Trauma Therapy
Through trauma therapy, we can help you heal and move forward.
Evenings and Weekend Appointments Available Online and In-Person
Does It Feel Like You’re Merely Surviving—Not Thriving?
Whether you are new to therapy or you’ve been in and out of counseling for years, you may be wondering why you’re caught up in the all-too-familiar patterns of disconnection, resentment, tension, and anxiety. When these feelings take hold, it can start to seem like they have their hooks in you, causing you to become easily overwhelmed and reactive. As a result, you may find yourself falling into coping behaviors—like workaholism, excessive worry, or substance use—that may have been effective at one time but are now no longer working.
But why do you feel this way? After all, you are clearly successful in just about every aspect of your life, able to meet deadlines, manage responsibilities, and “show up” in the ways that are expected of you.
Yet beneath the surface, you’re drained and burnt out, struggling to find joy and motivation even in the relationships and activities that were a source of great comfort. You may feel desperate to maintain intimacy and closeness with those around you, but you just don’t know how. This is a painful, confusing place to be, and you may be left wondering what, exactly, is at the root of your distress.
There Is An Answer To Your Pain
The reason you feel this way is simple: it’s trauma. Something happened, maybe recently or maybe long ago, that caused you to fly into survival mode, doubt yourself and your relationships, and develop stress responses that have stopped working.
At Flourish Mindset Marriage and Family Therapy, our therapists view our clients’ struggles from a trauma lens, acknowledging the ways in which upsetting core experiences result in feelings of panic, anxiety, overwhelm, and relationship conflict—even well after the experience has taken place. Working together through the counseling process, we can help you understand what clarity and growth look like for you on the path to healing.
Take the next step. Reach out today!
Trauma Doesn’t Always Look Like Catastrophe
Trauma can be a hard thing to name or identify. In fact, many clients come to therapy not because some single big, life-changing event has occurred but because something just feels “off”—they’re anxious, depressed, or dysfunctional. Moreover, their relationships are suffering from unhealthy patterns and attachments. Solutions that may have worked for them in the past are not having the same desired results this time around. They often feel “stuck” or caught up in an emotional response that robs them of their joy, energy, and zeal for life.
If this describes your experience, we want to assure you that there is nothing wrong with you or how you’re handling your stress. After all, the world seems to be an increasingly traumatic place to live, between its endless cycle of worsening news, political uncertainty, and global unrest. And if you’re already subjected to systemic obstacles based on your race, gender, status, and/or orientation, then layers of individual and generational trauma are all the more present for you.
It is not your fault that the stress no longer feels manageable, and in fact, you are right at home among the millions of Americans who live with trauma. Like them, you have important needs that have not been met for whatever reason—but, fortunately, no matter how deep or painful your trauma is, it is possible to find long-term healing and relief through therapy.
At Flourish Mindset Marriage And Family Therapy, We View Clients’ Struggles Holistically And Through The Lens Of Trauma
Our trauma therapy process is both collaborative and holistic. Working with an experienced, empathic therapist, you will explore and uncover the patterns, beliefs, and emotions that have developed from a traumatic experience. Such experiences may have occurred recently or a long time ago, and they can span everything from big, defining events to ongoing or subtle stressors that have shaped the ways that you relate to yourself and others.
Our services are available to children, teens, and adults. And this process is entirely individualized to clients’ needs and goals. We will do everything we can to ensure therapy is as gentle and effective as possible.
What To Expect
Our therapists are not about checking off a clinical checklist; rather, we use early counseling sessions to explore your history, core needs and values, and relationship to trauma. Goals are created early on to help track progress and integrate insights, adjusted as needed to your unique nervous system and evolving sense of self.
As a trauma-informed practice, we pride ourselves on using the most effective, scientifically-backed treatment methods available, proven to address and resolve trauma at its core without perpetuating further harm.
Some of these methods include:
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) - uses bilateral eye movements to stimulate both sides of the brain, thereby creating new neural pathways for memories that were once upsetting or disturbing
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy and IFS-informed EMDR – identifies, heals, and integrates the various “parts” that make up the individual, including protective mechanisms that were put in place following a trauma
Somatic-Based and Mindfulness-Based interventions – by learning skills to calm the nervous system, past and future traumas can be healed more quickly and thoroughly
Each of these methods is safe to use in therapy, regardless of age and complexity of trauma.
What You’ll Gain
Through this process, you are likely to develop new skills and insights that will ultimately improve your life for the better. As you learn how to identify the ways in which past experiences shape your relationship with yourself, your body, and the other people in your life today, you can build a toolkit for emotional resilience, reconnect to a sense of safety and security, and adjust your stress response. You’re also likely to find that your relationships with others improve as you better understand your attachments and relationship blueprint.
No matter how you feel about the past, you deserve to feel peaceful and fulfilled—even if what happened to you isn’t “that bad” or you’ve been living in survival mode for years. Our therapists have watched as countless clients have transformed their trauma into insight and connection through counseling, and we know that healing is possible for you too.
Common Questions About Treatment For Trauma And PTSD…
I’ve already tried addressing my trauma in therapy in the past, but it didn’t work—how will counseling through your practice be any different?
At Flourish Mindset Marriage and Family Therapy, our approach goes beyond just talking through your trauma with a therapist. Rather, we use highly researched practices that get to the heart of the matter, addressing trauma on the neurological level and actually changing how your body responds to stress.
Not only does this kind of individualized support provide immediate relief from acute symptoms—it fosters sustained long-term healing.
Is trauma treatment worth the cost?
While therapy is no doubt an investment, it’s an investment in your overall quality of life and relationships. Our therapists know you don’t have all the time in the world to spend in counseling, so we work to get to the root of your pain quickly with the goal of becoming dependent on yourself—not therapy—to help manage stress.
If you’re still not convinced that therapy is worth the investment of your time and resources, then we encourage you to think of your trauma like an injury; if you had a physical impairment you didn’t treat with the appropriate interventions, then the injury would likely continue to hurt or heal incorrectly. Trauma is similar—the more you put off a complete healing process, the more you risk doing further damage to yourself and your relationships.
Do your therapists have experience working with specific traumas and/or PTSD?
Yes. As a trauma-informed, culturally responsive practice, we take great measures to ensure that every client feels safe and supported in therapy, no matter their background. We are trained to work with a wide range of identities and presenting concerns, including those who identify as LGBTQ+, BIPOC, or high-achieving professionals struggling with burnout, perfectionism, and relational stress.
Our therapists understand that trauma does not happen in a vacuum; it’s shaped by systems of oppression, privilege, and expectation. And a lot of us have experienced our own trauma on the path to self-understanding and fulfillment.
You Are Not What Happened To You
Flourish Mindset Marriage and Family Therapy is a trauma-informed practice that offers holistic, evidence-based treatment methods to clients struggling with painful symptoms, patterns, and self-beliefs. For more information or to schedule a consultation with one of our trauma therapists, contact us.
Trauma Therapists
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Michelle Shegda
Michelle is an Associate Professional Clinical Counselor & Associate Marriage and Family Therapist who specializes in helping teens and young adults navigating identity, stress, depression, anxiety, trauma or family conflict. She draws upon her nearly two decades of experience leading youth development and comprehensive sex education programs, empowering young people to build healthy relationships, navigate identity formation, and develop life skills grounded in self-efficacy and resilience. her background working with athletes gives her a unique perspective and action oriented approach that often invcprotate movement in her sessions.
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Emily Chou
ASSOCIATE THERAPIST
Emily is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist supervised by Hanna Stensby. She specializes in the assessment and treatment of children ages 0-5 who have experienced trauma and/or developmental delays. She has experience working with a variety of traumatic experiences with older children and teens including grief, anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation, PTSD, traumatic loss and separation, attachment disruptions and difficulties, and child abuse and neglect.
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Savannah Jaouhari
LICENSED THERAPIST
Savannah is an Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. She uses a combination of therapeutic approaches, including Person-centered, Somatic experiencing, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Gestalt, and The Gottman Method, and works with children (ages 5+), adolescents, and families facing eating disorders, trauma, and racial bullying.
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Freyja Lentz
ASSOCIATE THERAPIST
Freyja is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist supervised by Hanna Stensby. She specializes in helping her clients heal from trauma using Attachment-focused therapy, Somatic experiencing, DBT EMDR therapy, narrative therapy, and Parts work (IFS informed). Freyja supports teens and children who are struggling to navigate the transition into adolescence, have undergone traumatic experiences, ADHD and neurodivergence.
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Christina Hourany
ASSOCIATE THERAPIST
Christina is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist supervised by Hanna Stensby she specializes in couples therapy, pre-marital therapy. She uses EMDR Therapy to help clients recovering from toxic relationships, intimate partner violence, navigating ADHD complex trauma, relational trauma, childhood trauma, and sexual trauma.ption goes here
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HANNA STENSBY
FOUNDER & THERAPIST
Hanna is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Founder of Flourish Mindset. She specializes in complex trauma and helps people heal from past traumatic experiences that may be impacting their functioning in life and relationships using EMDR therapy and a holistic trauma informed approach.
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