What if what happened to you does not feel like real trauma, but your body has never gotten the memo that it is over?
This is therapy for people whose nervous systems are still in survival mode. For teens who cannot explain why they shut down in certain situations. For adults who have spent years trying to think their way out of something that lives in the body. For people whose trauma does not fit neatly into a story with a clear beginning and end, and who have been told, in one way or another, that what happened to them was not serious enough to matter.
At Embodied Therapy, we do not use a narrow definition of trauma. If something overwhelmed your nervous system and left a mark, it counts.
Many people who come to us have been managing for a long time. They have learned how to get through a day. They have gotten good at holding it together. From the outside, things may look fine. On the inside, they are always a little bit on guard.
Trauma can be something bad that happened to you. It can also be the absence of the good. When either of those things occur, you learn various ways to protect yourself from it happening again.
This can be as easy to explain as, “I avoid getting in the car because I had a terrible wreck,” or as complex as, “As soon as someone tries to get close to me, it feels like I start looking for something terrible to go wrong. In doing that, I always end up pushing the other person away.”
What we experienced (or didn’t) leaves a mark, and our bodies and minds try everything they can to avoid feeling that way again. Does it make sense? Absolutely! Does it also create its own chaos? For sure.
Let’s find a way out of the echo of the old and start creating something new.
Trauma is what happens inside a person when an experience overwhelms their ability to cope with it. It is not about the size of the event itself. Two people can live through the same thing and carry it completely differently. What makes something traumatic is not the event but its impact on the nervous system.
There are experiences most people recognize as traumatic: abuse, assault, accidents, loss. And then there are the ones that are harder to name. Years of being dismissed or criticized. Growing up in a home where you never knew what mood you would walk into. Being told repeatedly that your feelings were too much or simply wrong. Carrying the weight of systemic harm in your body every day.
All of it matters. All of it can leave marks.
The brain and nervous system develop in relationship. When the environment during those early years is unsafe, unpredictable, or chronically stressful, the developing nervous system adapts. Those adaptations were intelligent. They kept you alive and functioning inside circumstances that required it. They also do not automatically update when the circumstances change. Developmental and childhood trauma is not always about a specific event. It is often about the absence of something: safety, consistency, attunement, or a caregiver who could help you make sense of what you were feeling. The body remembers even when the explicit memory does not.
Many people spend years not knowing their experience has a name. They know something is off. They know they react in ways they cannot always explain. But because their experience does not match the narrow cultural image of what trauma is supposed to look like, they dismiss it.
People who grew up with emotional neglect are often told they had a fine childhood. People who experienced systemic harm are told their distress is a personal problem. People whose trauma was relational and slow are told nothing actually happened.
It does not mean they are not carrying something real. It means the people around them did not have the language for what they lived through.
At Embodied Therapy, we work at the intersection of individual experience and systemic reality. We will not ask you to minimize what the world has done in order to make your healing look more manageable.
Trauma therapy here does not require you to retell every detail of what happened. For many people, that approach has not helped, or has made things worse. We move at a pace that feels as safe as possible, which means we build the relationship first.
We use body-based and relational approaches that work with how trauma actually lives in the nervous system, not only how it gets organized into a story. The goal is not to produce a polished account of what happened. The goal is for your body to stop responding to it as though it is still happening.
Our approach is grounded in anti-oppression principles. Trauma does not exist separately from the systems that cause it. If racism, transphobia, ableism, or other forms of structural harm are part of your experience, that context is part of the work.
For teens specifically, we hold space for the reality that trauma presents differently at different developmental stages, and that adolescence is its own kind of complicated. We work at the speed of trust, not the speed of efficiency.
Healing from trauma does not mean forgetting what happened. It means the memory no longer runs your nervous system. People who do this work often find they are able to:
Approaches are chosen together based on what actually fits each person’s brain, nervous system, and life. There is no single method that works for everyone.
A structured, evidence-based approach for processing traumatic memories. EMDR helps the brain organize difficult memories differently so they lose their grip on the present. It does not require talking through every detail of what happened.
Works directly with how trauma lives in the body. Breath, posture, sensation, and movement are all part of the conversation. Especially useful when talk therapy alone has not been enough.
Addresses the thought patterns and beliefs that developed in response to trauma. Builds new frameworks for understanding yourself and the world.
Practical tools for managing intense emotions and building stability. Especially useful in early stages of trauma work when regulation is the primary goal.
Helps you build a life you want to be living even before all the healing work is done. You do not have to wait until you feel better to start moving toward what matters.
This may be a good fit if you are a teen or adult who:
We see clients virtually. Our therapist is licensed in New Mexico, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.
Trauma work is at the center of everything Embodied Therapy does. Our founder, Allison VanGordon (they/she), holds a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and is completing a PhD in General Psychology with a focus on marginalized communities and the ways systemic harm intersects with individual healing. They are trained in EMDR and somatic approaches and have worked with complex trauma across levels of care since the beginning of their clinical career.
Her approach is shaped by the belief that psychology has historically caused harm to marginalized communities, and that genuine trauma work has to reckon with that reality. Therapy here is not politically neutral. It is grounded in the understanding that bodies do not exist separately from the systems they have lived inside.
Read more about Embodied Therapy here and read more about Allison here.
No. Many trauma-informed approaches, including EMDR and somatic work, do not require a detailed retelling of events. We move at a pace that feels as safe as possible. You are in control of how much you share and when.
PTSD typically develops in response to a specific traumatic event or events. Complex PTSD develops from prolonged or repeated trauma, often interpersonal and often beginning in childhood or adolescence. It tends to affect a person’s sense of self, their emotional regulation, and their relationships more pervasively. Both are real. Both respond to care.
Trauma therapy done carefully should not destabilize you. We build resources and regulation skills before doing any deeper processing. If you have tried trauma work before and found it made things worse, that history is important information and we want to know about it.
Managing is not the same as healing. Many people who have been coping with trauma for a long time are carrying a weight they have simply gotten used to. If something is costing you more than you want to keep paying, that is worth looking at, even when you have been surviving.
Yes. We specifically work at the intersection of trauma and identity, including trauma connected to being LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, or navigating systemic racism, ableism, or religious harm. These are not separate from the clinical picture. They are the clinical picture.
The intake session is $250.
Ongoing individual therapy sessions range from $85 to $155, depending on need and availability.
Family and parent support sessions range from $105 to $175.
Sliding scale options are available. You can check your eligibility instantly below — no phone calls, no hassle.
You do not need to have the right words for what happened to you. You do not need a diagnosis or a clear timeline. You just need to reach out.
A free consultation is just a conversation. You ask questions. We ask questions. Together we figure out whether this feels like the right fit before anyone commits to anything.
