Trauma Therapy
Chicago, IL
Does this sound like you?
You feel you didn’t get your emotional needs met when you were a child, or you grew up in a stressful or dysfunctional family system.
You feel like you’re barely keeping your head above water because of depression, anxiety, or other mental health symptoms.
You feel like the pressures of people-pleasing, perfectionism, and over-achieving have gotten to be too much.
You feel afraid of disappointing or inconveniencing others, which leads you to avoid setting boundaries, advocating for your needs, or saying no.
You are tired of the pain of unsatisfying relationships, harsh and condemning self-talk, and feelings of emptiness; you’re ready to find freedom.
You’re caught in patterns of substance use, compulsive scrolling, or other distractions to avoid overwhelming feelings.
You don’t have to keep living this way.
There is hope.
Trauma therapy can set you on the path to a more fulfilling life.
How I can help
In the first couple of sessions, we will mostly focus on connecting with each other through conversation and narrative building. Throughout the therapeutic relationship, we will get to know your parts that could stand in the way of processing specific memories.
We will build compassion towards these parts to honor their hard work, then focus on desensitizing and reprocessing negative core beliefs with EMDR.
Sometimes, it would be important to build specific skills for nervous system regulation, including dissociation which is very common with complex trauma. Once you start to feel more confident, we can move from weekly sessions to bi-weekly, and monthly maintenance sessions.
I am always available for direct and honest conversations about the therapy process, so please do not hesitate to bring up your feedback.
Therapy for trauma can help you…
Process and resolve the pain of emotional neglect or abuse, and experience profound healing for your inner child.
Reduce or even completely eliminate symptoms of anxiety or depression, both emotionally and somatically (in your body).
Learn to regulate intense emotions so you no longer feel so out-of-control.
Find relief from the unrelenting pressure of people-pleasing, perfectionism, and overachieving, so that you can live at peace with yourself.
Learn how to set and reinforce boundaries, speak up about your needs and get them met, and say no without guilt.
Cultivate healthy relationships where you can experience love, belonging, safety, and joy, opening the door to a meaningful and deeply satisfying life.
Approaches
EMDR Therapy
EMDR is a trauma-focused technique that utilizes bilateral stimulation or eye movement to help you process trauma, and release it from your body and nervous system. This is a specialized and structured approach to trauma therapy, and research has shown it has tremendous benefits in helping people move from just mentally understanding their trauma to actually experiencing relief in their bodies.
Psychodynamic, Parts & Attachment Work
One of the most fundamental components of healing is learning to engage with your inner child, and other wounded parts of yourself, with acceptance and compassion. This foundation of attachment healing is what enables you to experience secure attachment in other relationships in your life. Through parts work and attachment-based therapy, you can heal your inner child, find relief from the pain of attachment wounds, and develop a deep inner reservoir of self-compassion.
EMDR Intensives
If traditional weekly therapy has not been a good fit for you, if you feel like you’ve gotten stuck and aren’t making progress anymore, or if you are drowning and need relief from symptoms quickly, engaging in an EMDR Intensive may be a good option for you. EMDR in an intensive format allows for sustained focus on processing trauma, which can often lead to faster and deeper breakthroughs compared to weekly sessions.
Click here to learn more.
You’ve carried this pain for so long, but you don’t have to carry it alone...
Let’s work toward the peace you deserve.
FAQs about Trauma Therapy in Illinois
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Trauma can look so different from one person to the next; there is no comprehensive list of experiences that qualify as “traumatic enough to have trauma.” But if you struggle with feelings of anxiety or depression, are stuck in cycles of people-pleasing and perfectionism, have difficulty forming healthy relationships, and have a history of dysfunctional or emotionally painful early relationships or attachment wounds, then it’s likely that you’ve experienced some form of trauma.
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Healing from trauma is a complex process that involves processing the way traumatic experiences have affected your body and your nervous system, learning to connect compassionately with your inner child, and manifesting this healing in how you deal with the issues you’re experiencing in your life today. Having a professionally trained guide like a therapist can be a crucial part of this work.
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Please fill out the form or schedule an appointment on the calendar for a consultation. Please click here.
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That depends. Sometimes, working through trauma can take a long time. Many people begin to see results in 3-6 months of therapy, though it can take much longer before you find complete healing. EMDR Intensives, however, have been shown to provide the same level of healing as traditional therapy, but in a much shorter timeframe—often in as little as weeks, or even days.
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The success of therapy depends on many factors, including how well you are matched with your therapist, how ready you are to do the work, and whether the modality you’re engaging in meets your needs. Just because you tried therapy before and you didn’t get out of it what you wanted doesn’t mean that therapy is not for you. I would love to meet with you to see if we would be a good fit. Sometimes, an EMDR Intensive can be a great way to get “un-stuck” and make lots of progress, if traditional weekly therapy didn’t feel right for you.
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My rate for a traditional 50-minute session is $225. For pricing on EMDR Intensives, please click here.
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I am fully private pay. Choosing to work outside of insurance allows us to focus fully on your healing—not on diagnoses, treatment limits, or what’s deemed “medically necessary” by insurance companies. This creates space for more personalized, depth-oriented work that honors your full story and pace.