Trauma & PTSD Therapy
Reclaim your life with support from Melanated Women’s Health.
Offering In-Person & Virtual Services. Serving Philadelphia & New Jersey.
What is Trauma Therapy?
A Space Just for You
Trauma therapy is a form of therapy that helps you process what happened to you and understand how those experiences may still be affecting your life today.
Trauma doesn’t always stay neatly in the past; it can shape how safe you feel, how you connect with people, how you see yourself, and how you respond when something feels threatening.
Our trauma therapists give you space to work through those experiences at a pace that feels manageable, without expecting you to simply “get over it” or move on before you’re ready.
How Do I Know If I Need Trauma Therapy?
When Memories Start to Feel Too Intense
You may need trauma therapy if something you’ve been through is still shaping how you feel, respond, connect, or move through the world today. Trauma doesn’t always announce itself clearly, and you don’t need a PTSD diagnosis or a perfectly defined “traumatic event” to deserve support.
If the past keeps finding its way into the present, or you’ve built your life around staying safe, staying busy, or staying disconnected from what happened, we can hold space for you to begin working through it on your terms.
Sound familiar?
Flashbacks & intrusive memories
Memories, nightmares, or reminders of what happened may surface unexpectedly and leave you feeling like part of you is right back there again.
Avoiding reminders
You might avoid certain people, places, conversations, feelings, or situations because they bring you too close to something you’d rather not revisit.
Constantly on guard
Trauma can leave your mind and body bracing for danger, making it difficult to relax, sleep, concentrate, or feel fully safe.
Feeling numb
You may feel detached from yourself or others, struggle to experience positive emotions, or notice that parts of your life no longer feel the way they used to.
The Chains of Trauma Can Be Broken.
How Does Trauma Therapy Help?
Holding Space for What Feels Heavy
Trauma therapy helps you process what you’ve been through while changing the ways those experiences continue to affect your life in the present. At Melanated Women’s Health, we can help you work through traumatic memories, challenge beliefs you developed to survive, and respond differently to reminders that once felt overwhelming.
The goal isn’t to erase what happened or force you to relive it. It’s to help the past feel more like the past, so you have more room to decide how you want to live now.
Feel safer in the present
Therapy can help you recognize when your mind and body are responding to an old threat, even when you’re safe in the here and now.
Change your self-narrative
You can begin challenging shame, guilt, self-blame, or beliefs about yourself and the world that developed in response to what happened.
Reclaim parts of your life
As trauma becomes less consuming, you may find it easier to connect with others, approach things you’ve been avoiding, and make choices that aren’t centered around survival.
Does Trauma Therapy Really Work?
Trauma therapy can make a meaningful difference, and research shows that psychological treatment can significantly reduce PTSD symptoms for many people who have experienced trauma. One large systematic review examined 114 randomized controlled trials with 8,171 participants and found clinically important improvements across several forms of psychological therapy for PTSD. Another meta-analysis of 136 randomized controlled trials similarly found that psychological interventions effectively reduced PTSD symptoms, with benefits continuing at follow-up for some well-studied approaches.
And those changes don’t necessarily disappear when therapy ends. A meta-analysis of 32 trials involving 2,935 people found that active psychotherapies produced significant improvements from before treatment through long-term follow-ups of at least six months, with long-term outcomes not significantly differing across the treatment types studied.
Trauma therapy can’t change what happened, and healing rarely follows a perfectly straight line. But it can help what happened hold less power over how you feel, connect, and live today.
SOURCES:
- Lewis et al. (2020), European Journal of Psychotraumatology (Read more.)
- Morina et al. (2021), Psychological Medicine (Read more.)
- Kline et al. (2018), Clinical Psychology Review (Read more.)
Frequently Asked Questions:
Do I have to talk about everything that happened?
No. Trauma therapy should move at a pace that feels manageable, and you can work with your therapist to decide what you’re ready to explore and when.
Do I need a PTSD diagnosis to start trauma therapy?
No. You can seek trauma therapy whenever past experiences are affecting your well-being, relationships, sense of safety, or everyday life.
What if I don’t remember parts of my trauma clearly?
You don’t need a perfectly clear or complete memory of what happened for your experiences and their impact on you to be worth addressing in therapy.
Can trauma therapy help if what happened was years ago?
Yes. Trauma can continue affecting you long after an experience is over, and it’s never “too late” to begin working through what you’ve been carrying.
Do you offer in-person therapy appointments?
We offer in-person therapy appointments, weekdays and weekends, at our conveniently located office in Center City Philadelphia. Our office is accessible by SEPTA, and close to several parking garages.
You are not in-network with my insurance. Can I still use my out of network benefits with one of your Therapists?
Absolutely! If requested, we can provide you with a Superbill at the end of the appointment for you to submit to your insurance provider for reimbursements of any out of network benefits you have on the plan.
If you are unsure about your exact out of network benefits, you can contact the Member Services, Customer Service, or Behavioral/Mental Health number on the back of your insurance card, and ask the following questions:
- Does my health insurance plan include out of network benefits for mental health – office visit?
- Do I have a deductible? If so, what is it, and how much has been accumulated so far?
- Does the deductible apply to mental health- office visits?
- Does my plan limit how many sessions per calendar year I can have? If so, what is the limit?
- Do I need written approval from my primary care physician in order for services to be covered?
- What would be covered if I worked with an out-of-network provider?
- What is the process for me to be reimbursed for out of network benefits?
If you do not have insurance or have financial hardship, Openpath Psychotherapy Collective offers an option for therapy at a sliding scale fee. You can also contact the Loveland Foundation and the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network for mental health funding opportunities.
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Improve Your Mental Wellbeing and Find Peace in Everyday Life With Help From Qualified Black Therapists & Therapists of Color
