Trauma Specialist in Los Angeles, California | Online in CA and FL
When Your Body Won't Let You Forget
You understand what happened. You can name the trauma, recognize the patterns, maybe even explain it to others. You may have the intellectual understanding, but physiologically, your body is still living like it's happening.
Your nervous system stays activated - constantly on edge or completely shut down. You might feel jumpy, easily startled, or exhausted from hypervigilance even when you're "safe." Certain situations trigger you in ways you can't predict or control. Maybe you dissociate and check out when things get too intense, or you feel numb and disconnected. You may find yourself stuck in cycles of anxiety or avoidance in relationships, and may struggle to feel worthy of love, consistency, or support.
You may have tried talk therapy, which is important for insight and validation - but many trauma survivors find that talking isn't enough, or that it can even feel re-triggering at times.
This is where embodied trauma therapy comes in.
How Trauma Hijacks Your Nervous System
Trauma isn't just a painful memory. It lives in your physiology and is it's what happens when your nervous system gets stuck in survival mode. When you experienced trauma, your body did exactly what it was designed to do: help you survive through fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses.
But your nervous system doesn't always know the trauma is over. It's still running the old programming, still bracing for threat, still trying to keep you safe.
This might show up as:
Hypervigilance or "waiting for the other shoe to drop"
Emotional flashbacks, intense anxiety or anger, or panic attacks
Dissociation, numbness, mental fogginess
Difficulty trusting yourself or others
Feeling unsafe in your own body
Relationship struggles and attachment issues
Sleep problems, nightmares, insomnia
Feeling "too much," "not enough," or experience feelings of deep shame
You're not broken. Your nervous system is doing exactly what it was trained to do. The work is teaching it that it can finally rest and rewire.
How Trauma Therapy Actually Works
Trauma therapy addresses what's stored in your body and nervous system - not just your conscious mind. In order to heal trauma, you need to understand what happened as well as release what's held in your body.
As a trauma specialist, I integrate both. My approach combines EMDR and Brainspotting (evidence-based trauma processing), somatic and nervous system work (body-based practices for regulation and safety), Trauma Resiliency Model (somatic and practical tools to build resilience), and trauma-informed yoga and meditative practices.
From my perspective, the goal of trauma therapy isn’t just about managing symptoms or being “regulated”, it's about transformation. When you finally move into trauma recovery, you can shift from hypervigilant to grounded, from disconnected to embodied, from stuck in the past to being in the moment, and from self-doubt to self-trust. . This is about reclaiming your body, your nervous system, your sense of safety, and your life.
What I Specialize In
Complex Trauma (C-PTSD) and Developmental Trauma — Repeated trauma, especially in childhood, shapes how you see yourself and the world. We'll work with attachment wounds, emotional flashbacks, dysregulation, shame, and patterns that previously kept you safe but now keep you stuck.
Narcissistic Abuse and Antagonistic Relational Stress — The confusion, self-doubt, self-blame, and hypervigilance from gaslighting, manipulation, and constantly walking on eggshells. We'll work to gain clarity, rebuild self-trust and self love, and help your nervous system learn it's safe to trust yourself and others again.
Sexual Abuse and Assault — Trauma that lives in your body in profound ways. We'll work at your pace and we can work with approaches that don't require retelling details if you don’t want to.
Medical Trauma — Procedures, illnesses, injuries, or medical experiences that left you feeling unsafe, out of control, or betrayed by your body or the healthcare system.
PTSD — Specific traumatic events showing up as flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance, constant edginess. We'll process what's stuck and help your system complete what it couldn't at the time.
The Modalities I Use
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
EMDR helps your brain reprocess traumatic memories and beliefs so they stop feeling overwhelming and intrusive. When trauma happens, the memory can get "stuck" and stored in a way that keeps triggering you as if it's still happening. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (eye movements, sounds, or tactile pulses) to help your brain process and file these memories differently. Memories lose their emotional charge, flashbacks decrease or stop, and your brain and nervous system learn: "That was then. This is now."
EMDR is evidence-based, and has been used effectively for over 25 years. It can be particularly helpful for PTSD, panic, and anxiety. You don't have to describe traumatic details out loud—the processing can happen without retelling the story.
Brainspotting
Brainspotting accesses trauma stored deep in your brain and body by working with specific eye positions that connect to unprocessed pain. By identifying where you look (your "brainspot"), we access parts of your brain where trauma is held, which is often beneath our conscious awareness. This bypasses your thinking mind and lets your brain's natural healing process take over.
During sessions, I track both your neurobiological process and emotional experience, creating a safe connection that helps you process at your own pace. Clients often say Brainspotting feels gentle, intuitive, and open-ended, and can lead to deep, lasting shifts. It's powerful for trauma, anxiety, and overwhelming experiences, especially when words can’t get at the experience.
Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM)
Inspired by Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing method, Trauma Resiliency Model teaches you to understand and regulate your nervous system so you can stay in the "resilient zone” or “window of tolerance.” TRM works with your nervous system directly. You learn to track sensations, notice when you're getting dysregulated, and use practical somatic tools to shift back to regulation.
Trauma-Informed Yoga Practices
As a Certified Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT) with over two decades of experience, I can integrate gentle, trauma-informed body-based practices into our work if it feels right for you. This isn't about "doing yoga” the way you might in a typical yoga class. Together, we can use breath work, meditative techniques, movement, and body awareness as tools for nervous system regulation and to safely reconnect to your body after trauma.
Trauma can disconnect you from your body and you may have learned to dissociate, to not feel, or abandon yourself to survive. Healing requires coming back and learning that your body can be a safe place again. These practices are always optional, at your pace, and trauma-informed. Research shows trauma-informed yoga significantly reduces PTSD, anxiety, and depression symptoms.
How We'll Work Together
This work is collaborative and we start where you are. If your nervous system is very dysregulated, we build your ability to regulate before processing deep trauma. First we create the foundation and a strong relationship, and then we can go deeper. We use what works for you - EMDR, Brainspotting, somatic practices, or traditional talk therapy. There may be some trial and error, but we’ll figure out what your system responds to best.
You're in control. You choose what we work on and the pace. Trauma often involves a loss of control, but this process gives it back. We work with your whole self - body, mind, and spirit. The goal is transformation, and to move from surviving to thriving.
What Trauma Healing Can Give You
You may notice:
Your nervous system settles (less hypervigilance, better sleep, fewer panic attacks)
Emotional flashbacks stop hijacking your life
You can be present instead of constantly bracing
Relationships improve (increased trust, vulnerability, boundaries, communication)
You reconnect with your body as safe
You trust yourself again
You have energy beyond just surviving
You feel like yourself again (or maybe for the first time)
This isn't about returning to who you were before trauma. It's about becoming who you're meant to be now.
A Note About Healing
What I know from years of trauma work is that healing from trauma isn't linear, but you do have the capacity to heal and grow. Your trauma does not have to define you. Some weeks you'll feel amazing, and other times the old stuff will be back “up”, but small shifts build over time.
What I do know is that you deserve to feel safe in your own body, you deserve to trust yourself, and you deserve to reclaim your life.
If you're ready to do this work - or if you want to chat to learn more - please don’t hesitate to reach out.
“I have come to the conclusion that human beings are born with an innate capacity to triumph over trauma. I believe not only that trauma is curable, but that the healing process can be a catalyst for profound awakening—a portal opening to emotional and genuine spiritual transformation. I have little doubt that as individuals, families, communities, and even nations, we have the capacity to learn how to heal and prevent much of the damage done by trauma. In so doing, we will significantly increase our ability to achieve both our individual and collective dreams.”
- Peter Levine
