Trauma Therapy 

At RMC Counseling, we provide trauma therapy in Salt Lake City and Midvale for children, teens, and adults, along with telehealth for clients throughout Utah. Our trauma therapists offer compassionate, trauma-informed care that is personalized to your experiences, needs, and goals.

Contact Us

How trauma can effect you

Trauma does not always look like flashbacks or nightmares. Sometimes its effects are easier to recognize in your emotions, relationships, body, or everyday patterns.

Emotional

  • Anxiety or depression

  • Shame, guilt, or self-blame

  • Irritability or anger

  • Feeling emotionally overwhelmed

  • Numbness or disconnection

Physical and Nervous System

  • Feeling constantly on alert

  • Difficulty relaxing

  • Sleep problems

  • Muscle tension or physical stress

  • Feeling shut down, frozen, or disconnected

Relationships and Daily Life

  • Difficulty trusting others

  • Avoiding certain people, places, or situations

  • Trouble with intimacy or connection

  • Relationship conflict or withdrawal

  • Difficulty concentrating at work or school

You do not need to have a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, to benefit from trauma therapy. If difficult experiences continue to affect your mental health, relationships, or daily life, trauma counseling may help.

What happens in trauma therapy?

Trauma therapy helps you understand how difficult experiences may still be affecting you, develop tools for managing distress, and process traumatic experiences in ways that support greater choice and flexibility in your life.

Treatment is different for everyone, but trauma therapy may include:

Building Safety and Regulation

Therapy may begin by helping you recognize triggers, build grounding and emotion regulation skills, and develop a greater sense of stability and safety.

Processing Trauma

When appropriate, therapy may help you work with memories, emotions, beliefs, physical responses, or patterns connected to traumatic experiences.

Integration and Moving Forward

Over time, therapy can help reduce the influence that past experiences have on your present life, relationships, sense of self, and ability to engage with what matters to you.

Trauma therapy does not necessarily mean immediately telling your therapist every detail of what happened. A trauma-informed approach emphasizes collaboration, choice, and working at a pace that is appropriate for you.

Approaches to trauma therapy

There is no single approach that works best for everyone. Our therapists draw from different trauma treatment methods based on your needs, preferences, age, symptoms, and goals.

EMDR Therapy

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR therapy, uses structured memory processing and bilateral stimulation to help reduce distress connected to traumatic memories.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or TF-CBT, is an evidence-based approach designed primarily for children and adolescents who have experienced trauma. It helps young people develop coping skills, process difficult experiences, and work with trauma-related thoughts and emotions. When appropriate, caregivers may also be involved to support healing and strengthen communication and connection.

Cognitive Processing Therapy

Cognitive Processing Therapy, or CPT, is an evidence-based treatment for PTSD that helps people identify and work through unhelpful beliefs related to traumatic experiences. It focuses on areas such as safety, trust, control, self-esteem, and intimacy, helping clients develop more balanced ways of understanding what happened and how it affects them now.

Somatic Therapy

Somatic approaches bring attention to the relationship between emotions, physical sensations, stress responses, and the nervous system. Therapy may incorporate grounding, body awareness, mindfulness, movement, and other methods involving the body.

IFS and Parts Work

Parts-oriented approaches such as Internal Family Systems, or IFS, can help explore protective patterns, conflicting emotions, and vulnerable experiences with greater curiosity and compassion.

Play Therapy for Children

Children often communicate and process experiences differently than adults. Trauma therapy for children may include play, creative expression, caregiver involvement, and developmentally appropriate approaches.

Contact Us

Trauma Therapy for Children, Teens, and Adults

Trauma can affect people differently depending on their age, development, relationships, and life experiences.

RMC Counseling works with children, teens, adults, and families experiencing trauma and related concerns.

With children and adolescents, therapy may include play therapy, family therapy, emotional regulation skills, caregiver collaboration, and developmentally appropriate trauma treatment.

For adults, trauma therapy may address experiences such as childhood trauma, relationship trauma, accidents, loss, abuse, medical experiences, identity-related experiences, religious trauma, or other events that continue to affect the present.

Why choose RMC counseling?

Personalized Care

Trauma therapy is not one-size-fits-all. Our therapists work collaboratively with you to understand your experiences, goals, preferences, and the changes you would like to make.

Multiple Trauma Therapy Approaches

Depending on the therapist, treatment may integrate EMDR, somatic approaches, mindfulness, IFS and parts work, Trauma-Focused CBT, play therapy, and other trauma-informed approaches.

Care Across the Lifespan

Our team works with children, teens, adults, couples, and families, allowing us to support trauma within different stages of life and relationships.

In-Person and Online Therapy

Meet with a therapist at our Salt Lake City or Midvale offices, or access telehealth therapy from throughout Utah.

Insurance and Affordable Therapy Options

Many RMC clinicians are in-network with major Utah insurance plans. Sliding-scale and reduced-rate therapy options are also available through our graduate clinicians.

Book Now

Find a Trauma Therapist in Salt Lake City

Trauma Therapy FAQs

What is done in trauma therapy?

Trauma therapy may involve understanding how past experiences affect you today, developing coping and emotion regulation skills, and processing traumatic memories, beliefs, or emotional responses. The exact process depends on your needs and the type of therapy being used.

What are common symptoms of trauma in adults?

Trauma can contribute to anxiety, depression, intrusive memories, nightmares, avoidance, irritability, emotional numbness, difficulty trusting others, hypervigilance, sleep problems, and difficulty regulating emotions. Symptoms can vary considerably from person to person.

How do I know if I need trauma therapy?

Trauma therapy may be helpful if past experiences continue to cause distress or interfere with your relationships, emotions, sleep, work, sense of safety, or daily life. You do not need a PTSD diagnosis to talk with a trauma therapist.

What are signs of unresolved trauma?

Possible signs include strong emotional triggers, avoidance, chronic anxiety, difficulty trusting others, shame, emotional numbness, relationship difficulties, intrusive memories, or feeling stuck in patterns connected to earlier experiences.

What is the best therapy for trauma?

There is no single best trauma therapy for everyone. For PTSD specifically, treatments such as EMDR, Cognitive Processing Therapy, and Prolonged Exposure have strong research support. The most appropriate treatment also depends on your experiences, symptoms, preferences, age, and goals.

What type of therapist should I see for trauma?

Look for a mental health professional with specific training and experience working with trauma. It can also be helpful to find a therapist whose approach, personality, and areas of expertise feel compatible with what you are looking for.

Do I have to talk about every detail of my trauma?

Not necessarily. Different forms of trauma therapy work with traumatic experiences in different ways. You and your therapist can discuss what treatment involves and determine a pace that feels manageable.

How long does trauma therapy take?

The length of trauma treatment varies. Some structured treatments for PTSD may be relatively short-term, while people working with complex or long-standing experiences may benefit from longer-term therapy. Your therapist can help develop a treatment plan based on your needs and goals.

Where can I find PTSD treatment in Salt Lake City?

RMC Counseling offers trauma and PTSD treatment in Salt Lake City and Midvale, with telehealth available throughout Utah.

Contact Us