Trauma, betrayal and grief therapy for adults, online across Utah and in person in Springville.
I see adults by secure video anywhere in Utah, and in person in Springville. Trauma, betrayal and grief are what I specialize in, and attachment runs underneath all three.
Trauma and PTSD therapy
Some trauma comes from one event. Some of it builds up over years, out of childhood, relationships, or unrelenting stress, and that second kind is often called complex trauma, or C-PTSD. Either way, what I'm working toward with you is the same. The past stops dictating your present, with less reactivity, fewer intrusions, and more room to choose how you respond.
What this covers
- Complex trauma and C-PTSD
- Childhood and developmental trauma
- Sexual trauma and assault
- Childhood emotional neglect
- PTSD and post-traumatic stress
- Dissociation and feeling disconnected from yourself
- Accidents, medical, and single-event trauma
- Occupational and moral injury (healthcare, nursing, first responders)
- Grief and loss layered on top of trauma
Betrayal trauma and infidelity
Finding out about an affair, hidden pornography use, or years of quiet deception is a trauma. I want to be plain about that, because people in this position are so often told they are overreacting. It lands directly on your attachment system, which is why the symptoms look like trauma: intrusive images, compulsive checking, sleeplessness, and swings between rage and numbness. Betrayal by a close friend, a family member or a church leader can land the same way. Either way, the first job is getting your own footing back, at your own pace.
What this covers
- Discovery and the aftermath
- Betrayal by a friend, family member or church leader
- Intrusive images and compulsive checking
- Rebuilding your own footing first
- Deciding what you want, in your own time
On scope: this is individual therapy, and I don't see both members of the same couple. I'm not a certified sex-addiction therapist, so if compulsive sexual behavior is the central issue I'll refer you to a specialist. I don't provide couples counseling either; ask and I'll point you to Utah practices that do.
Grief and loss
A death you have not moved past, whether it happened last year or twenty years ago. Grief counseling here doesn't treat grief as a disorder, because it isn't one. What it offers is steady company while grief rearranges what matters, and permission to take the time it takes when everyone around you seems to expect you to be over it by now. When a loss is tangled up with older material, or the death itself was traumatic in how it happened, that is exactly the work I do.
What this covers
- Loss of a child, a spouse, a parent, or someone who shaped your life
- Sudden, unexpected, and traumatic loss
- Grief other people think you should be over
- Grief layered over older trauma
- Holidays and anniversaries that reopen it
- Who you are now, after the loss
Relationship patterns and attachment
A lot of people come to me with no single traumatic event to point at. What they have is a pattern. The same relationship, with a different person. Going cold the moment someone gets close. Needing constant reassurance and hating that they need it. Never quite being able to name what they want. Those are attachment patterns, learned early and running automatically now, and they respond well to focused work.
What this covers
- Anxious and avoidant attachment patterns
- Repeating the same relationship
- Codependency and chronic people-pleasing
- Emotional distance, stonewalling, and shutting down
- Difficulty trusting or being truly known
- Boundaries, self-worth, and saying what you want
Anxiety and depression
Sometimes these ride along with trauma, and sometimes they stand alone. I use CBT, ACT and EFIT alongside the trauma work, and we look at what's keeping the pattern going and at building a life that doesn't take constant white-knuckling.
What this covers
- Chronic anxiety and hypervigilance
- Depression and emotional flatness
- Anger and irritability
- Sleep disruption and rumination
Life transitions and direction
Divorce, a career change, a faith transition. The loss of a role, or the future you were counting on. Or the quiet realization that you're living a life you never chose. This work is practical and philosophical at once. What do you want, what's in the way, and what are you going to do about it?
What this covers
- Divorce and relationship endings
- Career and role changes
- Faith and identity transitions
- Purpose, values, and decision-making
EMDR therapy
EMDR is a structured therapy that helps the brain reprocess distressing memories. It's one of the most researched trauma treatments there is, evaluated in more than 30 randomized controlled trials, and it's recommended for PTSD by the World Health Organization and in the VA and Department of Defense guidelines. It also doesn't ask you to describe everything that happened, which for a lot of people is the whole reason they can do it at all.
What this covers
- EMDRIA-approved training
- Structured 8-phase protocol
- Extended 80-minute sessions, planned in advance
- Paced around your sense of safety
How the work gets done
EMDR, EFIT, TF-CBT, CBT, ACT and more. What each one is, what it treats, and what happens in a real EMDR session, explained plainly.
See my full approachFaith, doubt, and faith transitions
In Utah this question matters. I work with people across the whole range. Deeply committed, questioning, actively stepping away, long since gone, and never religious at all. I won't steer you toward faith or away from it. Either one would be my agenda substituted for yours. What I will do is take seriously whatever role belief has played in your life, including the parts that hurt: the grief that can come with changing beliefs, the loneliness of not fitting the community you grew up in, and the family and cultural pressure that comes with all of it here. If faith is central to how you make sense of your life, it belongs in the room. If it's the thing you're working through, that belongs in the room too. That includes hurt that came from inside a faith community, or from a leader you trusted. And if it isn't part of your life, it won't come up.
No set number of sessions
Everyone moves at their own pace, so I don't put a clock on this work. For many people, sessions naturally spread out as things get better, and we decide together when you're done.
Wondering what this costs? Every rate, how insurance works, and the privacy trade-off are on one page.
See the feesReady to start?
With an in-network plan you can book a first session directly. Not sure yet? The free consult is fifteen minutes by video, and I'll tell you plainly whether this is a fit.
Have SelectHealth, Regence BCBS, Aetna, Cigna, Carelon or Curative? Book your first session directly. Paying privately? Book a private-pay session. Not sure yet? Start with a free consult.