Trauma Therapy in Madison, CT
Therapy for Trauma
At PeaceWorks Counseling & Therapy, we offer compassionate, evidence-based treatment to help you or your loved one begin healing and reclaim a sense of safety and self.
When you’ve lived through something overwhelming, your mind and body can hold onto the impact long after it’s over.
You might feel on edge, disconnected, or unsure why certain people, places, or moments trigger strong reactions. Sometimes trauma shows up as anxiety, irritability, nightmares, shame, or a sense that you’re not fully yourself anymore.
It’s not in your head. It’s your nervous system trying to protect you, even if it no longer needs to. With the right support, you can learn how to calm these automatic responses, feel safer in your body, and begin to reclaim a sense of choice and control.
Trauma Therapy Can Help You…
Feel safer in your mind and body so you can move through daily life with more confidence.
Understand your triggers while building tools to stay grounded and present.
Reconnect with yourself and create space for healing, clarity, and emotional strength.
How We Approach Trauma Treatment
01. Schedule Your First Session
We’ll start with a brief phone consultation so you can share what’s been going on and ask any questions about the process. This helps you get a sense of whether this feels like the right fit and what support might be most helpful right now.
02. Your First Therapy Session
In your initial session, we’ll explore what you’ve been experiencing and how trauma or chronic stress is affecting your day-to-day life. You’ll never be pushed to share more than you want to—this is a steady, supportive space to go at your own pace. I’ll also explain how trauma therapy works so you know what to expect moving forward.
03. Understanding Your Nervous System
Next, we’ll begin to map how your nervous system responds to stress or reminders of past experiences. Together, we’ll notice patterns like feeling on edge, shutting down, or wanting to avoid certain situations, and identify what helps you feel more grounded. This understanding can reduce shame and help your reactions make more sense.
04. Weekly Sessions
In ongoing sessions, we’ll work gently and collaboratively using trauma-informed approaches such as CBT, ACT, EMDR-informed strategies, grounding skills, and somatic techniques. Our focus is on helping your mind and body feel safer, reducing overwhelm, and building emotional regulation in a way that feels manageable.
05. Strengthening Skills and Moving Forward
As therapy progresses, you’ll develop tools to manage triggers, stay connected to your values, and move through life with a greater sense of steadiness. When you feel ready, we’ll talk about spacing sessions out or wrapping up, and you’ll leave with strategies you can continue to use long after therapy ends.
How We Help
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Helps your brain reprocess painful memories so they feel less overwhelming. Using structured sets of eye movements or tapping, EMDR supports your nervous system in healing rather than staying stuck in the past.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Helps you relate differently to painful thoughts and feelings instead of battling them. ACT teaches skills to steady your mind, make room for what’s hard, and move toward the people and values that matter most.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
Provides tools to understand how trauma affects your thoughts, emotions, and body. TF-CBT helps you build coping skills, process difficult memories safely, and restore a sense of control.
Cognitive Processing Therapy
Helps you examine and shift trauma-related beliefs—like guilt, blame, or danger—that keep you stuck. CPT supports you in making sense of what happened and rebuilding trust in yourself and the world.
Compassionate Support for Trauma and Chronic Stress
Trauma affects both the mind and the body, sometimes long after the event is over. Whether your symptoms feel intense, confusing, or hard to predict, you deserve care that helps you understand what your nervous system has been carrying and why your reactions make sense.
Trauma therapy provides a steady, supportive space to make sense of what you’re experiencing, build grounding and regulation skills, and gently reconnect with parts of yourself that may feel shut down or overwhelmed.
Working at your pace, we use trauma-informed, evidence-based approaches to help your mind and body feel safer, clearer, and more in control.
We support individuals experiencing:
Childhood or complex trauma
PTSD and traumatic stress responses
Emotional, physical, or sexual abuse
Medical or birth trauma
Grief, loss, or sudden life changes
Chronic stress or burnout
Dissociation, numbness, or feeling “not like yourself”
Anxiety, irritability, or sleep disturbances related to trauma
Frequently Asked Questions
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Our work is trauma-informed and integrates evidence-based approaches. Our therapists are trained in:
Trauma-focused CBT
Cognitive Processing Therapy
EMDR, and
ACT for Trauma.
We also use grounding and other emotion regulation skills and somatic techniques. Together, we choose methods that feel safe and manageable for you.
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No. You are always in control of what you share. Trauma therapy never requires you to tell your full story—you can heal without revisiting every detail. We go at your pace and focus on helping you feel safer and more regulated.
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Everyone’s path is different. Some people begin to notice improvements in regulation and grounding within several weeks, while deeper work may take longer. We tailor the pace to your needs, comfort level, and goals.
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We’ll always work gently, with an emphasis on safety and stabilization first. You’ll learn grounding and nervous-system regulation skills so you can feel more anchored both in and outside of sessions
Trauma may be part of your story,
but it doesn’t have to define your future.
With steady, trauma-informed support, your nervous system can begin to find more safety and ease. You can feel clearer, more grounded, and more like yourself again.