​You Didn't End Up Here by Accident
​You're exhausted, stuck, and sick of trying to talk your way out of a problem you can’t explain.

Maybe your brain won't shut-up and you're constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Or maybe you’ve gone totally numb and feel completely disconnected from your own life. 

Your system is trapped in a loop, treating the past like the present.

Standard talk therapy stops at the stories you already know. Experiential therapies go much deeper to foundationally change your emotional imprints so your mind can finally rest.
512-662-1508
Your first 30-minute session is FREE.​
25 years of clinical experience.
​Longer session time​ to complete integrative processing.
Unlimited text communication.
​512-649-0302

Why The Past Won't Let Go

Trauma Therapist Austin Texas
Sometimes the reasons are loud: a sudden accident, a raging parent, or a terrifying middle-of-the-night emergency.
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Other times, the reasons are quiet: years of being ignored at the dinner table, a constant drip of criticism, or growing up feeling entirely invisible.

Either way, your mind does the same thing. It tries to protect you by  slamming on the brakes. It shoves those painful experiences into the wrong "file cabinet" in your brain in an attempt to compartmentalize so you can survive.
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Because those memories are misfiled, your mind keeps rifling through the drawers, desperately trying to make sense of them. That is why the past keeps crashing into your present.

What Actually Qualifies as Trauma  (Hint: It’s Not Just Living in a War Zone)

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Most people think a mind only shatters during one big, explosive crisis. But a slow, quiet drizzle of everyday pain does the exact same damage.

Here is what it looks like when your reality gets rewritten:
  • The Big Shocks: A sudden car crash, a terrifying medical injury, a sudden death, or surviving parental, partnership, or community violence.
  • The Living Situations: An abusive or dysfunctional childhood home. Suffering narcissistic abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, "the silent treatment", or verbal assaults. Going through a messy divorce, losing your children in a custody battle, or watching a sudden financial loss take everything away. 
  • The Invisible Cuts: A parent or spouse who constantly criticizes you or feeling completely invisible at the dinner table. Feeling like you don't matter, aren't seen, or are misunderstood.
  • The Mind Games: Living with a partner or family who belittles you, handles you with constant neglect, or gaslights you until you doubt your own sanity.
  • The Silent Exhaustion: Carrying prolonged anxiety or depression, chronic illness, coping with deep betrayal, or being unfairly blamed and shamed until you just go numb.​


​In clinical terms, every single one of these experiences is classified as trauma.

Why? 
Normal memories belong to the past.  But implicit memories have no concept of time.  That's why your mind treats an old wound like it is still happening right now.

Often PTSD looks like ruminating on scenes over and over. Worrying about whether you said that thing right. Fearing repercussions that may not be consistent with the current situation. PTSD can also take the form of depression or persistent anxiety. Dissociative habits like nail-biting, hair-pulling, picking. Obsessive repeating thoughts and actions (OCD).

Healing doesn't happen when we re-tell our story over and over; lasting healing happens when we move those trapped mental stories out of your survival brain, allowing it to update to the present.

How I Work with PTSD and Trauma

Paige Bartholomew, LMFT
Research shows that experiential approaches bypass the mind's noise and go straight to the subconscious where the old loops are stuck.​
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  • Internal Family Systems and Somatic Experiencing: These are the gold standard for persistent pain that doesn't respond to talk therapy, CBT, or EMDR.
  • Hypnosis & Imagery: This combination is highly successful as it quiets the rational mind so your subconscious can tell us exactly what it needs in order to heal.
  • ​​Gentle Pace: We move at a speed that feels entirely safe for you. You'll never feel pushed or overwhelmed. 
  • Trusting What Comes Up: You don't need to know how to do this. I'll guide you through the language of images, feelings, intuition and wisdom so the answers you need surface quickly.​

Schedule a free 30-minute consultation. We’ll discuss your situation and see if working together feels like the right next step.
 ​512-662-1508
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