Adults, 18 and over In person in West Hartford

Trauma-focused therapy in West Hartford, CT

The point of trauma therapy is not to erase a memory. It is to get the memory to stop acting like it is happening this afternoon. We offer structured, in-person trauma therapy for adults in West Hartford using Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Prolonged Exposure (PE), and trauma-informed CBT at a pace you agree to.

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Illustration of a sheltered reading alcove with a rug and leafy plant.

CPT & Prolonged ExposureStructured protocols built specifically for PTSD and trauma

No forced detail on day oneThe first appointment focuses on your current week and safety

In-person in West HartfordKeeps hard conversations separate from your living room

Psychiatry in the same chartCoordinated help for nightmares and sleep when needed

What trauma therapy is,
and what it is not

Many adults put off booking for years because they think trauma therapy means sitting in a chair and retelling the worst hour of their life until the clock runs out. That is not how we work.

What it is

Filing a past event in the past

After something terrifying or violent happens, trying not to think about it is the most normal reaction in the world. Avoidance gets you through the first week. The problem is that when you avoid every reminder for a year, the brain never finishes filing the memory away as over. So your nervous system stays on guard: scanning parking lots, jumping at loud noises, waking up at 3 a.m., or going numb around people you care about. Trauma-focused therapy helps the brain finish processing the event and the conclusions it left behind.

What it is not

Reliving everything at the intake

You do not have to tell the full story of what happened at your first session. In fact, we prefer that you do not dive into heavy detail before we know each other and before you have reliable ways to bring your heart rate down after a session. You stay in charge of what you share and when.

The approaches we use
at our West Hartford office

General supportive talk therapy often stalls out on trauma because simply venting around the edges of a memory does not change the alarm system. We use structured methods built for trauma.

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)

Trauma changes how you think. It leaves behind harsh, absolute rules that CPT calls "stuck points": "It was my fault," "I should have known better," "Nobody can be trusted," or "I am permanently damaged." Across a structured course of weekly sessions, CPT puts those stuck points on paper and examines them across five areas of life: safety, trust, power and control, esteem, and closeness with other people. One reason many adults prefer CPT is that standard CPT works without requiring you to repeatedly recount every sensory detail of the trauma out loud.

Often used forPTSD, self-blame, guilt, assault, accidents, medical trauma

Prolonged Exposure (PE) principles

When fear has fenced off half your life because you will not drive on I-84, sit in a crowded restaurant, go out after dark, or let yourself remember what happened, Prolonged Exposure goes after the avoidance directly. Together with your clinician, you build a ladder of safe, everyday situations you have been staying away from and step back into them gradually, alongside paced memory work in the office, until your body learns firsthand that the reminder is not the event.

Often used forAvoidance after car crashes, violence, medical emergencies, or combat

Trauma-informed CBT and DBT grounding

Not everyone arrives ready for CPT or exposure in week two. When trauma happened repeatedly throughout childhood or inside a long, controlling relationship, jumping straight into memory work can leave you flooded. In those cases, we start with stabilization: grounding tools for when you feel detached or panicky, sleep routines, emotion regulation skills, and firm boundaries in your current relationships.

Often used forLong-term childhood or relationship trauma, dissociation, emotional flooding

Coordinated medication management

Trauma is exhausting on the body. If nightmares wake you up drenched in sweat four nights a week, or your startle response never drops below a seven, you do not have much fuel left for therapy. Because our psychiatric prescribers practice in the same office and share the same chart, medication for sleep, nightmares, or co-occurring depression can be built into the same plan.

Often used forTrauma nightmares, severe insomnia, hyperarousal, depressed mood

Descriptions of trauma-focused psychotherapy draw on the National Center for PTSD (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) and the National Institute of Mental Health.

What brings people in
for trauma work

You do not need an official PTSD label on your chart to ask for help. These are the problems that overlap with trauma most often here.

PTSD and trauma Nightmares and sleep problems Panic attacks Constant hypervigilance Numbness and low mood Sudden or traumatic loss Healthcare and first-responder strain

How trauma therapy
proceeds

No surprises. You should know what we are doing in every phase before we do it.

Session 1

The evaluation

We talk about how your weeks are going right now: sleep, startle, avoidance, mood, and what you want your life to look like six months from now. You can name what happened in a sentence without unpacking the details.

Early sessions

Brakes before gas

Before you touch hard material, we make sure you have brakes that work: grounding skills for the room, a plan for the drive home, and help with sleep if you have not been sleeping.

The working middle

CPT or exposure

Weekly sessions following the approach we chose together. We check symptom scores periodically so both of us can see whether the intrusive memories and avoidance are actually dropping.

Later

Spacing out

Once the memory stops hijacking your week, we space sessions out to every other week and plan for predictable rough spots like anniversary dates.

Cost and insurance

Contact the office to verify your coverage before your first appointment.

Insurance

Trauma-focused therapy is billed as standard outpatient individual psychotherapy and is covered under most commercial and Medicare plans, subject to your deductible, copay, and whether the clinician is in network for your plan.

Verified before you start

The office checks your benefits and tells you your expected cost per session in writing before putting you on the schedule.

Self-pay

Available if your plan is out of network or if you prefer not to involve insurance.

Why in person matters here

All sessions are held at 10 Princeton St, Ste N in West Hartford. Doing trauma work in our office means you do not have to close a laptop and immediately try to sleep in the same bedroom where you just talked about something painful.

Questions about
trauma therapy

The questions people ask most often when deciding whether to start.

Do I have to tell the whole story at the first appointment?

No. You do not have to narrate the details of what happened to get through the first visit. The evaluation focuses on how your sleep, mood, concentration, and day-to-day life are being affected right now, and on agreeing to a pace you can live with.

Which trauma therapies do you offer?

We use Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Prolonged Exposure (PE) principles, and trauma-informed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). These are structured, evidence-based treatments recommended for PTSD by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the American Psychological Association.

What is the difference between CPT and Prolonged Exposure?

CPT focuses on the conclusions the trauma left behind, which it calls stuck points: harsh rules about blame, trust, safety, power, and self-worth. Standard CPT does not require you to recount every sensory detail of the event out loud. Prolonged Exposure focuses more directly on approaching safe places and memories you have been avoiding so your nervous system stops treating them like an active emergency.

What if my trauma happened over years rather than on one bad day?

We see both. Single-incident traumas like a car crash or an assault often move into CPT or exposure work fairly quickly. When trauma happened repeatedly across childhood or inside a long-term relationship, we usually spend time on sleep, grounding, and boundary skills first before opening up older material.

Can I take medication for nightmares or sleep while doing trauma therapy?

Yes. It is hard to do good therapy on three hours of broken sleep. Our psychiatric prescribers and our therapist work in the same West Hartford office and share one chart, so medication management for nightmares, hyperarousal, or depression can be coordinated right alongside your sessions.

Are trauma therapy sessions held in person?

Yes. Every appointment is in person for adults 18 and over at 10 Princeton St, Ste N in West Hartford. We do not offer telehealth.

Related care

Explore how trauma work connects with the rest of our West Hartford practice.

Start at a pace you choose

Call our West Hartford office or request an appointment online. You do not have to explain everything on the phone.

Request an appointment Call the office