with self-worth, boundaries, and feeling safe in relationships.

Trauma therapy for C-PTSD often requires longer-term work combining EMDR for specific memories with psychoanalytic therapy to understand and heal relational patterns.

Both conditions are treatable with trauma-informed approaches.

Yes, much of my trauma therapy practice focuses on healing childhood trauma, including emotional neglect, growing up with emotionally unavailable parents, conditional love based on achievement, chronic criticism, and what I call “trauma of absence,”not receiving the love, validation, or emotional attunement you needed as a child.

As someone who discovered my own complex trauma history in adulthood, I understand how confusing it can be to recognize that “it wasn’t that bad” thinking keeps you stuck.

Childhood trauma doesn’t require dramatic abuse to leave lasting wounds.

Growing up in an environment where emotions weren’t talked about, where you had to earn approval through performance, or where your needs were consistently minimized creates patterns that persist into adulthood such as difficulty trusting, chronic self-doubt, relationship struggles, and feeling like you’re never enough.

Trauma therapy helps you heal these early wounds and reclaim your sense of worth.

Yes, trauma therapy often significantly improves relationship difficulties because many relational struggles stem from unresolved trauma.

If you experienced inconsistent love as a child, emotional neglect, or environments where expressing needs felt unsafe, you likely developed protective patterns such as people-pleasing, difficulty setting boundaries, fear of abandonment, choosing unavailable partners, or feeling responsible for others’ emotions.

Trauma therapy helps you understand these patterns, process the experiences that created them, and develop new ways of relating.

Through EMDR and psychoanalytic work, you can heal the wounds that make intimacy feel dangerous and learn to advocate for your needs, trust that you’re worthy of love simply for being yourself, and build relationships where you feel safe, seen, and valued.

Many clients discover that as their trauma heals, their relationships naturally become healthier and more authentic.