Trauma care that moves at your pace.

Trauma is what can happen after an experience that overwhelmed your ability to cope. It might be a single event, like an accident, an assault, a loss, or a medical emergency. It might be something that went on for a long time, like abuse, neglect, or living with ongoing danger. The brain learns to stay braced for threat, and that bracing keeps running even when you're safe.

This isn't weakness, and it isn't something you should have gotten over by now. The nightmares, the flinching, the numbness, the sense of being far away from your own life, these are the predictable ways a nervous system protects itself after too much. Both single-incident trauma and complex, long-standing trauma respond to thoughtful care.

Our role is the psychiatric side of that care. We evaluate carefully, treat the symptoms that medication can reach, and help connect you with trauma-focused therapy, which is where the core healing of trauma usually happens. The two work best together, and we keep them coordinated so you aren't piecing it together alone.

Signs we look for

• Intrusive memories, flashbacks, or nightmares that pull you back to what happened
• Staying on high alert, easily startled, or scanning for danger that may not be there
• Avoiding people, places, conversations, or reminders tied to the event
• Feeling numb, detached, or far away from yourself and the people you love
• Trouble sleeping, irritability, or anger that surfaces faster than it used to
• Low mood, guilt, or shame, and a sense that you're somehow different now
• Trouble concentrating, or feeling constantly tense and unable to relax

How we evaluate

A trauma evaluation is unhurried and led by you. We take a careful history and ask only what we need to understand the picture, and you decide how much detail to share and when. You're never pushed to recount the event itself to be taken seriously. We also look at what often travels alongside trauma, including depression, anxiety, sleep problems, and substance use, so the plan treats the right targets rather than a single label. From there we talk through what's likely to help and in what order.

How we treat

Treatment for trauma is usually a partnership between medication and therapy, and we're honest about what each part does. On the psychiatric side, medications such as SSRIs and SNRIs can lower the baseline intensity of PTSD symptoms for many people, and prazosin is sometimes considered specifically for trauma-related nightmares. We explain the real tradeoffs, start carefully, and follow up. The core treatment for trauma, though, is trauma-focused therapy such as EMDR, cognitive processing therapy, or prolonged exposure, which is delivered by a therapist rather than by us. We help you find that therapy and coordinate with your therapist so medication and therapy point in the same direction. Throughout, you stay in control of the pace, and the work is structured to support you rather than re-traumatize you.