Trauma
Trauma-Informed Therapy
Trauma is not only what happened. It is what your mind and body learned to do afterward in order to keep you safe. Those adaptations were intelligent at the time. The difficulty is that they do not switch off on their own, and years later you may find yourself bracing in situations that no longer call for it. Trauma-informed therapy means working with that history at a pace your nervous system can tolerate.
Careful, paced work for people whose past still shapes their present — understanding what survival asked of you, and what it costs to keep doing it.
15 minutes, free, no obligation. Scheduling via Headway.
- Format
- Telehealth
- Available in
- New York State
- Languages
- English & Spanish
- Telehealth throughout New York State
- Therapy in English & Spanish
- Sessions 45–60 minutes
You may be here because
Some of this may sound familiar.
You feel like you have been in survival mode for so long you are not sure what else feels like.
You are calm in a genuine crisis and overwhelmed by ordinary things.
You read rooms and faces constantly, without deciding to.
You struggle to trust people, or you trust too quickly and then brace for it to go wrong.
Parts of your history are hazy, and other parts are too vivid.
You minimize what happened to you because other people had it worse.
Who this may help, and what therapy may explore
Who this may help
- Adults carrying the effects of single-incident or long-term trauma
- People raised in households marked by instability, conflict, or unpredictability
- Clients navigating intergenerational and cultural dimensions of trauma
- People who have never told the full story to anyone
- Clients who want to work on effects and patterns without recounting details
What therapy may explore
- The difference between remembering something and reliving it
- Hypervigilance, numbing, and the states in between
- Why certain situations, tones of voice, or dynamics land so hard
- Grounding and regulation skills you can use before we go anywhere difficult
- Self-blame, shame, and the stories that formed about what it meant about you
- Family, culture, and inherited patterns of coping and silence
- Rebuilding a sense of safety, choice and control in present-day relationships
Karla’s approach
How I work with trauma
Pacing comes first. We build stability and regulation skills before approaching painful material, and we do not move faster than you can stay present for. Being overwhelmed in session is not progress.
You are in control of what you share. You never have to give me a detailed account of what happened in order for the work to be useful — a great deal can be addressed through how it affects you now.
I work from the assumption that your responses made sense. Survival strategies get pathologized often enough elsewhere; here the question is what they were protecting, and whether they are still earning their keep.
Culture and family context matter throughout. What counts as loyalty, what is not discussed, what was expected of you as the oldest or the responsible one — these shape trauma and recovery as much as any single event.
To be clear about scope: I provide trauma-informed psychotherapy. If it becomes apparent that you would be better served by a specific trauma protocol or a higher level of care than weekly outpatient telehealth, I will say so and help you find it.
Approaches that may be drawn on
- Trauma-informed psychotherapy
- DBT-informed distress-tolerance and grounding skills
- Psychodynamic therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Not every approach is used with every client. What we draw on depends on what you are working through and what you find useful — and we talk openly about whether it is helping.
Questions
About trauma-informed therapy.
More general questions about fees, insurance, scheduling and telehealth are answered on the FAQ page.
Will I have to talk about the details of what happened?
Not unless and until you want to. Plenty of meaningful trauma work happens at the level of patterns, reactions and present-day relationships. You set what gets discussed and when.
What does "trauma-informed" actually mean?
It means the work is organized around safety, choice, pacing and collaboration — recognizing that how therapy is conducted matters as much as what is discussed. Practically: I explain what I am doing and why, I check in about pace, and I treat your responses as adaptations rather than defects.
Is telehealth appropriate for trauma work?
For many people, yes — being in your own space can make difficult conversations more manageable, not less. It does require a private setting and a reliable connection. During the consultation we will talk honestly about whether this format fits what you need right now.
Related
Other ways we might work together.
Anxiety Therapy
For minds that run ahead, rehearse conversations, and scan for what could go wrong — therapy that works with the anxiety rather than against it.
Individual Therapy
One-to-one therapy for adults 17 and older — a steady, private place to understand what you have been carrying and decide what you want to do with it.
Family Therapy
Work with the family as a system — roles, loyalties, generational differences, and the conversations that have never quite been possible.
Start with a short conversation.
A 15 minutes consultation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. We can talk about what has been going on and whether this is the right fit.
15 minutes, free, and no obligation to book a session afterward. Scheduling continues on Headway.
- Therapy in English & Spanish
- Telehealth across New York
- Response within two business days