Trauma Therapy for Medical Providers

Long-term healing for healthcare providers using body-based therapies

Online throughout all of California

Healthcare Worker Trauma: When Helping Others Is Hurting You

  • You went into healthcare to help people. You wanted to make a difference, to be there for patients during their most vulnerable moments. You never imagined your personal cost would be this high.

  • You work in the ICU, the ED, the burn unit, maternity, oncology. You've seen things most people will never see. You've held the hand of someone taking their last breath. You've told families their person didn't make it. You've done chest compressions on a teenager. You've watched a newborn die.

  • You leave work and can't shake it. Certain patients haunt you. You're lying in bed replaying a code, wondering if you could have done something different. You're in the shower and suddenly you're back in that room with that family.

  • You're irritable at home. You snap at your partner and kids over nothing. You feel guilty, but you're just so tired and so done. You (guiltily) catch yourself daydreaming about spending time alone in an isolated cabin in the woods.

  • You're drinking more than you used to. That glass of wine after a shift has turned into two, then three. Or you're staying in relationships that aren't good for you because you don't have the energy to set boundaries or be alone.

  • You're on the brink of burn out. You dread going to work. Your chest gets tight just thinking about your next shift. You're starting to wonder if you made the wrong career choice, if you're not cut out for this.

  • Maybe you made a mistake that hurt someone. It was an accident, but you can't stop thinking about it. Every time it comes to mind, you feel sick. You're terrified you'll make another mistake.

  • You worked through COVID. You showed up every day while everyone else stayed home. You watched people die alone. You held iPads so families could say goodbye through a screen. That was years ago now, but you still haven't recovered. And the trauma keeps coming. It's accumulating.

Medical Professional PTSD Treatment That Helps You Stay in the Career You Worked So Hard For

You finish a difficult shift and you leave it at work. You drive home and you're thinking about what you'll make for dinner, not replaying the code from earlier.

A patient reminds you of someone who died, and you notice the similarity, but it doesn't send you spiraling. You're able to stay present and do your job without being hijacked by the memory.

You come home and your partner asks how your day was. You can actually talk about it without shutting down or snapping. You're present for the conversation.

Your kids are being loud and chaotic, and instead of losing your patience immediately, you can take a breath. You're not walking around with a hair-trigger temper anymore.

You have one glass of wine because you enjoy it, not because you need it to quiet your mind. You're not using alcohol or food or other people to escape how you feel.

You wake up on a work day and you don't have that knot in your stomach. You're not dreading your shift. You remember why you chose this profession in the first place.

You make a clinical decision and you trust yourself. You're not second-guessing everything or paralyzed by fear that you'll make a mistake.

You're able to set boundaries at work. When a coworker or manager crosses a line, you can say something instead of just absorbing it and feeling beat down.

You're not actively planning your exit strategy anymore. You can see yourself doing this work for years to come because it's fulfilling again, not just draining.

Most importantly: you're living your life again, not just surviving shift to shift. You show up for your family. You have energy for things outside of work. You remember what it feels like not to be running on empty.

Why Standard Therapy Doesn’t Work for Healthcare Worker Trauma

You've already been trying to deal with this. You haven't been ignoring it.

You've talked to coworkers about how you're feeling. They get it. They're burnt out too. But they're just as overwhelmed as you are and don't have answers. Commiserating helps for a minute, but it doesn't change anything.

You tried your Employee Assistance Program. You got a few sessions with a therapist. It was fine, but the sessions were limited and you needed more than a few check-ins. The issues are bigger than what EAP can address.

You looked into therapists covered by your insurance, but they only have appointments during normal business hours. With your schedule (nights, weekends, rotating shifts), you can't find a consistent time that works. You tried a few sessions here and there, but the lack of continuity meant you never made real progress.

You've tried managing it on your own: exercise, journaling, meditation apps. They help in the moment, but they're not addressing the root of what's wrong. The images still come back. The tension is still there. You're still dreading work.

You've tried what seemed available to you. But talk therapy, especially inconsistent talk therapy, doesn't reach what's actually happening. The trauma from your work isn't just in your thoughts, it's living in your body. Your nervous system is stuck in high alert mode, constantly braced for the next crisis.

That's why talking about it hasn't been enough. You need approaches that work with how your nervous system has stored these experiences.

Specialized Trauma Treatment for Medical

Providers

Traditional therapy asks you to talk through what you've experienced, to process it by putting it into words. But when you've witnessed as much trauma as you have (ie: when it's not one event but an accumulation of dozens or hundreds) talking about it can feel overwhelming or even retraumatizing.

The methods I use work directly with how trauma is stored in your brain and body. You don't have to recount every difficult shift or every patient who haunts you. These approaches help your nervous system process and release what it's been holding so you can function again.

EMDR

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) changes how your brain has filed traumatic memories. Right now, when you think about a particular patient or shift, your brain reacts like it's happening again. Your heart races, your breathing changes, you feel the same distress you felt then.

Through guided eye movements, we help your brain reprocess those memories so they get filed as past events, not current emergencies. The memories don't disappear, but they stop controlling you.

Somatic Experiencing

Somatic Experiencing works with what your body is carrying. Your shoulders are up by your ears. Your jaw is clenched. Your stomach is in knots. You startle easily. Your body has been in crisis mode for so long it doesn't remember how to relax.

We work with your body's signals to help your nervous system discharge the stress it's been holding and find its way back to baseline.

ART

Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) helps you change the images your brain keeps replaying. There's probably a specific moment that haunts you—a patient's face, the moment you realized they weren't going to make it, the family member's reaction when you gave them bad news.

With ART, you keep the facts of what happened, but we help your brain replace the distressing images with ones that don't destroy you. Most people notice significant relief in just a few sessions.

IFS

Internal Family Systems (IFS) helps with the internal conflict healthcare work creates. Part of you wants to keep caring deeply about patients. Another part wants to shut down completely to protect yourself. One part feels guilty about every mistake. Another part is furious at your workplace and the system.

We work with these different parts so they stop fighting each other. The part that's trying to protect you by numbing out can relax. The part that's been holding all the guilt can step back. You find room to breathe and make choices that aren't driven by burnout or self-protection.

Brainspotting

Brainspotting finds where the trauma is stored in your brain and helps release it without you having to relive every detail. When you think about a difficult patient or shift, your eyes naturally move to a position that connects to where your brain has stored that experience. We use that position to help your brain process what it's been holding.

CPT

Complex Processing Therapy (CPT) helps you examine and change the beliefs that keep you stuck. Maybe you believe every bad outcome is your fault. Maybe you believe if you were better at your job, you could save everyone. Maybe you believe you should be able to handle anything without it affecting you.

CPT helps you identify these stuck points and develop more balanced, realistic ways of thinking. This reduces the guilt, shame, and fear that compound the trauma of healthcare work.

Therapy for Medical Professionals

FAQs

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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 trauma, regardless of when it happened. I work with clients whose losses happened decades ago and who are finally finding relief.

  • 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).

  • 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.

Hi! I’m Summer

I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in California with over a decade of experience, including years working in healthcare settings. CA LCSW 68507.

I specialize in trauma for medical professionals. I'm trained in EMDR, ART, Brainspotting, Somatic Experiencing, 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.

About Me

I offer early morning and weekend appointments because I understand your schedule doesn't look like a typical 9-to-5.

Your nervous system can learn to stand down. You can stop being haunted by difficult shifts. You can stay in the profession you worked so hard for without sacrificing your mental health and relationships.

I offer 50-minute sessions, 90-minute sessions, and 4-hour intensive sessions for people who want to make significant progress quickly.

Session fees:

  • 50-minute session: $300

  • 90-minute session: $450

  • 4-hour intensive: $1,200

I don't take insurance, but I can provide a Superbill (documentation for out-of-network reimbursement) if your insurance plan offers it. Payment is due at time of scheduling, and future sessions are billed 24 hours in advance.

All sessions are virtual/online only.

Evidence-Based PTSD Therapy for Medical Providers:

Stop Running On Empty

Contact Summer

sverhines.lcsw@gmail.com
(855) 564-3338

P.O. Box 28
Wilton, CA 95693