Therapy for Trauma and PTSD
Body-based therapies for long-term trauma healing
Online throughout all of California & Idaho
The Day Everything Changed…
Something happened, and you haven't been the same since. Maybe it was one terrible moment that split your life into "before" and "after," or maybe it was years of things that shouldn't have happened, accumulating until you couldn't carry them anymore.
Now you're managing two lives: the one everyone sees, where you go to work, show up for people, and answer “I'm fine” when anyone asks, and the private one, where you're working harder than anyone knows just to get through each day. You’re stronger than you knew, but you're also tired of having to be this strong.
Your Body Remembers
You pass that intersection, hear that song, or catch a glimpse of something familiar, and suddenly your heart is pounding, your hands are shaking, and you can’t catch your breath. Your body reacts before your mind even understands why.
So you've learned to avoid certain things: first just that one trigger, then anything that might remind you. Your world has gotten smaller, but you're smart and resourceful, finding ways to navigate around the hard parts. Still, you know this isn't the life you want to be living.
The Nights Tell a Different Story
3am has become too familiar, whether you can’t fall asleep because you’re dreading the nightmares, or you wake up suddenly, heart racing from dangers that aren't there anymore but still live in your nervous system.
Even during the day, you stay alert, scanning for threats, noticing every exit, every sudden movement. Your body hasn't gotten the message that you survived, that you're safe now. Maintaining this level of alertness is exhausting.
Finding Your Way Back to Yourself
Sometimes you feel like you're watching your life from outside your body, like you're going through the motions but not really there. Other times, the emotions flood in so intensely that you need to shut down just to cope. You move between feeling too much and too little, searching for that middle ground that everyone else seems to find.
The person you were before feels like a fundamentally different person. You can't quite explain to others what's changed, how you see the world differently now, how trust feels more complicated. But you also know you're still in there, that the core of who you are remains, even if it's wrapped in protective layers right now.
You’re Ready for Something Different
You’ve gotten through each day, found ways to manage, kept functioning even when it was hard, but you're tired of just managing. You want to sleep without nightmares, go places without scanning for exits, have conversations without part of you being somewhere else.
You want a life where trauma isn’t in the driver’s seat, where you can choose to go somewhere because you want to, not because it’s the only place that feels safe, where relationships feel like connections, not threats, where your body can finally relax because it understands the danger has passed.
The Relief You’ve Been Looking For From Trauma Starts Here…
It’s Tuesday morning, you wake up at 7am without your heart pounding, and you feel rested. No immediate panic about what might go wrong, just regular morning grogginess, and maybe annoyance that you’re out of coffee.
You meet friends for dinner and someone drops a tray behind you with a loud crash. Everyone jumps, including you, but here’s the thing: your body realizes it's just a restaurant sound, not a threat. Within seconds you're back to your conversation, maybe even laughing about how everyone jumped. The sound doesn't echo in your mind for the rest of the meal.
Your partner’s talking about their annoying coworker and you’re actually listening, not pretending to listen while mentally cataloging every exit and checking if anyone looks sketchy. You’re just having a normal conversation where you can focus on how ridiculous it is that Greg microwaves fish in the office every day.
You make plans for next month, actual committed plans, where you buy tickets or make reservations, not "maybe if I'm feeling up to it" plans. You put them in your calendar and mostly feel normal about it, maybe even looking forward to them.
This is what getting better looks like: regular life events start feeling regular again. The trauma still happened, but it stops being the loudest thing in every room. Tuesday can just be a boring Tuesday, where your biggest problem is being out of coffee and dealing with Greg’s fish smell, and that’s exactly the kind of mundane problem you’ve been hoping to have again.
I can help you get there.
If You’re Like Most People, Traditional Trauma Therapy Hasn’t Brought the Relief You Need…
You've already been working on this. You haven't been sitting around waiting to feel better.
You tried regular talk therapy. You spent months, maybe years, telling your story to a therapist who listened and validated your feelings. It helped you understand what happened, but it didn't stop the flashbacks. You still couldn't sleep. Your body still reacted like you were in danger even when you knew logically you were safe.
You tried medication. It took the edge off the anxiety, helped you sleep a little better. But it didn't touch the core problem. The trauma is still there, just slightly muzzled.
You tried coping strategies: breathing exercises, meditation apps, journaling. They're helpful in the moment when you're having a panic attack, but they don't stop the panic attacks from happening in the first place.
You tried staying busy, throwing yourself into work or the gym or projects. You're exhausted, and the trauma is still right there waiting for you every time you stop moving.
You've tried what everyone told you would help. These approaches work for some people, but they're not working for you. That's not because you're doing it wrong or because you're broken beyond repair.
Talk therapy works with your thoughts and understanding. Medication works with your brain chemistry. Coping strategies help you manage symptoms in the moment. But trauma doesn't just live in your thoughts; it lives in your nervous system. It's stored in your body.
When something traumatic happens, your nervous system goes into survival mode: fight, flight, or freeze. That's supposed to be temporary. But when trauma gets stuck, your nervous system stays in that state. That's why you can understand what happened, you can know you're safe now, and your body still reacts like you're in danger. Your nervous system hasn't gotten the message that the threat is over.
That's why talking about it or understanding it cognitively isn’t enough. You need methods that work directly with your nervous system to help it process and release what it's been holding.
Finding Long-Term Relief from Trauma: Methods That Work With Your Nervous System…
Traditional talk therapy asks you to process trauma by talking about it, putting the experience into words, and making sense of it cognitively. That has value, but for many people, it keeps re-triggering the trauma without giving your nervous system a way to discharge it.
The methods I use work directly with how trauma is stored in your brain and body. You don't have to retell your story week after week. These approaches help your nervous system process the trauma and file it as something that happened in the past, not something that's still happening now.
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing changes how your brain has stored the traumatic memory. Right now, when you think about what happened, or when something triggers the memory, your brain and body react like you're back in that moment. Your heart races, you can't breathe, you're flooded with the same terror you felt then.
Through guided eye movements, we help your brain reprocess the memory so it gets filed as past, not present. The memory doesn't disappear, but it stops hijacking your nervous system.
ART
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) helps you change the images your brain keeps replaying. Right now, there's probably a specific scene, image, or moment that keeps coming back: what you saw, what you heard, the look on someone's face, the moment you realized what was happening.
With ART, you keep the facts of what happened, but we help your brain replace the images and sensations with ones that don't destroy you every time they surface. Most people notice significant relief within just a few sessions.
Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing works with what your body is holding. Your shoulders are up by your ears. Your jaw is clenched. Your stomach is in knots. You startle at every unexpected sound. Your body is stuck in a state of high alert, constantly scanning for danger even when there is none.
Trauma gets trapped in your nervous system when your body couldn't complete its natural survival response: fight, flight, or freeze. We work with your body's signals to help it discharge that stuck energy and find its way back to a state where it can actually rest.
Brainspotting
Brainspotting finds where your trauma is stored in your brain and helps release it without you having to relive every detail. When you think about what happened, your eyes naturally move to a certain position that connects to where your brain has stored that experience. We use that position to help your brain process the trauma at a deep level.
IFS
Internal Family Systems (IFS) helps with the internal war trauma creates. Part of you wants to move on. Another part is terrified to let your guard down. One part is filled with rage. Another part just wants to disappear. These parts are fighting each other, and it's exhausting.
We work with these different parts so they stop fighting and can work together. The part that's been protecting you by staying hypervigilant can relax. The part that's been pushing down all your feelings can step back. You get to be a whole person again instead of a collection of conflicting reactions.
The Specialized Trauma Support I Provide
Trauma Treatment for Healthcare Workers
Traumatic or Unexpected Grief and Bereavement
You've been looking for relief, and you've tried what people said would help. This is different.
The methods I use work with where trauma lives – in your nervous system and body – so that you can finally stop reacting like the threat is still happening and start living like it’s in the past.
You Don’t Have to Live Like This Anymore
Your nervous system can learn that the threat is over. You can stop being hijacked by flashbacks and triggers. You can sleep through the night and show up for your life.
I offer 50-minute sessions, 90-minute sessions, and 4-hour intensive sessions for people who want to make significant progress quickly.
Schedule your first session or contact me below.
Hi! I’m Summer
Summer Verhines, LCSW
I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in California with over a decade of experience. (CA LCSW: #68507, ID telehealth registration: #9371387)
I specialize in trauma and PTSD. I'm trained in EMDR, ART, Brainspotting, Somatic Experiencing, and Internal Family Systems because I've seen these approaches create real relief when traditional talk therapy hasn't been enough.
I work with people who need effective treatment that addresses trauma at the nervous system level, not just people who need someone to listen week after week.
Contact Mesverhines.lcsw@gmail.com
(855) 564-3338
P.O. Box 28
Wilton, CA 95693
PTSD/Trauma Therapy FAQs
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Traditional talk therapy focuses on processing your feelings by talking through them week after week. The methods I use (ie: Brainspotting, EMDR, ART, Somatic Experiencing, and IFS) work directly with how your brain and nervous system have stored the trauma. Instead of just talking about what happened, we're helping your brain actually process and release what's stuck. Many clients tell me they’ve spent months or years in traditional therapy without the relief they found in just a few sessions using these approaches.
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This varies based on your specific situation, but many clients notice meaningful shifts within the first few sessions. Because these methods work directly with your nervous system rather than just processing feelings through talk, the work often moves faster than traditional trauma counseling. Some clients work with me for a few months, while others find that deeper, more complex trauma benefits from longer-term work. We'll check in regularly about your progress and adjust as needed.
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Not at all. With methods like Brainspotting, EMDR, and ART, you don't have to retell the story over and over. Your brain already knows what happened. These approaches help your brain process the memory without you having to verbally recount every painful detail. You'll share what feels important to you, but the healing happens through the specific techniques, not through repeatedly talking through the trauma.
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No, it’s not too late. Trauma doesn’t have an expiration date, and your nervous system doesn’t understand whether something happened six months ago or six years ago. If it’s still affecting you now, it’s still present in your system. These methods work with how your brain has stored the loss, regardless of when it happened. I work with clients whose trauma happened decades ago and who are finally finding relief.
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Yes. Many of my clients are on medication, and that's completely fine. Medication can help take the edge off and give you more capacity to do the deeper work. These therapeutic methods work alongside medication. If you have questions about your specific medication, I'm happy to discuss that during a consultation.
One thing to note: women who are pregnant should wait until the second or third trimester to try Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART).
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Yes, these methods are highly effective online. Brainspotting, EMDR, ART, and IFS all translate well to video sessions. In fact, many clients prefer doing this work from home where they feel safe and can rest afterward if needed. You'll need a quiet, private space, a stable internet connection, and a device with a camera. I'll guide you through everything, and we'll make sure you're comfortable with the setup before we begin any deeper work.