Therapy Services
Trauma Therapy
At Moving Parts Psychotherapy, we provide trauma therapy for individuals seeking meaningful, lasting healing from overwhelming or distressing experiences. Trauma can live in the body, the nervous system, and our relationships; not just in our thoughts. That’s why our work goes beyond talk therapy alone, offering an integrative, relational approach to trauma recovery that supports healing from the inside out.
Whether you’re navigating PTSD, complex trauma, developmental trauma, or lingering effects of experiences that still feel “stuck,” our therapists meet you with care, curiosity, and respect for your pace. Trauma therapy here is collaborative, gentle, and deeply attuned to safety, because healing happens best when your nervous system feels supported.
Understanding Trauma
Trauma isn’t defined solely by what happened; it’s shaped by how your body and brain responded to a perceived threat. Trauma occurs when an experience overwhelms your capacity to cope, leaving your nervous system stuck in survival mode. This can happen from a single event, ongoing stress, relational wounds, or experiences that may not outwardly seem “traumatic” but had a deep internal impact.
When the nervous system can’t fully process an experience, protective responses like fight, flight, freeze, or fawn may remain activated long after the danger has passed. Over time, this can show up as anxiety, depression, emotional numbness, hypervigilance, relationship difficulties, or symptoms of PTSD.
Many people come to trauma therapy believing something is “wrong” with them. In reality, these responses are intelligent survival adaptations. Trauma therapy helps your body and mind complete what was interrupted, allowing your system to reorganize, settle, and feel safer in the present.
For some clients, deeper or more frequent sessions, often referred to as intensive trauma therapy, can provide the consistency and containment needed to work with complex or long-held trauma in a supportive way.
Our Approach
At Moving Parts Psychotherapy, trauma therapy is grounded in relationship, collaboration, and nervous system safety. Before moving into deeper trauma processing, we focus on building a strong foundation – one where you feel supported, resourced, and in control of the pace.
Our therapists bring an attuned, steady presence to help co-regulate and establish that felt sense of safety, which becomes the groundwork for meaningful healing. We draw from multiple trauma-informed modalities depending on your needs, goals, and readiness.
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Somatic Experiencing (SE)
Somatic Experiencing is a body-based trauma therapy that focuses on how trauma lives in the nervous system. Rather than retelling traumatic events, SE gently tracks physical sensations, impulses, and patterns that help the body complete unfinished survival responses. This allows stored energy to release and supports regulation, resilience, and a greater sense of ease in your body.
Somatic Experiencing is especially helpful when trauma feels difficult to put into words – because healing doesn’t always happen through language alone.
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Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Internal Family Systems views the psyche as made up of different “parts,” each carrying emotions, beliefs, and protective roles shaped by life experiences. Some parts may feel anxious, critical, overwhelmed, or stuck in the past, while others work hard to keep you functioning.
IFS trauma therapy helps you build compassionate relationships with these parts, reducing internal conflict and creating space for your core Self — a grounded, calm, and connected internal state. Through this process, trauma-burdened parts can release what they’ve been carrying and move toward healing.
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EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
EMDR is a trauma therapy modality that helps reprocess memories that remain unintegrated in the brain and body. Using guided bilateral stimulation, EMDR supports memory reconsolidation so past experiences no longer feel as though they’re happening in the present.
As traumatic memories become more fully integrated, emotional reactivity decreases, body sensations settle, and distressing beliefs often shift naturally. EMDR allows healing to unfold without needing to relive trauma in detail.
Trauma-Informed Therapy in Texas
Healing from trauma is not quick or linear, but you don’t have to do it alone. Whether you’re just beginning to explore trauma therapy or considering more intensive trauma work, we’ll meet you with safety, respect, and a touch of healthy humor (when appropriate).
If you’re looking for trauma therapy in Austin, TX that honors your resilience and validates your lived experiences, please reach out to schedule a free consultation.
