Trauma & PTSD Therapy in Indianapolis
For adults who are exhausted from holding it together — and ready to finally feel safe in their own skin.
Somatic Therapy in Indianapolis: Why Talk Therapy Isn't Always Enough.
After more than a decade of working with trauma survivors — in community mental health, substance use treatment, therapeutic foster care, and private practice — I've seen the same thing happen over and over: someone sits across from a therapist for months, or even years, talking about what happened to them. They understand their story. They can explain it clearly. And yet their body is still bracing, still scanning, still waking them up at 3am.
That's not a failure of willpower. That's not "not trying hard enough." That's trauma living in the nervous system — and talk therapy alone often can't reach it.
I built my practice around a simple truth I learned working with children in therapeutic foster care who had experienced profound developmental trauma: people don't "behave badly" because something is wrong with them. They behave in ways that make complete sense when you understand the pain underneath. For those kids, the tantrums and the defiance and the anger were never really about the rule they were breaking. They were a nervous system asking: Is it safe here? Will you still show up for me?
The same is true for adults. Your anxiety, your hypervigilance, your numbness — these aren't character flaws. They are your brain's brilliant, exhausting attempt to keep you safe. Somatic therapy works by going beneath the story to address that survival response directly, in the body, where it actually lives.
Nervous System Regulation: A Core Part of Trauma Healing in Indianapolis
One of the most relieving moments I witness in my work is when a client realizes their reactions make sense. Not that they're "crazy." Not that they're broken. That their nervous system has been running a protection protocol — one that worked when they needed it, but is now misfiring constantly.
Drawing from Polyvagal Theory, DBT skills, and Parts Work, a big part of what we do together is help you build a wider Window of Tolerance — that space where you can feel your feelings without being overtaken by them, where you can be present in your body without shutting down.
My clients often notice the shift before they consciously register it. They'll mention, almost offhand, that they slept through the night for the first time in months. That they haven't had a panic attack in a few weeks. That they found themselves in a hard conversation and stayed calm instead of going to that familiar place of rage or shutdown. That's not small. That's your nervous system learning that safety is real.
Therapy can help you:
Sleep through the night without racing thoughts pulling you back under
Stop white-knuckling your way through everyday stressors
Feel present in your relationships instead of checked out or on edge
Understand why your body reacts the way it does — and learn to work with it, not against it
Build a sense of internal safety that doesn't depend on everything around you being "okay"
Brainspotting Therapy for Trauma: A Targeted Alternative to EMDR
If you've been searching for EMDR therapy in Indianapolis, you're already on the right track — you're looking for something that goes deeper than talking. I want to tell you why I chose Brainspotting instead, and why I believe in it enough to have done it myself.
Brainspotting isn't just a technique I was trained in. It's the modality I used in my own healing work. I've sat in that chair. I know what it feels like when a wave moves through you and something you've been carrying for years quietly lets go. I chose to bring this work to Indianapolis because I've experienced firsthand what it can do — and because I've now watched it work for clients across more than a decade of practice.
Unlike EMDR, which follows a structured, therapist-directed protocol, Brainspotting follows your nervous system. We find the eye position that connects to where the trauma is held in your body, and we stay with it — without a script, without forcing you to narrate your pain, without re-traumatizing you by making you tell the story again. Your brain knows how to heal. My job is to help you find the spot that lets it start.
I offer in-person trauma, PTSD & anxiety therapy in Indianapolis, as well as online therapy throughout Indiana, Ohio, and Florida.
Innovative PTSD Treatment: Ketamine-Assisted Therapy in Indy
Some clients come to me after years of trying — therapy, medication, every coping skill in the book — and still feeling like there's a wall between them and real relief. For those clients, Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) can be the thing that finally creates an opening.
PTSD and complex trauma can make the brain rigid — stuck in the same grooves, running the same painful loops. Ketamine works by creating a state of neuroplasticity, temporarily softening those grooves so that new patterns can form. But the medicine alone isn't the therapy. The integration work after the session — making meaning of what surfaced, anchoring the insights into real life — is where lasting change happens.
This is work I take seriously. Having spent years working with clients whose trauma was severe and treatment-resistant — veterans, survivors of chronic childhood abuse, people navigating addiction and trauma simultaneously — I understand that some wounds need more than a standard weekly session. KAP is one of the most powerful tools I've encountered for those clients, and I'm honored to offer it in Indianapolis.
Is Your Nervous System Stuck in Survival Mode From Trauma?
These aren't personality flaws. They're signs your brain is still trying to protect you.
Intro paragraph: Over ten years of working with trauma survivors — from children in foster care who had never known a safe adult, to veterans who were punished for asking for help, to survivors of domestic violence who had been told their reality wasn't real — I've learned to recognize what a dysregulated nervous system looks like. It rarely looks like what people expect. It often looks like this:
Symptom list:
Chronic bracing: Your shoulders live up by your ears. Your jaw is clenched. Your fists are tight, even when nothing is "happening."
Hypervigilance: You can't sit with your back to a door. Loud noises make you jump. You're always scanning, always assessing, always ready.
The fog or the flatness: You feel disconnected from your own life — like you're watching it happen through glass. Emotions feel far away, or they come crashing in without warning.
Sleep and body disruptions: Stomach issues. Waking at 3am. Exhaustion that rest doesn't fix. A body that won't settle down even when you tell it to.
Emotional swings: Rage that feels disproportionate, followed by a crash into numbness. The dial is either too loud or completely silent.
Difficulty with closeness: Feeling smothered by intimacy, or terrified of being alone. Relationships that feel unsafe no matter how hard you try.
None of this is a character flaw. I learned that working with kids who had been let down by every adult in their lives — kids whose "bad behavior" was really a question disguised as a tantrum: Are you going to leave too? Can I trust you? The answer to that question is the foundation of all healing. You can learn to trust your own nervous system again. That's what we build together.
Frequently Asked Questions About Trauma & PTSD Therapy in Indianapolis
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PTSD typically develops after a single traumatic event — a car accident, an assault, a medical emergency. C-PTSD develops from prolonged or repeated trauma, often starting in childhood: neglect, abuse, growing up in an unsafe or unpredictable home. I've worked extensively with both, and what I've seen is that C-PTSD often shows up most clearly in relationships — in that deep, bone-level belief that people will eventually let you down, that safety is temporary, that love comes with conditions. If that resonates, you're not alone, and you're not beyond healing.
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This is one of the most common things I hear, and I take it seriously. A lot of people have sat in therapy for years, feeling like they were just venting — or worse, feeling like their therapist didn't really get it. My approach is different because I'm not just listening to your story. I'm tracking your nervous system. I'm working with your body as much as your mind. And I bring over ten years of working with some of the most complex trauma presentations I've encountered — I didn't learn this work in a classroom.
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No — and this is one of the things I'm most grateful about Brainspotting. You don't have to narrate your trauma to heal from it. We work with where it lives in your body right now, not the story you have to keep retelling. For many of my clients — especially veterans and survivors who have had to recount their trauma in clinical or legal settings over and over — this is an enormous relief.
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That’s a completely normal feeling—especially if you’ve never done therapy before or had a less-than-great experience in the past. My goal is to create a space where you feel safe, seen, and not judged. We’ll go at your pace and focus on what feels most helpful for you.
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We offer private pay options and a Good Faith Estimate. Because we are an out-of-network provider, our clients pay up front. We are able to provide superbills to assist in seeking reimbursement upon request. See our billing page for more details!
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I'd say that I've worked with enough veterans to understand why you're hesitant — and that hesitancy makes complete sense given what many of you have experienced when you tried to reach out before. I've had veterans tell me they were put on suicide watch after confiding in a chaplain, had their station changed, were looked at differently by their unit. Asking for help in that environment was genuinely risky. It isn't here. What you say in my office stays there. And I will never see coming to therapy as a weakness — I see it as one of the most courageous things a person can do.
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It starts with a free 15-minute consultation — just a conversation to see if we're a good fit. No pressure, no commitment. You can book directly through the link below, or reach out by phone or email if that feels easier. I offer in-person sessions in Indianapolis and telehealth for anyone in Indiana, Ohio, or Florida.
You’ve been carrying this long enough—and you’re not alone.
I became a trauma therapist because I believe connection is the most healing force there is — and because I've lived that truth myself. I've done my own Brainspotting work. I've sat with my own hard things. I know what it feels like to finally have language for something that lived wordlessly in your body for years. That's the work I want to do with you.
If you're in Indianapolis — or anywhere in Indiana, Ohio, or Florida — and you're ready to stop managing your symptoms and start actually healing, I'd love to talk.
Therapy Services We Offer
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Anxiety & Overwhelm
Therapy for anxiety: for adults carrying overwhelm or the weight of past experiences that talk therapy hasn't been able to reach.
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Brainspotting
I offer Brainspotting Therapy— a neurobiological approach I use in my own healing work and believe in deeply — to help process what's stored in the body beyond words. For clients struggling with worry, panic, and the exhausting pressure of holding it all together
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Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) offers a clinically supported path forward in partnership with Integrative MLA.
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Addiction & Substance Use
Addiction & Substance Use therapy approaches recovery without judgment, from a harm reduction framework. And for clients who have tried everything and still feel stuck.
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Grief & Loss
My Grief Counseling work supports every kind of loss — not just death, but the losses that don't always get recognized. For those navigating substance use or the complicated grief that comes with recovery.
