online Trauma and PTSD Therapy, in California
Trauma does not stay in the past. That is the part that is hardest to explain — the event is over, everyone agrees it is over, and your body has not received the message. It shows up in sleep, in startle, in the effort of steering around anything that might bring it back, in a version of yourself that feels more guarded than the one you remember.
Many people carry this for years before seeking treatment, often because they have concluded that talking about it would only make it worse, or that what happened to them does not qualify.
Where my training comes from
I spent eight years as a staff psychologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs, where providing evidence-based treatment for PTSD was a core part of my work. The VA has been a national leader in training clinicians and implementing evidence-based PTSD treatment throughout its healthcare system.
That experience shapes how I approach trauma treatment today, whether or not you have served in the military.
What PTSD looks like day to day
Intrusive memories, images, or nightmares
Feeling as if the event is happening again
Avoiding people, places, conversations, or reminders
Persistent alertness — scanning rooms, sitting facing the door, startling easily
Trouble sleeping, or waking on high alert
Numbness, detachment, or a sense of watching your own life
Beliefs that have hardened since the event: that it was your fault, that you should have known, that no one can be trusted
Irritability or anger that arrives faster and larger than the situation warrants
How I treat PTSD
I use Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), a structured, trauma-focused treatment strongly recommended by the VA/DoD clinical practice guideline for PTSD.
Trauma can affect how you understand yourself, other people, and the world. CPT focuses on five areas that are commonly disrupted after trauma: safety, trust, power and control, esteem, and intimacy. You may no longer feel safe even when danger has passed, find it difficult to trust yourself or others, feel powerless or overly responsible, struggle with shame or diminished self-worth, or have difficulty feeling emotionally close to other people.
In CPT, we identify and carefully examine the beliefs connected to these areas, consider the full context of what happened, and develop perspectives that are more accurate and less restrictive. This does not mean minimizing the trauma, excusing what someone did, or forcing yourself to think positively. It means understanding what happened without continuing to be governed by conclusions rooted in blame, fear, or shame.
CPT is an active treatment that uses structured exercises during and between sessions. It typically lasts about 12 sessions, although the length of treatment may vary according to your needs and progress. CPT does not require you to repeatedly recount the traumatic event in detail, and you will not be expected to tell me everything during the first session.
What if i am not sure i am ready
That is a reasonable place to start from, and it is a conversation rather than a barrier. Trauma-focused work is paced, and we do stabilization first where it is needed. Being ambivalent about treatment is not a disqualification — nearly everyone who does this work was ambivalent at the start.
Working together
I am a licensed clinical psychologist providing telehealth to adults anywhere in California. A free 15-minute consultation costs you nothing and commits you to nothing.
