Trauma Therapy
Trauma doesn't stay in the past on its own. It lives in the body, in your reactions, in the stories you tell yourself about what you deserve and what's safe. Good trauma therapy doesn’t mean reliving what happened over and over. The goal is to change your relationship with it, so the past finally feels like the past.
Who We Work With
You don't need a formal PTSD diagnosis to benefit from trauma therapy. If past experiences are still shaping your present, whether that's how you feel in your body, how you relate to others, or how safe the world seems, that's enough.
PTSD and Complex PTSDSingle-incident trauma or years of accumulated adverse experiences: we work with both
Childhood and developmental traumaThe wounds formed early, often before language, that shaped your sense of self and safety
Relational and attachment traumaDisruptions to early bonds that still show up in how you connect, trust, and protect yourself
Sexual assault and abuseSurvivor-centered care that moves at your pace, with your explicit consent at every step
Medical trauma and accidentsExperiences that left your nervous system stuck in a state of ongoing alert
Grief with traumatic elementsIncluding sudden, violent, or unexpected loss, and the particular weight it carries
Our Therapeutic Approaches
Trauma lives in the nervous system as much as in memory, so talking about it isn’t always the right first step. Sometimes the body needs to feel steadier before the story can be processed. Our therapists use Internal Family Systems (IFS) and somatic work alongside EMDR and Brainspotting, all of which work with the body as well as the mind.
EMDRHelps the brain reprocess stuck memories at a neurological level, often reaching what talk therapy alone cannot
BrainspottingLocates where trauma is held in the body via the visual field and uses that access point to process and release stored activation
Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)Retrains the nervous system toward safety using filtered music, particularly helpful for complex or developmental trauma
Somatic TherapyWorks with the physical experience of trauma: the tension, freeze, collapse, and overwhelm that lives in the body
Trauma therapy isn't about making you relive everything. It's about helping you finally set it down.
Trauma Therapy in Denver and Online
We offer trauma therapy in person at our Denver office and via telehealth throughout Colorado. If you’re not sure who to start with, Kelli Ruhl and Kelsey Bennett focus most on trauma.
Common Questions
Trauma therapy specifically addresses how traumatic experiences are stored and processed by the brain and body. Methods like EMDR and Brainspotting target the neurological roots of trauma responses, as well as the thinking patterns around them.
No. EMDR and somatic approaches in particular don't require you to describe events in detail to be effective. We move at a pace your nervous system can tolerate.
Trauma has more to do with how your system responded than with how bad the event looks from the outside. If you notice intrusive memories, hypervigilance, emotional numbing, difficulty trusting, or a sense of being stuck in past experiences, these can all be signs that trauma therapy would help.
Yes. Many of our clients come in with complex PTSD from childhood adversity, relational trauma, or prolonged difficult experiences. Our therapists are experienced in the slower, more relational work that complex trauma requires.
Who to See for This
You Don't Have to Carry This Alone
Trauma responds to the right treatment. A free consultation is a low-pressure first step.
Schedule a Free Consultation