By Teresa Franz, LCSW — licensed clinical social worker with over a decade of experience in trauma, anxiety, and women’s issues.
Trauma isn’t just about what happened to you—it’s about how your body reacted afterward.
Are you ready to heal your trauma? Not just numb it or cope with it, but really heal it completely?
So many clients struggle with the after effects of trauma for years, even decades after they experience a traumatic event, or worse, a traumatic childhood. I’ve worked with clients who started therapy in their teens or twenties, but who still struggle decades later.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
PTSD and cPTSD are healable with the right approaches, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) just isn’t enough. CBT can reduce some symptoms and teach you to try to change your thoughts, but trauma affects your entire body’s nervous system, hormones, relationships, your sense of safety, and even your sense of self and worth.
Using EMDR, AEDP, IFS, and somatic therapies, we can get to the root causes of your trauma and heal your thoughts, feelings, and reactions.
If you’re ready to really heal, let me help you.
What is Trauma?
Trauma isn’t just what happened to you…It is what happened in your body after the traumatic experience. It can look like:
- Being triggered by people, places, or experiences that remind you of what happened.
- Having nightmares, whether they are about the traumatic experience or just feeling trapped, afraid, or ashamed.
- Having frequent negative thoughts and feelings such as hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness.
- Feeling like you have to control every problem, or feeling like you can’t control anything.
- Being irritable or overreacting to small stressors.
- And more…
Sometimes during a traumatic event, the brain doesn’t process information like it normally does, and the emotions get stuck in the body. Because this is scary and feels overwhelming, many people try to avoid thoughts and feelings that remind them of the traumatic event, meaning it never has a chance to heal.
Think of it like a physical wound. If it gets infected, it needs attention and care before it can truly heal. Your brain and nervous system are the same way—they sometimes need help to “clean out” those stuck emotions.
The good news is that trauma is highly treatable!
What is Trauma Therapy and How It Can Help
Trauma therapy works by helping your body to differentiate what happened to you in the past with what is happening now. Rather than reliving the pain and fear in your body every time you think about a traumatic memory, you will be able to feel calm, empowered, and confident that you can handle the emotions you feel. Instead of thoughts being trauma triggers, they will become memories that don’t cause a physical reaction in you anymore.
I’ve worked with hundreds of people with PTSD and cPTSD to recover from all kinds of traumas, including recovering from sexual assault, a car accident, dog bite, ongoing childhood physical or sexual abuse, witnessing violence, and more. Whatever you’ve experienced, I am confident that I can help you feel safe, understood, and healed.
I am trained in several gold-standard therapy methods, so even if you’ve been to therapy before, I can tailor a therapy to your needs. I can use EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), IFS (Internal Family Systems), AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy) PE (Prolonged Exposure), CPT (Cognitive Processing Therapy), and TF-CBT (Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). I also incorporate Somatic work, Mindfulness, and Attachment Theory to help you to feel safe enough to have a healthy mind-body connection.
I’m going to help you understand yourself. Your thoughts, feelings, and reactions make sense based on what you experienced, and I can’t wait to show you how to understand yourself and feel safe.
EMDR and trauma therapy can help treat:
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- cPSTD
- Panic attacks
- Trauma from natural ddsasters
- Phobias
- Job loss
- Betrayal or infidelity
- Assault
- Performance anxiety
- Sexual and/or physical abuse
- Miscarriage
- Divorce
- War
- Racism, prejudice, and discrimination
- Near-death experiences
What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy is a specialized form of psychotherapy designed to help people heal from trauma and distressing emotions. It focuses on reducing the emotional intensity associated with traumatic memories by helping the brain process these memories in a healthier way.
During a session, you’ll focus on a specific memory and will tap on alternating sides of the body to help the brain to better process the emotions and sensations that come up. Together, we will focus on changing your thoughts and beliefs into healthier beliefs and responses. After the session is over we will process what you felt and help you to feel more at peace with the past.
EMDR is a safe and effective way to process traumatic memories quickly, even if the trauma itself happened years ago.
Reach out today if you’d like to learn more about EMDR.
By Teresa Franz, LCSW.
Teresa is a licensed clinical social worker in Texas with a Master of Science in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin. She has more than a decade of experience supporting women through trauma, anxiety, relational challenges, and major life transitions.
Her advanced training includes internal family systems, EMDR, cognitive processing therapy, prolonged exposure therapy, motivational interviewing, attachment work, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
Read Teresa’s full bio here