Trauma Specialist or Trauma Therapist: What's the Difference?
The trauma healing work that I offer, as a trauma specialist, is different from psychotherapy (a.k.a. “therapy”).
I have a different scope of practice, use different approaches, and hold different foundational assumptions, or first principles, about what trauma is and how it heals.
And while I’ve trained with leaders in the trauma field in the U.S. and the U.K., I decided not to become a licensed psychotherapist.
Because I work with people all over the world, I don’t want to restrict the people I can work with to a single US state or just one country (which is required to maintain a therapist’s license with a governmental agency).
If you’re curious about exploring my work and you’ve gone to therapy before, it can be helpful to know how my work is different as you discern whether it’s a fit for you.
I don’t see trauma as a disorder.
Therapists see trauma as any number of various “disorders,” many of which — from their perspective — cannot be cured only treated. Treatment consists of ongoing therapy, with them personally, for years and sometimes decades.
I see trauma as an adaptive survival response of the nervous system trying to heal. The sooner you do that, the better.
I view symptoms like anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and obsessive compulsive disorder as signs of an over-activated and depleted nervous system that needs support and safety to find balance again.
Therapists may or may not tell you the diagnosis they’ve given you — although it may show up on your health or insurance records. They often don’t share their treatment plan with you, either, unless you ask.
I work with you to transparently and consistently align our work to your current needs and goals for the future. We work on reducing intrusive symptoms and helping you feel good about your body, your life, and your relationships.
We focus on what you’re experiencing right now.
Therapy looks to the past to explain the present. It is largely cognitive, and looks at feelings as experiences that can be controlled or changed by changing your perspective. Most therapy is oriented around the mind.
I focus on the body, because the body is where the traumatic imprints of the past have remained frozen until now. The body holds the key to trauma healing and learning how to enjoy life again.
Therapists examine the past in an effort to better understand why you’re suffering. That kind of clarity can help us be more understanding towards ourselves and others. But it doesn’t shift the trauma symptoms that keep us up at night and distort our ability to feel safe, loved, and loving in relationships.
If we could heal trauma by talking and thinking about it, we would’ve done it already.
My work focuses on the intelligence of your system, both how you learned to survive after what happened to you, and the way that parts of you adapted to protect you from the pain, threat, and danger of the experience.
When we work at the level of the body and the nervous system, we catalyze your natural ability to heal. More self-acceptance, inner safety, pleasure, and even self-love become possible because we’ve removed the constraints that held the nervous system in a state of constant overwhelm.
Trauma is in the body and the nervous system. And when we focus there, healing is gentle, reliable, and often much easier than we thought it would be.
In six months, I help you heal intrusive trauma symptoms so you can step into more pleasure & aliveness (especially in your relationships).
Therapy is open-ended and can extend indefinitely, for months or years. I’ve had therapists tell me that some of their clients have been with them for decades and will need therapy (from them) for their entire lives.
I prefer to work with you for six months so you can launch back into the world symptom-free, full of possibility, and enjoying your relationships (especially with your partner). We create goals, maps, and milestones that are tangible and easy to recognize.
In therapy, it’s easy to wonder if it’s working. As sessions go on, many people wonder if they’ve become a weekly paycheck for their therapist. Progress feels stalled and they don’t have clear criteria for when therapy will end.
That doesn’t work for me. I want you to graduate from our work together as quickly as possible, so you can get on with your life.
I love it when my clients check in, months or years later, and let me know how good things are going for them. We might schedule a single session here or there, to work on something specific, but the foundational work is done.
I’ve found that six months is an ideal amount of time to heal your nervous system so you can able to relax and enjoy life, work, people — all of it.
Most therapists don’t work with sexuality.
I specialize in sexual and relational trauma resolution, which includes the field of sexuality, sexual healing, and relationships. Sexual health is an important and often overlooked part of holistic wellbeing.
Even if you don’t have sexual trauma, sexual health is a important part of trauma healing and post-traumatic growth. That’s because the nervous system overwhelm that happens with trauma negatively impacts arousal.
Most therapists shy away from sexual topics and don’t have the certifications to work directly with sexual topics, themes, and issues.
They may avoid the topic of sexuality entirely, because they don’t have the training, or share a scientifically-outdated or unintentionally shaming perspective conditioned by their background.
I create a safe and judgement-free space to explore authentic sexual self-expression as part of holistic trauma healing.
Working with sexuality allows me to support around topics that most people don’t share about with anyone. (While sexuality and sexual practices are referenced, there is obviously no nudity, sexual expression, or sexual exchange between us.)
I want to hear from you between sessions.
When I work with you, we stay connected between sessions. I’m here to support with what is challenging and to celebrate your wins, every step of the way.
I’ve seen how this ongoing communication accelerates trauma healing.
Therapists may read emails between sessions, but they are not willing to exchange texts or voices notes, and usually won’t respond beyond acknowledging receipt.
They aren’t available to answer questions that might come up and will expect you to wait until your next session to connect around symptom intensity or other challenges.
Therapists also expect you to remember your takeaways from your session, on your own. That’s a lot of pressure, in the moment, to hold on to key takeaways when you’re deep in process.
After each session, I email follow-ups detailing next steps and record customized embodiment practices to support what we explored.
You deserve support throughout the journey, not just when we’re face-to-face.
I’ve seen how this level of connection with me helps to create the most significant and lasting transformations for the people I serve.
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I hope this clarifies how my work is different than psychotherapy.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this with me further, I invite you to reach out to continue the conversation.
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