Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy | Marin County Psychologist
Do you struggle with regulating your nervous system?
Do you find that your body reacts before your mind understands what is happening?
Many people who seek therapy are living with the lingering effects of trauma. Trauma can shape how we experience our bodies, relationships, sexuality, and sense of safety in the world.
Trauma-informed psychotherapy recognizes that symptoms such as anxiety, emotional overwhelm, dissociation, or difficulty trusting others are often adaptive responses to past experiences rather than signs that something is wrong with you.
In my work as a trauma-informed psychologist in Marin County, therapy focuses on helping clients rebuild a sense of safety within themselves and in relationship with others.
This process often involves learning how to understand and regulate the nervous system so that the body no longer feels like it must stay in survival mode.
What Is Trauma-Informed Therapy?
Trauma-informed psychotherapy is a therapeutic approach that recognizes how trauma can affect the nervous system, emotional regulation, and the ability to feel safe in one's own body and relationships.
Rather than asking “What is wrong with you?”, trauma-informed therapy asks:
“What happened to you, and how has your nervous system learned to survive it?”
This perspective allows therapy to move away from shame and toward compassion, curiosity, and healing.
Trauma-informed therapy is grounded in several core principles:
Safety
Creating a therapeutic environment where clients feel physically and emotionally safe is the foundation of trauma healing. Therapy proceeds at a pace that respects the nervous system and the client’s readiness.
Trust and Collaboration
Healing trauma requires a strong therapeutic relationship. Therapy is collaborative, respectful, and grounded in mutual trust.
Empowerment
Trauma can leave people feeling powerless. Trauma-informed therapy helps clients reconnect with their agency, voice, and ability to make choices aligned with their wellbeing.
Choice and Autonomy
Clients are encouraged to move at their own pace. You remain in control of the therapeutic process.
Cultural Awareness
Trauma does not occur in isolation. Social context, identity, culture, and systemic factors all influence how trauma is experienced and healed.
How Trauma Affects the Nervous System
Trauma is not only a psychological experience. It is also a physiological one.
When the brain perceives threat, the nervous system activates the body's survival responses: fight, flight, freeze, or collapse. These responses are designed to protect us.
However, when trauma is repeated, overwhelming, or unresolved, the nervous system may remain stuck in patterns of survival.
This can lead to experiences such as:
• chronic anxiety or hypervigilance
• emotional overwhelm or reactivity
• difficulty relaxing or feeling safe
• dissociation or numbness
• problems with trust and intimacy
• difficulty regulating emotions
• feeling disconnected from the body
Trauma therapy helps the nervous system learn that the danger has passed and that it is safe to return to a more regulated state.
My Approach to Trauma Therapy
My work integrates trauma-informed psychotherapy with approaches that support both psychological insight and nervous system regulation, including:
• depth-oriented psychotherapy
• EMDR therapy
• somatic and embodiment-based practices
• nervous system education and regulation skills
• relational and attachment-based therapy
Many clients discover that healing trauma is not only about processing past experiences. It is also about relearning how to feel safe in one's own body and present in relationships.
This work can lead to greater emotional regulation, deeper connection, and a renewed sense of vitality and aliveness.
Trauma Therapy in Marin County and the San Francisco Bay Area
I offer trauma-informed psychotherapy for adults seeking deeper healing from past experiences.
Sessions are available:
• in person in Marin County
• online for clients located in California, Colorado, and Oregon