Trauma and PTSD
Trauma & Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Trauma can completely alter how you think about yourself, others, and the world around you. After experiencing a trauma, you may find you avoid certain places, people, or objects that remind you of the event, and you might notice that your world often shrinks as you work to prevent feeling triggered or upset by these reminders. You might find this avoidance to be exhausting and limiting, and you might greatly miss how you felt before the trauma occurred.
As a trauma provider with many years of training and experience in treating trauma, I will work with you to help you: identify the ways trauma has affected your life; understand and implement skills to help you manage trauma triggers and other symptoms that are interfering with your life; process the event(s) in a way that is gradual, structured, and safe and that will noticeably reduce your overall symptoms. Specifically, I am trained in and use Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Prolonged Exposure (PE) Therapy, two therapies with a long history of demonstrated effectiveness grounded in research and best practices so that you can feel confident that the things you are learning in therapy will help you to experience relief and guide you towards recovery. While no treatment can make you forget the pain you’ve endured, effective treatment can help you learn how to live a life worth living in spite of what you’ve experienced.
As a psychologist, my work is driven by a career-long dedication to understanding and treating the complexities of trauma. I hold a PhD from Purdue University, where my doctoral training focused heavily on the profound impact of trauma within refugee and immigrant populations. This advanced specialization grew from a foundational academic journey that began with my Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and continued through Columbia University, Teachers College, where I earned my Master’s degree in Trauma and Global Mental Health. This path of study allowed me to cultivate a deep theoretical and clinical understanding of how high-stress environments and experiences shape the human experience.
Early in my career, I focused on the most vulnerable, working with young children navigating the aftermath of abuse and neglect. I then expanded my expertise into the veteran community, conducting research and providing direct clinical care for PTSD at the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals in both San Francisco and Indianapolis. During my post-doctoral training I served as a member of a high-intensity crisis team supporting individuals in the immediate wake of traumatic events. I also led an intensive group program designed specifically for trauma survivors, focusing on the practical, life-changing skills needed to manage the physiological and emotional weight of their experiences. Today, I integrate this breadth of experience to provide my patients with an informed, compassionate, and highly specialized roadmap toward healing.