Trauma Therapy in Westlake Village, Calabasas & Malibu

Trauma is not only about what happened to us, but also about how our nervous system responded to experiences that felt overwhelming, unsafe, or too much to process alone. Trauma can develop from a single event or through ongoing experiences such as chronic stress, emotional neglect, difficult relationships, or environments where we didn’t feel fully supported or safe. Often, trauma lives not just in our memories, but in the body, emotions, and patterns we carry with us over time.

Trauma can affect the way we relate to ourselves, others, and the world around us. Sometimes it shows up as anxiety, overwhelm, people-pleasing, perfectionism, emotional numbness, or difficulty trusting ourselves and others. It may also look like feeling constantly “on edge,” disconnected from the body, stuck in survival mode, or struggling to feel fully present. These responses are not signs that something is wrong with you, they are often adaptive ways the nervous system learned to cope and protect.

My approach is gentle, collaborative, and grounded in nervous system awareness. I integrate somatic and attachment-based perspectives to help clients better understand the ways trauma may be impacting their emotional experiences, relationships, and connection to themselves.

Together, we work to build awareness of nervous system states and notice how patterns of fight, flight, freeze, shutdown, or bracing may be showing up in daily life. Many trauma responses happen automatically in the body, often outside of conscious awareness. Through somatic work, clients can begin learning how to recognize these patterns with greater curiosity and compassion rather than judgment.

Rather than pushing clients to relive painful experiences before they feel ready, I focus on creating safety, building regulation skills, and moving at a pace that feels supportive and sustainable. Part of the work may involve gently helping the nervous system shift out of protective states of tension, collapse, or disconnection and into experiences of greater grounding, presence, connection, and aliveness.