Trauma Therapy for Individuals Across Ohio

Compassionate, trauma-informed therapy for all that carry the effects of relationship trauma, childhood trauma, PTSD, substance use, or painful experiences that still feel present.

I should be stronger than this…

You’ve told yourself that what happened is over but your mind, body, and relationships aren’t the same. Trauma can linger by giving anxiety, self-doubt, feeling down, people pleasing, and waiting for the other shoe to drop.

You learned how to survive, but your brain hasn’t figured that out yet.

What once worked doesn’t anymore. And that’s okay - but it can be really frustrating and detrimental. Therapy offers the space to learn our patterns with compassion and without judgement.

A hand emerging from dark water, reaching toward the cloudy sky over a body of water with distant land on the horizon. Things an be difficult, but can get better as we reach out for help from others.

What Is Trauma?

Let’s broaden the idea of what trauma is.

It’s not only the war veteran, a survivor of abuse, or a car accident. These are events that have a clear ‘before and after’ where we can say 'Yes - that was traumatic’, but trauma is much more than an explicit event.

Trauma is what happened with your nervous system during the event itself. Was the nervous system ever able to finish the process and return to baseline? Or did it get stuck in fight/flight/fawn/freeze?

This is why two people can experience the same event but have two different outcomes; one person may not be affected, but the other may suffer with anxiety after words.

A woman holding a piece of paper with a smiling face drawn on it, partially covering her face. The woman's eyes are wide open and her hair is brown. We often wear masks and show others what they want to see instead of how we're truly feeling inside.

How it can effect you

To the untrained eye - it may not be evident that someone experiencing symptoms caused by trauma.

This may look like having anxiety you can’t shake, relationships that keep ending the same way, feeling as if you’re not fully present in life, burnout that a vacation or time-off can’t fix, perfectionism, people pleasing, overworking, trouble sleeping, trouble resting, trouble feeling joy.

What to expect in therapy

There are some core steps that therapists should take when treating trauma in a healthy way.

  • Safety First

  • — Building rapport with your therapist

  • — Increasing coping skills to help regulate your mind & body.

  • Paced Processing

    — You ultimately call the shots - we move through the process as you’re ready to. We make sure you’re equipped with the skills we go.

  • Symptom Relief

    — The goal is to decrease your symptoms. This could look like decreasing anxiety and depression, regulating responses/decreasing lasting effects of flashbacks, increasing social connectivity, increasing ability to experience joy or engaging more in activities you enjoy.

Coping skills are imperative - even if it that phrase causes an eye roll. Yes it can be considered a cliche term, but consider this: You wake up and decide to run a 5k today. Great! But you haven’t trained at all (never ran outside of gym class), don’t have running shoes, and didn’t really eat any meals yesterday - just 5 cups of iced coffee.

How well do you think that 5k is going to go? Wanting to do the work is amazing - but it’s better for the long term (and short term, really) to be a little more prepared. Let’s at least get you some running shoes first!

Green plants growing in a crevice of wet black textured rock. Growth can happen under harsh conditions.

Common Treatment Approaches

A woman with crossed arms, wearing a sleeveless green top, is holding her shoulders with her hands. The image is a close-up of her upper body. This bi-lateral movement helps with regulating our emotions.

EMDR

A gentle, evidence-based therapy that helps your brain process difficult experiences so they no longer feel like they're happening in the present. Sometimes, overwhelming or traumatic events can leave us feeling stuck, causing certain memories, emotions, or situations to trigger intense reactions. EMDR helps your brain "reprocess" these experiences, reducing their emotional impact and creating space for healing. Many people find they feel calmer, more grounded, and better able to move forward without the past continuing to shape their present.

Colorful painted wooden boards with patches of peeling paint and large circular shapes in various colors including yellow, pink, purple, red, green, white, and gray.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

A gentle, compassionate approach to therapy that recognizes we all have different "parts" of ourselves. You may have a part that worries, a part that strives for perfection, a part that avoids difficult emotions, or a part that carries the pain of past experiences. Rather than trying to get rid of these parts, IFS helps you understand them with curiosity and compassion. As you build a stronger connection with your authentic self, these parts can begin to heal, allowing you to feel more balanced, confident, and at peace with yourself.

Open notebook with handwritten notes placed on a wooden surface, with a pen nearby and a blurred white mug in the background. Journaling is an underrated coping skill. We can gain clarity when we sit and process our thoughts and emotions.

Narrative Therapy

Based on the idea that you are not defined by the challenges you've faced or the struggles you're experiencing. Together, we'll explore the stories you've come to believe about yourself and identify the strengths, values, and experiences that may have been overlooked along the way. By creating space for new perspectives, Narrative Therapy can help you reconnect with who you are beyond your pain and build a story that reflects your resilience, growth, and hopes for the future.