Trauma therapy at Catalyst Counseling is for individuals who recognize that past experiences are shaping their present in ways that are no longer serving them. This includes people who have experienced childhood abuse or neglect, domestic violence, sexual assault, sudden loss, medical trauma, or the cumulative stress of working in high-pressure environments like first response, law enforcement, or emergency medicine. Trauma does not always look like a dramatic single event. Many of our clients carry what is sometimes called small-t trauma, patterns of relational hurt, chronic stress, or emotional neglect that never got the attention they deserved. We serve clients across Northern Virginia, Maryland, and the greater DC area who are ready to do more than cope.
Catalyst Counseling provides trauma therapy for PTSD and complex PTSD, childhood and developmental trauma, relational and attachment wounds, occupational trauma and first responder burnout, survivor guilt and moral injury, trauma-related anxiety, depression, and dissociation, and the physical symptoms of trauma including chronic tension, hypervigilance, and sleep disruption. Our therapists bring specialized training and genuine clinical depth to each of these areas.
Trauma therapy at Catalyst is not about revisiting painful memories for the sake of processing them. It is about helping your nervous system find safety, building the internal capacity to engage difficult material, and working through what happened in a way that is structured, paced, and always within your control. Our therapists are trained in trauma-informed care, EMDR, and somatic approaches that recognize trauma lives in the body as much as the mind. We do not pathologize your response to what you have been through. We understand it as a natural adaptation to abnormal circumstances, and we work from that foundation.
Trauma therapy moves at a pace determined by you and your therapist together. The early phase of treatment is focused on building safety, trust, and stability before any deeper processing begins. This is not preliminary work. It is essential work, and we take it seriously. As therapy progresses, your therapist will guide you through processing experiences that have been stored in ways that keep them feeling present and threatening. Over time, clients report that memories lose their emotional grip, that they feel more grounded in their daily lives, and that they are no longer organizing their world around avoiding triggers. We offer evening appointments, telehealth, and accept most major insurance plans.
