THERAPY FOR TRAUMA IN AGOURA HILLS & ACROSS CA

If an experience or experiences have changed how you feel in your body, how safe you feel in the world, or how you relate to yourself and others, it matters. Trauma isn’t qualified only by what happened, it’s more about how overwhelming it was for you at the time. When our nervous system exceeds capacity to process something, it has lasting effects on the mind and body. Many people minimize their experiences because “others had it worse,” but that doesn’t mean it didn’t leave a mark.

We work with a wide range of trauma, including single-event experiences like birth trauma, sexual assault, accidents, or medical trauma, as well as complex and long-term trauma that develops over years. This can include growing up in an unsafe, chaotic, or abusive home, being in emotionally or physically abusive relationships, or living with constant unpredictability. We also work extensively with intergenerational trauma—when patterns from your family of origin continue to show up in your adult life, even when you’re trying hard to do things differently.

Our work is trauma-informed, relationship-centered, and tailored to you. Depending on what you’re dealing with, we may use EMDR, Brainspotting, or ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, often alongside talk therapy. We can also discuss intensive therapy if you’d like to work on things in a concentrated period of time. We don’t force a one-size-fits-all approach—together, we decide on the pace and methods that feel both effective and manageable. The therapeutic relationship itself is also a big part of the healing, especially for people whose trauma involved relationships.

Many people come to us feeling frustrated because they understand their story but don’t feel any better. Trauma doesn’t just live in thoughts—it shows up in your body, reactions, and patterns—and you can’t heal from it with insight alone. Our approach goes beyond talking about what happened and helps address how those experiences are still showing up in your life now.

Intergenerational trauma refers to patterns, beliefs, and ways of relating that get passed down through families, often without anyone intending for that to happen. Some cultures carry a heavy load of intergenerational trauma because of a collective trauma history. You might notice yourself ending up in relationships that seem eerily familiar, reacting in ways you swore you never would, or carrying shame or hyper-responsibility that doesn’t quite feel like it’s yours. Understanding the greater context can be deeply relieving—it helps shift the story from “what’s wrong with me?” to “this makes sense, and I can choose something different now.”

Complex trauma usually develops over time, rather than from a single event. It often comes from growing up in an environment where you didn’t feel safe, seen, or consistently cared for. This could be due to things like constant fighting in your family, emotional abuse, neglect, substance use in the home, or having to stay hyper-aware of other people’s moods in order to survive. Because they’re woven into your early relationships, these experiences often become the fabric of relationships as an adult, affecting how you see yourself, what you expect from others, and how safe the world feels. Many people with complex trauma feel “defective” or broken, when in reality their nervous system adapted to survive very difficult circumstances.