trauma Therapy
Specializing in C-PTSD, childhood trauma, relational trauma, and EMDR
For the person who’s tired of being told to “just move on”:
You know the past is the past. You've told yourself that a hundred times. And still — something gets triggered and suddenly you're back there. Flooded. Shut down. Reacting in ways you don't fully understand, to things that shouldn't feel so big.
That's not weakness. That's not being stuck. That's what unprocessed trauma actually looks like in the body and nervous system.
Trauma doesn't care how much time has passed. It doesn't respond to logic or willpower. It responds to the right kind of treatment — one that works with your nervous system instead of just talking around it.
Trauma-focused therapy helps unpack what happened to you in the past so you can live more authentically and meaningfully right now. While we can't change what happened to you, it is possible to recover and heal.
At Sage Talk Therapy, I specialize in PTSD and complex trauma therapy for adults who are ready to stop surviving their past and start living more fully in the present.
PTSD and Complex Trauma (C-PTSD)
People often think of trauma as something dramatic — a car accident, a natural disaster, a single catastrophic event. And yes, those experiences cause PTSD. But trauma is also quieter than that.
It's growing up in a home where you never felt safe. It's years of emotional neglect that no one would have called abuse. It's the relationship that slowly eroded your sense of self. It's being in a body that was treated like it didn't matter.
PTSD typically develops in response to a single traumatic event. C-PTSD — complex PTSD — develops from prolonged, repeated trauma, often beginning in childhood or within close relationships. Both are real. Both are treatable. And you don't have to have a formal diagnosis to know that something from your past is still affecting your present.
Common signs that unresolved trauma may be at play:
Flashbacks, nightmares, or intrusive memories
Feeling constantly on edge, hypervigilant, or easily startled
Emotional numbness or feeling disconnected from yourself
Shame, self-blame, or a deep sense that something is wrong with you
Difficulty trusting people or feeling safe in relationships
Reactions that feel bigger than the situation warrants
Struggling to feel present, even in moments that should feel okay
Childhood Trauma and Developmental Trauma
The experiences we have early in life shape everything — how we see ourselves, how we relate to others, how safe the world feels. When those early years included abuse, neglect, instability, or loss, the effects don't disappear when we grow up. They become the architecture we operate from.
Childhood trauma can include:
physical abuse
emotional abuse or neglect
sexual abuse
having a caregiver with a mental health issue or substance abuse problem
experiencing early caregiver abandonment or separation
significant housing or financial problems
exposure to abuse within the home
You may not have labeled it as trauma at the time. You may have normalized it, minimized it, or simply survived it. But if it shaped how you move through the world — it matters, and it deserves to be addressed.
Relational Trauma and Domestic ViolencE
When trauma happens within relationships — especially early ones — it doesn't just hurt. It rewires how you relate to people altogether.
If you grew up without consistent, safe caregiving, you may carry that instability into adult relationships without fully realizing it. Difficulty trusting people. Bracing for abandonment. Attracting dynamics that feel familiar, even when they're harmful. A deep hunger for connection alongside an equally deep fear of it.
Sometimes people replay early relational patterns into their adulthood. For example, if you had an abusive caregiver, you may unconsciously date partners who replicate similar dynamics. Unfortunately, this can perpetuate trauma cycles and maintain feelings of stuckness.
Relational trauma often shows up as:
High levels of shame or a persistent sense of being "too much" or "not enough"
Difficulty setting limits or tolerating conflict in relationships
Patterns of attracting or staying in unhealthy dynamics
Challenges with emotional regulation — going from 0 to 100 quickly
Feeling chronically lonely even when surrounded by people
This is some of the most important work there is. And it can genuinely change.
Ready to feel different?
break old patterns and finally feel like yourself again.
Anxiety and Trauma Therapy in-person in Westchester, NY, and virtually throughout NY & CT
Racial TraumA
Race-based traumatic stress is real, cumulative, and chronically underaddressed in therapy spaces. Whether it's direct discrimination, microaggressions, systemic exclusion, or the inherited weight of intergenerational oppression — these experiences leave a mark.
Racial trauma can show up as hypervigilance in predominantly white spaces, internalized shame, chronic stress, identity disturbances, and a sense of never fully belonging. It can also intersect with other forms of trauma in ways that compound over time.
Race-based traumatic stress comes in many forms, including direct discrimination, harassment and bullying, social exclusion, and violence. This type of trauma can also be intergenerational, in the sense that the effects of racial oppression can be passed from generation to generation.
This work requires a therapist who actually understands it — not just clinically, but personally. As a first-generation Latina, I bring both professional expertise and lived perspective to this space. You won't have to explain yourself from the beginning.
Sexual Trauma
Sexual trauma is one of the most common — and most silently carried — forms of trauma there is. Many survivors spend years, even decades, managing the effects without ever naming what happened as trauma.
The impact can show up in your body, your relationships, your sense of safety, your capacity for intimacy, and your relationship with yourself. Depression, anxiety, chronic shame, sleep disruption, dissociation, difficulty with physical or emotional closeness — these are not character flaws. They are the nervous system's response to something that happened to you.
You deserve care that meets you where you are — at whatever pace feels right — without pressure to share more than you're ready to.
how I work
my approach to trauma therapy
You’ve done the hard work of holding it together. Now lets actually make it lighter.
Trauma therapy at Sage Talk Therapy is paced, collaborative, and body-informed. I don't rush the process, and I don't believe healing requires you to relive every painful detail.
My approach integrates:
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) — the gold-standard, evidence-based treatment for PTSD and trauma. EMDR works by helping your brain reprocess stuck traumatic memories so they lose their charge — moving from something that floods your nervous system to something that feels more like a memory you can hold without being overtaken by it.
Somatic Experiencing — trauma lives in the body, not just the mind. Somatic work helps you recognize how trauma is held physically and supports your nervous system in completing what it couldn't at the time.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) — trauma often creates internal parts that developed to protect you. IFS helps you understand and work with those parts compassionately, rather than fighting yourself.
CBT and DBT skills — for building concrete tools around distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and challenging the beliefs trauma left behind.
One important thing: you don't have to be ready to talk about what happened. EMDR and somatic work don't require you to narrate your trauma in detail. We work at your pace, with your comfort as the guide..
FAQs
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PTSD typically follows a single traumatic event — an assault, accident, or acute crisis. C-PTSD develops from prolonged, repeated trauma, often within relationships or beginning in childhood. The two share many symptoms but C-PTSD also tends to involve deeper patterns around shame, identity, emotional dysregulation, and relationship difficulties. That said, you don't need a diagnosis to start therapy. If you sense that your past is affecting your present, that's enough.
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That's completely okay — and honestly, more common than you might think. You are never required to share anything before you're ready. Pacing and safety are central to trauma work, not optional additions. Both EMDR and Somatic Experiencing allow us to work on trauma's effects without requiring a detailed narrative. We go at your pace, always.
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It depends on the nature and complexity of the trauma, how your nervous system responds, and what you want from treatment. Single-event trauma often sees meaningful relief within a few months. Complex or developmental trauma typically takes longer — this is deep work, and it deserves the time it needs. I'm happy to discuss what to realistically expect in a consultation.
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For most clients, success isn't the absence of all difficult feelings — it's a fundamentally different relationship with yourself and your past. It might look like: no longer being hijacked by triggers, feeling genuinely safe in your body, being able to think about the past without being flooded by it, healthier relationships, more self-compassion, and a sense that your history is something that happened to you — not the defining truth of who you are.
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Yes, and I actively support collaborative care. If medication is part of your mental health treatment, I'm happy to work alongside your prescriber to ensure our approaches complement each other.
You’ve been carrying this long enough.
healing is possible.
Trauma therapy at Sage Talk Therapy is available in-person in White Plains, NY and online throughout New York and Connecticut. If you're ready to stop managing your past and start actually moving through it, I'd love to connect.