Trauma Therapy

Healing Trauma Through Depth Psychology

If you’ve experienced trauma and are seeking relief, I can help. As a trauma therapist based in Oakland, CA, I provide psychotherapy for adults navigating PTSD, developmental trauma, attachment wounds, and the long-term impact of childhood neglect and narcissistic abuse.

Trauma Lives in the Body

After a traumatic event—or a series of them—you may struggle with depression, isolation, panic, and irritability. You might feel out of control, stuck in a cycle of hypervigilance, or disconnected from yourself and others. Sleep may be elusive, relaxation impossible. Self-destructive behaviors, substance use, or emotional numbness can be ways of coping.

PTSD traps the nervous system in a state of chronic alarm—your body and psyche may still react as if the trauma is happening now. Depth psychology recognizes that trauma isn’t just a memory; it’s a lived experience stored in the unconscious and the body. Healing requires more than cognitive insight—it involves integrating the fragmented self, working somatically, and uncovering the deeper symbolic meaning of your suffering.

The Nervous System and Trauma Responses

Have you heard of fight, flight, fawn, or freeze? These are the body’s primal survival instincts, deeply embedded in the nervous system. If these responses remain activated long after the danger has passed, we can feel trapped in patterns of fear, submission, or emotional shutdown. Therapy helps repair the nervous system through breathwork, movement, and the safe expression of repressed emotions like anger and grief.

Types of Trauma I Work With:

• Relational & Developmental Trauma: Childhood neglect, attachment wounds, and narcissistic abuse.

• Survival Trauma: Rape, assault, life-threatening illness, or near-death experiences.

• Intergenerational & Collective Trauma: Historical trauma, climate grief, and systemic oppression.

• Vicarious & Existential Trauma: Burnout in healing/helping professions, psychedelic trauma, and surviving the suicide of a loved one.

Dissociation: When the Psyche Protects Itself

A common trauma response is dissociation—feeling detached from your emotions, body, or reality itself. When an experience is too overwhelming for the conscious mind, we “go away” to survive. But if dissociation persists, we lose connection to our authentic self and to others.

Depth-oriented therapy helps restore wholeness by safely reintegrating these fragmented parts of you. The goal is not just to “talk about” what happened, but to explore your unconscious defenses, understand their wisdom, and gently bring your awareness back into the present.

Grief, Shame & the Shadow Self

Processing trauma often involves cycling through grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression. But toxic shame can keep us stuck, whispering that we are somehow responsible for what happened. Depth psychology sees shame as part of the shadow self—buried aspects of us that carry our deepest fears of unworthiness.

Yet, paradoxically, self-blame may have once served a protective function. If we believe we caused the trauma, we maintain the illusion of control. Healing requires reclaiming lost parts of the self, integrating shadow material, and ultimately recognizing that your suffering does not define your worth.

Reclaiming Your Story

Trauma fragments, isolates, and buries us in fear. Healing is about more than just symptom relief—it’s about reconnecting with your inner world, understanding the deeper narratives at play, and reawakening the capacity for meaning, connection, and embodied presence.

If you’re ready to begin this process, reach out. You don’t have to navigate this alone.

Complex Trauma: Wounds Beneath the Surface

On the outside, you may appear composed, successful, or even thriving, but beneath that carefully maintained exterior lies a profound sense of brokenness. The weight of anxiety, shame, insecurity, and depression feels suffocating, leaving you disconnected from both yourself and others. If navigating this internal chaos feels overwhelming, you are not alone.

The Depth of Complex Trauma

Though complex trauma (C-PTSD) is not yet formally recognized in the DSM, its psychological and somatic impact is undeniable. Unlike a singular traumatic event, complex trauma emerges from repeated relational wounds—chronic neglect, emotional or physical abuse, or prolonged exposure to instability. It often takes root in early developmental years, disrupting fundamental attachment bonds and shaping core beliefs about safety, worth, and identity.

These experiences create deeply embedded neural pathways that influence how you interpret relationships, regulate emotions, and engage with the world. Instead of processing trauma as a past event, your nervous system remains locked in survival mode—constantly scanning for threat, even in safe environments.

Misdiagnosis and Trauma Responses

Because the symptoms of complex trauma are pervasive and multi-layered, they often resemble other mental health conditions. Many individuals are misdiagnosed with OCD, ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Panic Disorder, or Borderline Personality Disorder. While these diagnoses may capture specific behavioral patterns, they often fail to address the root cause—an adaptive response to prolonged relational trauma. What appears as emotional dysregulation, hypervigilance, impulsivity, or dissociation may, in fact, be trauma-based survival mechanisms.

Toxic Shame: The Legacy of Developmental Trauma

If you grew up in an environment where love was conditional, where criticism, rejection, or neglect shaped your sense of self, toxic shame likely became an unconscious core belief. This isn’t just low self-esteem—it’s a deeply ingrained conviction that you are fundamentally unworthy, broken, or defective.

Emotional flashbacks may pull you back into states of helplessness and fear, flooding you with the same powerlessness you felt as a child. These emotional storms arise without a clear trigger, yet they hijack your sense of reality, reinforcing the internalized message that something is wrong with you.

Unlearning the Lies Trauma Taught You

Here’s what depth psychology teaches us: The psyche is not inherently flawed—rather, it adapts to survive. Your symptoms are not personal failings; they are strategies your nervous system developed to cope with an unsafe world. And because these patterns were learned, they can be unlearned.

Healing is not about erasing the past but about reestablishing a sense of inner safety and self-compassion. It requires finding relationships—therapeutic or otherwise—that offer attunement, trust, and repair. When early attachment wounds are met with genuine connection and unconditional regard, the nervous system can begin to release its chronic state of defense.

You Are Not Broken—You Are Becoming

If this resonates with you, know that your suffering is not a life sentence. The wounds of complex trauma do not define you. Beneath the layers of pain lies a self that is still intact, still worthy, and still capable of deep healing.

The journey inward can feel daunting, but you don’t have to do it alone. Reach out. You are more than worth the work it takes to reclaim yourself.