Do you work specifically with Stanford Hospital and Peninsula medical staff?

Yes, I specialize in treating healthcare professionals from Stanford Hospital, Stanford Medical Center, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, El Camino Health, Sutter Health, and other Peninsula medical facilities. I understand the unique pressures of academic medicine and Silicon Valley healthcare culture.

What types of trauma do you treat in healthcare workers?

I treat PTSD, anxiety, depression, moral injury, second victim syndrome, burnout, shame, guilt, and grief in medical professionals. I use specialized approaches including EMDR, Brainspotting, ACT, CBT, DBT, and somatic therapy specifically tailored for healthcare workers.

Are virtual therapy sessions as effective as in-person for medical professionals?

Yes, telehealth therapy is highly effective and offers added privacy for healthcare professionals. You can attend sessions from home or a private office without worrying about running into colleagues or patients. I use SimplePractice's secure telehealth platform for all sessions.

Do you accept insurance for healthcare worker therapy?

I don't accept insurance directly, but I can provide a Superbill for potential out-of-network reimbursement if your insurance plan offers it. Sessions range from $300 for a 50-minute session to $1200 for a 4-hour intensive. Payment is due at time of scheduling.

What hours are available for busy medical professionals?

I offer early morning sessions starting at 6:00 or 6:30 AM and evening sessions at 6:30 or 7:00 PM to accommodate medical professionals' schedules. Weekend sessions are also available on an as-needed basis.

Is my therapy confidential from my medical workplace?

Absolutely. All sessions are completely confidential. Your treatment is entirely separate from your workplace, and I do not share information with employers, medical boards, or colleagues. California law protects your privacy in therapy.

Therapy for Sacramento Healthcare Workers

Serving Sacramento, Roseville, Elk Grove, Folsom, and Davis

Trauma Therapy for Sacramento’s Healthcare Workers

You work at UC Davis, Sutter Health, or Kaiser Permanente Sacramento. You're the medical backbone for the entire Central Valley.

At UC Davis Medical Center, the region's only Level I trauma center, you're seeing the worst cases from Redding to Modesto:

Multi-vehicle accidents from I-5 and Highway 99 pile-ups
Agricultural injuries from the Central Valley: machinery accidents, pesticide exposures, heat stroke during harvest
Gang violence from underserved neighborhoods
Pediatric traumas that replay in your mind for months

You’re the safety net, the place helicopters fly to when nowhere else can help. That pressure of being the final hope creates a weight that follows you home after your shift.

Learn more about my approach to trauma treatment for healthcare workers here.

You went into medicine to heal people, but you’re applying band-aids to systemic failures.

Sacramento's public health challenges create “moral injury”: the deep wound you feel when you're forced to practice medicine in ways that violate your values:

The homeless patient you see weekly in the ER. You treat their infection knowing you're discharging them back to the streets where it will worsen.
The overdose patient you've revived multiple times who needs addiction treatment you can't provide.
The psychiatric patient who needs intensive care but gets discharged when the 5150 expires because no beds exist.
The farmworker with heat exhaustion who goes back to the fields because missing work means no food for their family.

Patients drive three hours from rural counties, arriving with advanced disease that should have been treated months ago. The diabetic farmworker whose foot is now gangrenous. The pregnant woman with zero prenatal care arriving in labor. The child whose asthma became life-threatening because you're the nearest specialist, 150 miles away.

Meanwhile, you're working in a system that's falling apart. Rationing supplies that should be abundant. Training new nurses who immediately leave for Bay Area hospitals. Fighting insurance denials while administrators who've never worked bedside make clinical decisions.

You're simultaneously the last hope and an insufficient resource for millions.

The Wildfire Season Marathon

Every fall, you brace for what's becoming year-round reality. The smoke, evacuations, and respiratory emergencies create a months-long marathon.

You're treating firefighters with smoke inhalation while the air in your own hospital is hazardous. Managing evacuee medical needs while your family is on evacuation warning. Working through the Caldor Fire smoke, unable to breathe properly yourself while intubating patients.

The PTSD from Paradise, from the Camp Fire, from every "unprecedented" fire season that's now precedent. You see the same families lose everything repeatedly. Climate anxiety is real when you're treating its victims daily.

What Trauma Recovery Looks Like for Sacramento Healthcare Workers

You finish your shift at UC Davis and drive home on Highway 50 without replaying every critical decision. The golden hour light on the river is beautiful, not a reminder of another trauma you couldn't save.
A frequent flyer returns to Sutter ER: homeless, diabetic, schizophrenic. You provide good care within the system's limitations without absorbing the system's failures into your body.
During fire season, when the air quality hits 300 and respiratory emergencies surge, you maintain stamina. Your nervous system has learned to surf the intensity without drowning in it.
When budget cuts eliminate another program, you feel appropriate anger that moves through you instead of settling into chronic resentment. You can advocate for change without burning out.
You remember that you really enjoy Sacramento's farm-to-fork restaurants, Saturday farmers markets, and American River bike rides.

Why Traditional Talk Therapy Isn't Enough for Sacramento's Healthcare Trauma

Your employee assistance program offers maybe 6 sessions with someone who's never worked in healthcare. But traditional therapy can't reach the trauma from that pediatric drowning in the American River, or the farmworker who died because they waited too long to seek care.

The trauma lives in your nervous system, not your thoughts.

Through Brainspotting, we find where your brain has stored these experiences. Often, there's a specific spot in your visual field that connects to the trauma. We use that spot to help your brain process and release what it's been holding, without you having to relive every detail.

EMDR and ART help your brain reprocess memories so they stop feeling current. The memory remains, but your body stops reacting like it's still happening.

With Somatic Therapy, we address how Sacramento's pressures live in your body: the chest tightness that started during COVID and never left, the chronic headaches from smoke exposure, the constant state of alert even on days off.

The constant crisis mode doesn't have to be your permanent state. Your nervous system can learn to regulate even in an under-resourced system.

Session fees:

50-minute session: $300
90-minute session: $450
4-hour intensive: $1,200

HSA/FSA can be used, and Superbills for out-of-network reimbursement are provided upon request.

I offer early morning and weekend availability because I understand healthcare schedules. All sessions are virtual. No need to fight Sacramento traffic or search for parking downtown.

Investment in Your Career Longevity

Schedule a Session or Contact Me

Meet Summer

I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over a decade of experience, including years working in healthcare settings.

I specialize in trauma for medical professionals. I'm trained in EMDR, ART, Brainspotting, Somatic Therapy, Internal Family Systems, and CPT because I've seen these approaches create real relief for healthcare workers when traditional talk therapy hasn't been enough.

I work with physicians, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, psychotherapists, social workers, and other medical professionals who need direct, effective treatment that works with their schedule and addresses trauma at the nervous system level.

I offer telehealth for medical professionals throughout California. Early morning and weekend appointments are available because I understand your schedule doesn't look like a typical 9-to-5.

More about Summer