Trauma-Informed Therapy

THE PAST AS A PATHWAY TO HEALING

Understanding Trauma and Its Impact

Trauma-informed therapy offers a compassionate approach to understanding and addressing the effects of trauma. We understand trauma as arising from acute events (big “T” trauma), prolonged stressors (litte “t” trauma), or transgenerational patterns passed down within families. Trauma imprints itself on the body, mind, and emotional landscape, influencing how we relate to ourselves, others, and the world. A trauma-informed approach in psychotherapy shifts the focus from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you, and how did you adapt to survive?”

The impact of trauma can be far-reaching, disrupting emotional regulation, physical well-being, and interpersonal relationships. Common manifestations include:

  • Chronic hypervigilance, anxiety, or persistent stress responses

  • Emotional disconnection, avoidance, or numbing

  • Entrenched patterns of shame, guilt, or self-criticism

  • Somatic symptoms, such as fatigue, chronic pain, or digestive issues

Trauma-informed therapy reframes these responses as adaptive strategies formed in response to overwhelming experiences. By cultivating an environment of safety, curiosity, and trust in the therapeutic relationship, clients can often access the underlying roots of their symptoms and begin to heal.

How Does Trauma-Informed Therapy Facilitate Healing?

Trauma-informed therapy integrates evidence-based practices to create a holistic healing experience to address trauma not only on a cognitive level but also through the body, where it is often stored. Our approach draws from modern psychology, somatic practices, and creative exploration:

  • Somatic Practices and Nervous System Regulation: Grounded in Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing™, trauma-informed therapy focuses on the body as a gateway to healing. By gently engaging with physical sensations through grounding, breathwork, and titration—the gradual release of stored stress—clients build resilience and restore balance to the nervous system.

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS): Trauma can fragment the psyche, creating protective parts that shield the individual from deeper emotional wounds. IFS therapy helps clients engage compassionately with these parts, often reconnecting with exiled inner experiences. Through this process, clients access their innate Self-leadership and cultivate internal harmony.

  • Psychoeducation and Narrative Therapy: Understanding the neurobiological effects of trauma empowers clients to reframe their responses and reduce shame. Narrative therapy allows individuals to explore the stories they carry, reclaim agency, and create new, meaning-filled narratives.

  • Expressive Arts and Creative Exploration: Trauma can be difficult to articulate through words alone. Creative practices such as writing, visual art, and movement provide alternative pathways to process emotions, access the unconscious, and reconnect with the self in a non-linear, embodied way.

This integrative approach ensures that trauma is addressed not only on a cognitive level but also through the body, where it is often stored.

Applications of Trauma-Informed Therapy

Trauma-informed therapy is effective in addressing a wide range of challenges, including:

  • Post-Traumatic Stress and Complex Trauma: Processing acute and developmental trauma with safety and care.

  • Anxiety and Depression: Addressing underlying causes of emotional dysregulation and distress.

  • Addiction and Recovery: Exploring the protective function of addictive behaviors while addressing root traumas.

  • Relational and Attachment Challenges: Supporting clients in rebuilding trust, repairing ruptures, and cultivating intimacy.

  • Life Transitions and Loss: Helping individuals navigate grief, identity changes, and major life shifts.

  • Stress-Related Health Issues: Addressing somatic manifestations of trauma, such as chronic pain, fatigue, or digestive issues.

Benefits of Trauma-Informed Therapy

Trauma-informed therapy can lead to profound shifts by helping clients safely process their experiences and build new patterns of resilience:

  • Restoration of Safety and Stability: Clients learn to regulate their nervous systems, reducing panic, hypervigilance, and dissociation. Tools like grounding, titration, and mindful awareness restore a felt sense of safety within the body.

  • Improved Emotional Regulation: By working through overwhelming emotions, we develop greater emotional balance, shifting from reactive responses to intentional ways of being.

  • Empowerment and Agency: Clients begin recognize their adaptive coping mechanisms while developing tools to make new, conscious choices that align with their values and needs.

  • Enhanced Relational Connection: Trauma often disrupts trust and intimacy in relationships. By addressing relational patterns and attachment wounds, clients find that they are able to build healthier, more connected ways of relating to others.

  • Transgenerational Healing: Trauma-informed therapy explores inherited family patterns and breaks cycles of unresolved trauma to establish new legacies of connection, resilience, and healing.

Through this process, clients not only experience relief from symptoms but also reconnect with their sense of wholeness, vitality, and inner wisdom.

Why Trauma-Informed Therapy?

At Intuitive Therapy, trauma-informed care is grounded in a deep respect for the body-mind connection and the resilience of the human spirit. Founder Danielle Birrittella, LMFT, brings together somatic practices, depth psychology, Internal Family Systems, and expressive arts to create a uniquely integrative therapeutic experience.

  • Holistic Integration: By addressing trauma through the psyche, body, and emotions, this approach supports deep, sustainable change.

  • A Creative Path to Healing: Expressive arts provide alternative ways to access and release emotions when words alone feel limiting.

  • Relational Safety: The foundation of healing begins with trust—an attuned, compassionate therapeutic relationship is at the core of this work.

  • Breaking Cycles of Trauma: Through an awareness of transgenerational patterns, clients are empowered to create healthier relationships for themselves and future generations.

The process of trauma recovery is not simply about symptom relief—it is about reconnecting to one’s vitality, purpose, and inner truth. By addressing the past with curiosity and care, clients are supported in moving beyond survival and into a state of greater authenticity, connection, and thriving.

Begin A Path to Healing

If you are ready to explore trauma-informed therapy, we invite you to reach out to Intuitive Therapy for a consultation. Together, we can create a space of safety, trust, and transformation—a space where healing becomes possible.