Trauma Therapy in Fort Collins, CO
Do You Ever Wonder If Your Mental Health Issues Are Connected To Trauma?
Are you suffering from chronic anxiety, depression, or burnout that hasn’t responded to traditional therapies? Do you continually feel:
Unproductive at work and unable to achieve your life goals?
Distrustful of others and anxious about your relationships?
Like something is missing in your life, but you can’t figure out what it is?
Maybe you’ve struggled with people-pleasing, self-doubt, and low self-worth all your life without knowing why. Perhaps you’ve been carrying pain, fatigue, and health issues that no one can explain.
In the past, you may have wondered if your challenges are related to trauma, but you’re not sure that your experiences qualify as “traumatic.” Nonetheless, it’s clear there’s a deeper hurt that needs to be healed in order for you to start feeling like yourself again.
You Look Like You’re Holding It Together, But Inside You’re Exhausted
Perhaps you’re high-functioning and able to present as responsible and successful to others. You’ve worked hard to cope and keep going—but underneath it all, you feel anxious and on edge, and you constantly worry that you’re not good enough.
You might second-guess every decision you make and sabotage new connections before they can develop. Maybe you can’t seem to rest or relax without guilt creeping in.
Deep down, you probably just want nothing more than to feel safe, grounded, and like yourself again. If this is the case, I encourage you to get in touch with me. As a therapist who specializes in working with trauma survivors, I’m confident that my compassionate, IFS-informed approach to counseling can help you recreate safety in the body, reconnect with your self-energy, and navigate life with more ease and authenticity.
Have any questions? Send me a message!
If You’re Struggling With Trauma, You’re Not Alone
Trauma isn’t merely something that happens to people in car crashes or war zones. In most cases, the causes of trauma are fairly mundane.
Many of my clients grew up in environments where emotions weren’t safe, love was conditional, or they had to stay small to survive. Trauma—whether from family, identity, or systemic oppression—left parts of them working hard to protect against further harm.
From an Internal Family Systems (IFS) lens, these parts often show up as perfectionism, people-pleasing, numbness, or anxiety. Our culture rewards these survival strategies, telling people to push their emotions down, work till they drop, and focus on external gratification rather than internal peace. Underneath these survival strategies, however, there is usually pain and a longing to feel safe, seen, and whole.
Our Protective Parts Often Prevent Us From Accessing And Healing Trauma
Culturally, we’re taught to push through, self-blame, or “fix” ourselves, not slow down and heal. As a result, many of us simply try to manage our symptoms rather than work through the deeper wounds driving them. Even in therapy, many cognitive approaches fail to address the protective parts that need to be understood in order for us to heal. When these protective parts take over, they make it hard to access trauma because their whole function is to shield us from anything that causes pain.
This is why healing is so difficult to do alone. In order to truly unburden the protective parts that form in the wake of trauma, we have to get to know them and even befriend them—and this work is best done in the presence of a compassionate and knowledgeable professional.
Therapy Can Help You Heal From Trauma And Reclaim Your Life
If you’re feeling anxious, burned out, or stuck in patterns that no longer serve you, there is hope. It might feel impossible to imagine life without the weight of the past—but healing is within reach. Through trauma therapy, you can feel safer in your body, soothe your inner critic, and reconnect with yourself and the world around you. You will learn to let go of shame, rebuild trust and self-worth, and take back the power that trauma took away.
My approach to trauma therapy is rooted in compassion and empowerment. I explore the wounds and protective parts that often show up as symptoms like anxiety, perfectionism, or relationship challenges. Using an IFS-informed lens, we will gently identify and understand these parts—how they protect you, what they need from you, and where they might be stuck. This can help us understand how past experiences shape current patterns and develop long-term goals that reflect your needs and values.
What To Expect In IFS-Informed Trauma Counseling Sessions
IFS serves as the foundation of my therapeutic approach, since understanding the language of parts is essential to healing from trauma. By learning to recognize and communicate with the parts of yourself that are hurting, you can increase your self-compassion and reduce internal conflict. This process can help you access your Self-Energy, which refers to your ability to effectively lead your parts instead of letting them lead you.
I also draw from a wide range of other approaches in my work with clients, including:
Mindfulness and Grounding Techniques to help you regulate your nervous system and build safety in the body.
Attachment Work to explore how early childhood relationships impact your functioning today.
Systemic Perspective to assess how your trauma is influenced by cultural, racial, and socioeconomic factors.
EMDR Therapy to help you process trauma so that distressing memories no longer hijack your nervous system.
Narrative Therapy to help you make sense of your story and rewrite it from a more empowering perspective.
Ultimately, you can expect to leave counseling with tangible tools for soothing your emotions, deepening your self-awareness, and building healthier relational patterns. As you continue to work toward healing, these skills can become like second nature—empowering you to step out from the shadow of the past and navigate life with ease and authenticity.
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Sometimes our parts know there’s something deeper going on even if we’re not sure that it’s trauma. Trauma doesn’t always stem from one big event—it can come about due to ongoing stress, feeling unsafe, or painful experiences that leave a mark on our lives. If you’re struggling with anxiety, overwhelm, or self-doubt, it’s worth exploring in therapy, even if you’re not certain where it comes from.
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No, you won’t. As a trauma counselor, I will prioritize your safety and move at a pace that’s comfortable for you. We won’t just dive into trauma headfirst. Instead, you and I will use approaches like IFS and EMDR to help your brain and body stay calm while you work through the pain of the past. You’re always in control, and the goal will always be to help you feel more grounded and less triggered.
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It’s normal to worry that therapy won’t help, especially if past approaches felt too focused on surface-level thinking and quick fixes. What many people really need is a deeper, more compassionate approach—like the IFS-informed, EMDR-based one I use—that aims to uncover and heal deeper causes rather than just manage symptoms. Together, you and I can work on crafting a trauma treatment plan that’s personalized for you and creates space for meaningful change and lasting recovery.
You May Have Some Questions About Trauma Therapy…
It May Feel Impossible Now, But You Can Find Peace
Through trauma therapy, you can reconnect with yourself and the people you care about. You can rebuild your sense of safety, trust, and self-worth. And instead of merely coping, you can genuinely heal—allowing you to move forward and reclaim your life.
To learn more about my empowering, evidence-based approach to trauma therapy, you can use the contact form to get in touch with me. I look forward to hearing from you!
3950 John F Kennedy Pkwy Suite A, Fort Collins, CO 80525