What we treat
Trauma Therapy in Natick, MA
Trauma therapy at Aurora Counseling Associates is for clients carrying the imprint of something that overwhelmed them, whether that was a single event or a long stretch of childhood, whether it happened last year or decades ago, whether the memory is clear or has been moved underground by the nervous system's protective work.
Recognizing it
Does this sound like you?
Trauma is not always a single event you can point to, and it does not always look like remembering.
- Your body reacts to something ordinary and your mind catches up afterwards, confused.
- You are fine talking about what happened, which people find reassuring and you find suspicious.
- Certain places, sounds or times of year change how you feel before you have registered why.
- You are either very calm or very far away, with not much in between.
- You have been told you are resilient often enough that it started to feel like a job.
- Nothing that happened to you seems bad enough to explain how you are doing.
That last one is the most common thing we hear, and it is not a reason to stay away. Trauma work here is paced deliberately: you are never required to describe anything before you are ready, and processing does not mean reliving.
Trauma-informed care has been part of our practice for years. It is not an add-on; it shapes how every clinician here thinks about pacing, safety, and the body.
What we mean by trauma
Trauma is not defined by the event. It is defined by what the event did to the nervous system and what has been hard to integrate since.
Single-incident trauma
a car accident, an assault, a medical emergency, the sudden death of someone close, witnessing violence. The event is identifiable; the impact may be PTSD-shaped or may show up as panic, avoidance, sleep disruption, irritability.
Complex or developmental trauma
chronic, often interpersonal stress, especially in childhood. Emotional neglect, witnessing or experiencing abuse, growing up with a parent's untreated mental illness or addiction, being in a chronically unstable household. The impact often shows up later as difficulty trusting, difficulty regulating emotion, patterns in adult relationships that feel familiar even when they hurt.
Relational trauma
the impact of being in a relationship (partner, family member, caregiver, mentor) where you were not safe. This includes coercive control, manipulation, betrayal, abandonment.
Medical trauma
birth trauma, ICU experiences, chronic illness, traumatic procedures.
Identity-based trauma
the cumulative impact of racism, transphobia, homophobia, antisemitism, ableism, and other forms of structural and interpersonal violence on members of those communities.
Vicarious or systemic trauma
what happens to people who work in high-exposure settings (first responders, healthcare workers, child welfare staff, journalists) or who carry the impact of community trauma.
How we approach trauma at Aurora
Trauma can also show up indirectly: in chronic somatic symptoms, in patterns of relationship choice, in difficulty feeling rather than thinking, in addiction and recovery work, in postpartum experience.
Our trauma work is paced. We do not rush retelling. The protective parts of the nervous system that have kept you functioning are respected, not bulldozed.
Approaches our clinicians use include:
- Trauma-informed CBT and trauma-focused CBT for processing specific traumatic memories.
- Somatic awareness and body-based approaches for trauma that lives in the body more than in narrative memory.
- Expressive arts (drawing, sand tray, movement, music) when verbal processing is not the way in, especially with children and clients for whom language and trauma do not connect easily.
- Parts work (Internal Family Systems-informed approaches) for clients carrying conflicting internal experiences related to trauma.
- Attachment-based approaches for relational and developmental trauma.
- EMDR is offered by clinicians with that training; ask if EMDR is part of what you are looking for and we will let you know whether it is available and who offers it.
We do not treat trauma as a thing to be deleted. We work toward integration: the memory loses its power to hijack the present, the patterns stop running you, the parts of yourself that have been carrying the weight get to put it down.
What to expect
The first phase of trauma work is about safety and stabilization. We work on regulation skills, on understanding your nervous system's patterns, on building enough internal and external resources to do the deeper work. For some clients this phase is brief; for others, especially with complex trauma, this is the work for a stretch of time.
The second phase, when and if it is appropriate, is processing: working with specific memories or patterns in a way that allows the nervous system to update its assessment of safety. Some clients work this way for months; some for years.
The third phase is integration: weaving the changes into your life, your relationships, your sense of self.
Sessions are 45 to 55 minutes, typically weekly. Trauma work is not always linear; we expect setbacks and treat them as part of the work, not failure.
What we do not treat
We do not rush trauma work. Stability comes first, and the deeper processing only when you are ready for it.
Who you would work with
Clinicians who offer Trauma Therapy
Read how each person works before you reach out. If you are not sure who to ask for, we will help you choose.
Ruth Hanning, LMHC
Ben Levenson, MA
Mary Patricia (MP) Reed, MA
These clinicians list this as a specialty. Most of our team works with it in some form, so if you have someone in mind, ask and we will tell you whether the fit makes sense.
Questions
Common questions
Do I need to talk about what happened?
Will I have to relive it?
What if I do not remember much?
Is EMDR available?
How long does trauma work take?
What if I am in crisis?
Where to next
Related areas we work in
Get started
Ready when you are
If trauma is shaping your present in ways you do not want it to, request an appointment or call (508) 650-0991. We will talk through what you are working on and match you with a clinician whose training and pacing fit.