Trauma Therapy for Empaths & Helpers

Highly sensitive woman drinking coffee, looking exhausted from burnout and anxiety

You’re functioning — but barely.

On the outside, you may seem composed, capable, even successful. But inside, you're exhausted. You're constantly second-guessing yourself, overextending for others, or walking on eggshells just to keep the peace.

And deep down, you’re wondering:

Why does it feel so hard just to be ME?

Trauma doesn’t always look like a single defining event. Sometimes, it’s the accumulation of emotional injuries — shame, neglect, betrayal, unmet needs — that quietly shape how you see yourself and relate to the world.

How Trauma Shows Up in Your Daily Life

You’d be surprised just how trauma leaves its mark in all arenas of your life. Unresolved trauma isn’t always so obvious — there are so many other expressions of trauma than panic attacks.

Here are the various ways unprocessed trauma might be straining your life:

In Your Personal Life

  • Constant guilt or shame, even when you’ve done nothing wrong

  • Feeling numb, disconnected, or like you’re “too much”/”too little

  • Chronic burnout from always being “ON

  • Always in survival mode, never truly at ease

In Your Relationships

  • Difficulty setting or maintaining healthy boundaries

  • People-pleasing or over-functioning to avoid conflict or criticism

  • Feeling resentful (and then feeling BAD that you do bc you "shouldn’t”)

  • Difficulty trusting others — relationships are transactional or avoided

In Your Work & Professional Ambitions

  • Perfectionism that paralyzes you

  • Imposter syndrome, no matter how qualified you are

  • Overworking to prove your worth (while downplaying your accomplishments)

  • Feeling like you're never doing "enough"

These patterns aren’t signs that something is seriously wrong or bad with you. To survive what once felt unsafe, overwhelming, or out of control, your mind and body created cages to protect you. These protective strategies were very useful and very much needed…back then.

It’s just that those very same cages are now keeping you TRAPPED, especially when the outside world now is actually safe enough to come out and explore.

It’s time for your body to heal opening the cage door with the key that’s actually within your body.

 

What is Trauma Therapy?

In sessions, I help you find your key by sorting through all the STUFF you’ve accumulated to make yourself comfortable (as much as possible) in that tiny cage that you’ve outgrown.

We take a look at the various areas of your life that have been affected by trauma, starting with the most urgent areas.

(Think of an emergency room — we are triaging by prioritizing what needs critical care to stop the bleeding, and eventually preparing for the essential surgeries that address the deeper issues that caused those surface problems in the first place.)

Trauma therapy is less about the HOW and more about the WHAT — what’s hurting, what’s being avoided, and what you’ve carried for far too long.

Trauma therapy helps you reconnect with your inner wisdom, learn how to regulate your nervous system, and finally feel safe in your own body and life.

(Click here to learn more about Brainspotting, the HOW people heal from trauma.)

Who I Help

Empathic adult with flowers on her arm learning how to get in touch with her inner beauty.

I specialize in working with:



What I Help With

Therapy for perfectionism, people-pleasing, and emotional overwhelm

Single-incident Traumas

  • Car accidents

  • Sports injury

  • Medical trauma

    Complex PTSD

  • Childhood Emotional Neglect/Abuse

  • Relational trauma

  • Attachment wounds

    Effects of Trauma

  • Shame, guilt, and self-blame

  • Anxiety and chronic stress

  • Panic attacks

  • Burnout and emotional fatigue

  • Identity loss and self-worth struggles


If you’ve ever felt like you’re “too much,” “not enough,” or invisible unless you’re performing/helping others — this space is for you.

You Deserve a Safe Space to Heal

Decorative. Joanne sits in a chair in a office designed to help Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) to heal from emotional wounds and trauma

Our therapy sessions are designed to help you:

  • Understand the roots of your current struggles

  • Learn how to help your nervous system settle & rest (& BREATHE!)

  • Navigate and work with difficult, sloshy feelings

  • Reclaim your sense of self-worth and agency

  • Create authentic, sustainable boundaries

  • Release survival patterns that just don’t work for you anymore

You’re not broken — you’re just carrying pain that was never yours to hold alone.

You don’t have to keep hustling for worth or love, or just “get over it.” You’ve done the best you could with the tools you had. Now it’s time to let someone else carry your load with you so that you can focus on building trust in yourself.