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TRAUMA THERAPY
Trauma doesn’t always look like what people expect.
Sometimes trauma is connected to one event you can clearly name. Other times, it comes from experiences that happened repeatedly—or relationships, environments, or seasons of life that changed the way you learned to protect yourself.
It may show up as anxiety, irritability, panic, shutting down, difficulty trusting people, painful memories, feeling constantly on guard, or reacting strongly to something that logically seems small.
And sometimes it simply feels like: “I know I’m okay now, but my brain and body don’t seem to know that.”
At Valentine Counseling, we help adults, teens, and children understand what their nervous system has learned from difficult experiences and work toward responses that fit their lives now—not just what helped them survive before.
What can trauma therapy help with?
You do not need a PTSD diagnosis—or even be sure that what happened to you “counts” as trauma—to talk with a therapist about something that continues to affect you.
Trauma therapy may be helpful for:
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Trauma and PTSD symptoms
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Distressing or intrusive memories
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Anxiety and panic
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Childhood trauma
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Relationship trauma
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Grief and loss
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Emotional reactivity
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Feeling numb or disconnected
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Shame, guilt, or negative beliefs about yourself
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Difficulty trusting or feeling safe with others
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Feeling stuck even when you understand intellectually what happened
What does trauma therapy actually look like?
Good trauma therapy is not about forcing you to tell every detail of the worst thing that has ever happened to you.
Treatment should be based on what you need, what you are ready for, and what is actually helping.
Our therapists use trauma-informed, evidence-based approaches and may incorporate cognitive, emotional, relational, and body-based strategies. Depending on your needs and your therapist’s training, treatment may also include EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) or Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART).
Who is trauma therapy for?
We provide trauma-informed counseling for adults, teens, and children.
People come to trauma therapy for many different reasons. Some have experienced abuse, violence, accidents, loss, difficult childhood experiences, unhealthy relationships, or other clearly identifiable events.
Others don't have one defining event. They may simply recognize patterns—hypervigilance, avoidance, people-pleasing, shutting down, anger, anxiety, difficulty with relationships—that made sense somewhere along the way but aren't working very well anymore.
You don't have to figure out which category you belong in before coming to therapy.
EMDR Therapy
EMDR is a structured therapy approach used to help people process distressing memories and experiences.
Rather than simply talking about an experience repeatedly, EMDR uses bilateral stimulation—often guided eye movements—while working with memories, emotions, beliefs, and physical sensations associated with the experience.
The goal isn't to erase what happened. It's to help the memory become less emotionally disruptive so that something from the past has less power over your life in the present.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy
Accelerated Resolution Therapy, or ART, also uses eye movements as part of a structured therapeutic process.
ART combines guided imagery and memory processing to help reduce the emotional and physical distress associated with difficult experiences. As with EMDR, the goal isn't to forget what happened or pretend it didn't matter. The goal is to change how your brain and body respond when the memory is activated.
Not every approach is appropriate for every person. Your therapist will work with you to determine what makes sense for your symptoms, history, goals, and readiness.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Do I have to talk about everything that happened?
No. Trauma treatment should not require you to disclose every detail of an experience before you're ready. Different treatment approaches also require different levels of verbal processing. Your therapist can explain your options and help determine what feels appropriate.
How do I know if something “counts” as trauma?
There isn't a test you have to pass before you're allowed to be affected by something. Clinically, we're often less interested in whether an experience fits someone's idea of what trauma is “supposed” to look like and more interested in how the experience is affecting you now.
What's the difference between regular therapy and trauma therapy?
Trauma-informed treatment pays particular attention to how past experiences may be affecting your current emotions, beliefs, relationships, behaviors, and nervous-system responses. Treatment can then address both the symptoms you're experiencing now and the experiences or patterns contributing to them.
Can trauma therapy be done online?
In many situations, yes. Some trauma-focused treatment can be provided effectively through secure telehealth. Your therapist can help determine whether online treatment is clinically appropriate for your particular needs.
Trauma Therapy in the San Luis Valley and Across Colorado
Valentine Counseling provides in-person trauma therapy in the San Luis Valley, including our Alamosa office and our La Jara-area location near Romeo.
We also provide secure telehealth therapy to clients located throughout Colorado.
Living in a rural community shouldn't mean having to choose between getting specialized mental health care and driving hours to receive it.