Trauma therapy in Los Angeles.

When a reaction feels larger than the moment

You may be managing your life capably while feeling tense, ashamed, numb, self-critical, or unexpectedly overwhelmed. A conversation, a change in someone’s tone, an ordinary conflict, or a moment of closeness can bring up a reaction that seems to belong to more than what is happening now. Sometimes the connection to the past is obvious. Often it is not.

People seek trauma therapy for many reasons. You may have a clear event or series of experiences in mind. You may be carrying the effects of childhood, family relationships, sexual trauma, or a relationship that left you questioning yourself. Or you may simply know that certain patterns keep returning, despite insight, effort, and a wish for things to be different.

I work with adults in Los Angeles who want to understand those patterns in the context of their lives. Rather than reducing a person to a symptom, we consider the feelings, relationships, body responses, and earlier experiences that may be part of what you are living with now.

A depth-oriented approach to trauma

My practice is grounded in long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy, with a particular focus on trauma. This means we pay attention not only to what happened, but also to the meanings you have made of it, the ways you learned to protect yourself, and what becomes possible or difficult in relationships now.

Some protective responses become so familiar that they can be hard to see from the inside. Keeping distance, staying highly alert, taking care of everyone else, shutting down during conflict, or turning anger inward may once have helped you get through something important. In therapy, we can become curious about those responses without treating them as personal failures.

The therapeutic relationship is part of the work. Feelings that are difficult to speak about can appear gradually, including worry about needing too much, fear of disappointing someone, uncertainty about trust, or a sense that your experience should not matter. We make room to notice those moments and understand them together.

There is no single way trauma has to look

Some people arrive knowing that they have been through trauma. Others come because anxiety, a difficult relationship, a change in mood, or an old feeling of being “too much” has become harder to ignore. You may remember certain events clearly, have fragments of memory, or have no single event that seems to explain what you are experiencing. Therapy does not require you to prove that something was serious enough.

We can begin with what is most immediate: the places where you lose your footing, the situations you avoid, the feelings that seem to take over, or the ways you become cut off from yourself or other people. Over time, patterns may become clearer. The work does not depend on forcing memory or arriving at one definitive explanation. It depends on staying attentive to your experience and to what can be understood at a given point.

Virtual sessions for life in Los Angeles

I currently provide therapy virtually, rather than in person. For many people in Los Angeles, meeting online can make regular therapy more workable alongside work, caregiving, school, health needs, or the time and energy involved in crossing the city. It also allows us to meet from a private place that you choose.

Virtual therapy still benefits from practical preparation. We will talk about finding a space where you can speak freely, a reliable connection, and a little time before or after a session when difficult material has been stirred up. These details are not requirements you need to solve alone before beginning. They are part of creating a workable setting for the therapy.

In a free 15-minute consultation, you can ask about the format, share a little about what has brought you to therapy, and get a sense of whether my approach fits what you are seeking. There is no expectation that you need to have a complete history or a fully formed explanation ready.

How trauma therapy begins

1. Starting with what is present

   Early sessions focus on what feels difficult now, the relationships and experiences that matter to you, and the support already available in your life. We also consider what you hope to understand or experience differently through therapy.

2. Noticing patterns and responses

   We pay attention to emotional and physical responses, including the moments when you go blank, feel pushed to explain yourself, become flooded, or find it hard to know what you need. These responses can offer important information about what is happening beneath the surface.

3. Building resources for difficult material

   Before trauma processing, we develop ways to respond to activation. Depending on your needs, this may include grounding, imagery, body awareness, or identifying the people and places that help you feel connected. This preparation remains part of the work rather than a brief preliminary task.

4. Considering EMDR when it fits

   Attachment-Focused EMDR can be helpful for some people and some aspects of treatment. We assess whether it is appropriate in the context of your history, current life, and the therapeutic work already underway. You can also read more about Attachment-Focused EMDR.

For trauma that happened in relationships

When difficult experiences happened early in life or within a relationship that mattered, their effects may reach beyond a particular memory. You may find it hard to ask for help, feel unsure about your own perceptions, expect closeness to become painful, or carry a persistent sense that you need to manage other people’s feelings before your own.

These patterns can make sense in light of what you have lived through, even when they are exhausting now. Therapy can offer a place to explore how they developed and how they appear in the present, including in important relationships, work, and your sense of yourself. The aim is not to force a particular story or outcome, but to understand what has been difficult to carry alone.

A pace that responds to the work

Therapy has its own rhythm. At times, it may be important to stay with a present difficulty rather than move quickly toward an earlier experience. At other times, a memory, feeling, or bodily response may need more direct attention. We keep considering what feels possible to approach and what support is useful around it. This includes making space to reflect after EMDR or other emotionally demanding work.

The length and direction of treatment are not fixed in advance. They depend on your circumstances, what you bring, and what emerges as we work together. I am interested in helping you develop a fuller understanding of your experience, without making promises about how quickly change should occur or what form it should take.

Taking the next step

If you are looking for a trauma therapist in Los Angeles, a consultation can be a straightforward place to begin. We can talk about what you are noticing, what you would like support with, and whether virtual psychoanalytic therapy feels like the right direction. I also work with clients throughout California through my virtual trauma therapy practice.

Schedule a free consultation