Specialty · Relational Trauma
The wounds that came from the people closest to you.
The thing that hurt you — connection — is also what heals it. This work is careful, boundaried, and done at your pace.
Some of the most lasting damage doesn’t come from strangers or disasters. It comes from the people who were supposed to be safe — parents who were unpredictable or absent, partners who shifted what was real, systems that failed at exactly the wrong moment. Relational trauma is complicated because the wound happened in the very thing you need in order to heal.
It shows up in how you trust (or can’t), how close you let people get, and in the way you brace for things to fall apart even when they’re going well. These aren’t pathologies. They’re intelligent adaptations to an environment that wasn’t safe — and they can be unlearned.
You are not what was done to you.
Heidegger wrote about Mitsein — “being-with” — as a fundamental dimension of human existence. We are social animals at the deepest structural level. Relational trauma disrupts something essential about how we exist — which is why healing requires relational repair, not just individual insight.
I bring personal experience of relational trauma to this work. I know what it is to wonder if your experience was real, or to feel the floor drop out under a relationship you thought was solid.
Where the work focuses
EMDR
Particularly effective for diffuse relational trauma that doesn’t fit into a single incident — making room for new ways of being in relationship.
Trauma-Focused CBT
When relational trauma has left beliefs like “I’m too much” or “I’ll always be abandoned,” we examine them directly and build evidence-based alternatives.
ACT for Relational Patterns
ACT helps examine the rules trauma installs — don’t get close, trust means danger — with curiosity, and make choices about closeness based on your values rather than your history.
DBT Interpersonal Effectiveness
Evidence-based skills for managing relational conflict, holding limits, and navigating the emotional intensity that relational wounds create.
You deserve relationships that feel safe.
That starts with one. A free 15-minute consultation, no pressure, to see whether this is a fit.