Therapy for Trauma & PTSD
When the past still feels present
Trauma can leave you feeling as if your body and mind are still responding to something that is no longer happening.
You may know, intellectually, that you are safe now. But emotionally or physically, your system may still feel on alert.
You may be functioning in daily life—working, caring for others, managing responsibilities, and trying to move forward.
But internally:
You may feel tense, guarded, or easily startled
You may avoid reminders of what happened
You may feel emotionally numb or disconnected
You may experience intrusive memories, images, or body sensations
You may feel shame, guilt, anger, or fear that is difficult to explain
You may struggle to trust yourself, others, or your own reactions
You may feel like different parts of you want different things
Trauma therapy is not about forcing you to relive what happened.
It is about helping your nervous system, mind, and sense of self begin to feel less organized around survival.
Forma Counseling offers therapy for trauma and PTSD for adults in Washington, DC, including neighborhoods like Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan, Capitol Hill, and surrounding areas.
Sessions are available in-person in Washington, DC and through telehealth across DC, Maryland, and Virginia.
What Trauma and PTSD Can Feel Like
Trauma does not only live in memory.
It can affect how you think, feel, relate, work, sleep, focus, and move through the world.
You may notice:
Intrusive memories or images
Nightmares or disrupted sleep
Avoidance of people, places, conversations, or emotions
Feeling constantly on edge or unable to relax
Emotional flooding, panic, anger, or shutdown
Feeling detached from your body or surroundings
Difficulty trusting others
People-pleasing, overexplaining, or fear of disappointing people
A harsh inner critic or persistent shame
Trouble focusing or staying present
Feeling numb, empty, or cut off from your emotions
A sense that you are “too much,” “not enough,” or somehow damaged
Trauma can come from a single overwhelming event. It can also come from repeated experiences over time, especially when those experiences involved fear, helplessness, betrayal, neglect, humiliation, instability, or a lack of emotional safety.
Some people come to therapy knowing exactly what happened.
Others come because they feel fragmented, reactive, disconnected, or stuck—and only later begin to understand how trauma has shaped their inner life.
Therapeutic Approaches We May Use
At Forma Counseling, therapy is tailored to the person rather than applied as a one-size-fits-all model.
For trauma and PTSD, we may draw from:
TIST-informed trauma therapy to focus on stabilization, safety, parts work, dissociation, shame, and trauma-related survival responses, which is a version of Internal parts work, used to understand the protective, wounded, angry, fearful, numb, or people-pleasing parts of the self
Written Exposure Therapy when a structured, focused approach to a specific traumatic memory may be helpful
CBT-informed therapy to work with trauma-related beliefs, self-blame, fear, avoidance, and catastrophic thinking
DBT-informed skills to strengthen emotional regulation, distress tolerance, grounding, and present-moment awareness
Psychodynamic and relationship-focused therapy to explore how trauma affects attachment, trust, boundaries, intimacy, conflict, and relational patterns
Existential therapy to explore meaning, identity, agency, moral injury, uncertainty, and the deeper impact of trauma on how you live
Reclaiming Focus work when trauma has disrupted attention, concentration, motivation, or your ability to feel present
Clinical assessment tools when a clearer understanding of trauma symptoms, dissociation, depression, anxiety, attachment patterns, or coping responses would help guide treatment
This integrative approach allows therapy to address both trauma symptoms and the deeper structures that keep those symptoms repeating.
What You Can Expect
Clients often begin trauma therapy feeling overwhelmed, guarded, ashamed, disconnected, or frustrated that they cannot simply “move on.”
Over time, many develop:
Greater emotional stability
More ability to stay present during triggers
Less shame about trauma responses
A clearer understanding of their nervous system
More compassion toward protective parts of themselves
Reduced avoidance and emotional numbing
Improved boundaries and relationships
A stronger sense of agency
More connection to the body and present moment
A deeper sense of coherence, meaning, and self-trust
Therapy does not erase what happened.
But it can help what happened take up less control over your present life.
Therapy for Trauma, PTSD, and the Self That Survived
Trauma can make survival feel like the center of life.
It can teach the body to stay braced, the mind to scan for danger, and the self to adapt around fear, shame, or disconnection.
At Forma Counseling, trauma therapy begins with respect for the ways you survived.
We do not treat your symptoms as failures. We understand them as signs that some part of you has been trying to protect you.
The work is to help those protective responses soften, integrate, and become less necessary.
Healing is not about forcing yourself to be unaffected.
It is about slowly reclaiming presence, choice, connection, and a life that feels more fully your own.
Schedule Trauma and PTSD Therapy in Washington, DC
Forma Counseling offers therapy for trauma, PTSD, complex trauma, emotional overwhelm, dissociation, shame, avoidance, intrusive memories, and trauma-related relationship patterns.
Sessions are available in-person in Washington, DC and through telehealth across DC, Maryland, and Virginia.
Request a free 20-minute consultation to see if working together feels right.