Trauma Therapy in NYC
You may have spent a long time telling yourself that what happened is over. So why does a conversation, a place, or someone’s tone of voice still affect you so much?
At LEL Therapy, we work with adults whose past experiences are affecting how they feel, relate to other people, and move through daily life. We offer virtual trauma therapy throughout New York State.
You can start with what’s happening now. You don’t need to tell us everything at once.
You might not use the word trauma…
Maybe you describe your childhood as complicated. Maybe something happened in a relationship that you’ve never talked about fully. Maybe you’ve spent years explaining why the other person did what they did, with very little room to think about how it affected you.
We can explore your experiences without requiring you to settle on a label first. What matters is understanding what you’re dealing with and what support could help.
What You May Be Noticing Now
-
You’re always checking the room
You notice shifts in mood quickly. It’s hard to relax when part of your attention is on what might happen next.
-
Your reactions surprise you
Something small can bring up a lot. You might feel panicked, angry, frozen, or far away before you can put words to it.
-
Closeness feels complicated
You want support but find it hard to trust someone with the parts of your life you’ve kept private.
-
You keep questioning yourself
You revisit what you said, what you did, and whether you could have prevented what happened. Giving yourself the understanding you’d offer a friend feels much harder.
-
Reminders interrupt your day
Memories, nightmares, or situations that bring you back to the experience may affect sleep, concentration, or plans you used to enjoy.
-
You’ve gotten used to feeling disconnected
You can get through a day without feeling very present in it. You may be unsure what you feel or what you need.
Areas of Trauma Therapy at LEL
-
Sexual Trauma Therapy
Support after unwanted sexual experiences, coercion, or assault, including experiences you’re unsure how to describe. There is room to work on shame, consent, intimacy, and your relationship with your body.
-
Dysfunctional Family Trauma Therapy
For adults living with the impact of abuse, emotional neglect, unpredictable caregiving, or family relationships where your needs repeatedly went unheard.
-
Relationship Trauma Therapy
Individual support after betrayal, emotional abuse, coercive control, or intimate partner violence. We focus on how the experience has affected you, with attention to safety and your choices now.
We also work with adults affected by childhood experiences, repeated trauma, harassment, and single traumatic events. You can tell us what brings you here even if it doesn’t fit neatly into one category.
What Trauma Therapy Can Look Like
Our work draws on Judith Herman’s three-phase framework for trauma recovery: establishing safety, making space for remembrance and mourning, and reconnecting with life and relationships. We move between these phases according to what you need.
First, we get to know each other
Trust takes time. We’ll talk about what helps you feel comfortable, what makes a session overwhelming, and how you can let us know when you need to pause. We’ll also look at your current circumstances and the support you have outside therapy.
You don’t need to give us a detailed account of your hardest experiences in the first session.
01
We make room for what happened and what it cost you
As we work together, we can explore memories, emotions, and beliefs you’ve been carrying. That may include grief about care you didn’t receive, time you lost, or choices that weren’t available to you.
We’ll work with what you remember and how you feel now. We won’t pressure you to fill in gaps or produce a complete timeline.
02
We work on the life you’re living now
Therapy can also be about a boundary with a parent, feeling more present with a partner, or deciding whom you trust enough to tell. We’ll help you consider what support, connection, and choice could look like in your daily life.
This work doesn’t move in a straight line. We can return to safety, coping, or a present-day concern whenever that’s what you need.
03
You don’t have to know where to begin.
It can be hard to talk about what happened—or even decide whether to call it trauma. We can start with what’s bringing you here.
Hear from Lauren about trauma therapy at LEL and get a feel for the therapists behind the practice.
Our Approach to Trauma Therapy in NYC
We’re relational therapists, which means the relationship we build with you is an active part of the work. We bring warmth, honesty, and our own personalities into sessions, alongside approaches that help you work with difficult thoughts, emotions, memories, and physical reactions. Together, we’ll choose what fits your needs and talk openly about how the work is feeling.
-
Relational & Attachment-Focused Therapy
When you’ve been hurt in relationships, trusting someone with your experience can feel complicated. We pay attention to that, including how it feels to work with us.
You can disagree with your therapist, say something didn’t land, or ask for what you need. Those moments give us opportunities to practice boundaries, work through misunderstandings, and explore what it feels like to be heard.
-
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
You might understand that something wasn’t your fault and still find yourself thinking, “I should have stopped it.” We can look closely at those thoughts and the meaning you’ve attached to what happened.
CBT helps us examine patterns of thinking and behavior that are adding to your distress. Together, we’ll practice responses that make room for a fuller understanding of your experience and more compassion toward yourself.
-
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Skills
Sometimes you need help getting through the next difficult moment. DBT skills give us practical ways to work on managing intense emotions, tolerating distress, and communicating what you need.
That might mean finding a way to pause during an overwhelming conversation, recognizing an emotion before acting on it, or asking for support more directly. We’ll work on skills you can actually use between sessions.
-
Mindfulness & Somatic Practices
You may notice tension, restlessness, or a feeling of being far away before you know what emotion you’re experiencing. We make room for those physical responses, too.
Through grounding, gentle body awareness, and mindfulness, we can explore what helps you feel more present. We’ll adapt these practices to you; focusing on your breath or body doesn’t feel helpful for everyone, and you can tell us when it doesn’t.
-
Narrative Therapy
Painful experiences can shape the conclusions you draw about yourself: that you’re difficult to love, that your needs don’t matter, or that you should have known better.
Narrative work gives us room to examine where those conclusions came from and whether they tell the whole story. We’ll make space for your perspective, the circumstances you were in, and the parts of your identity that you want to know more fully.
-
Exposure & Trauma-Focused Work
Avoiding reminders can bring relief in the moment while gradually limiting where you go or what you feel able to do. When appropriate, we can work toward approaching memories or situations you’ve been avoiding because they bring up fear.
Your therapist will explain the approach and plan manageable steps with you. We’ll distinguish reminders of past danger from situations that remain unsafe, with your current circumstances guiding the work.
When Trauma, Food & Body Image Overlap
You may notice that difficult memories, feeling exposed, or wanting more control show up in your relationship with food, exercise, or your body. If that’s part of your experience, it belongs in the conversation.
At LEL, our work with trauma and eating disorders allows us to explore those concerns together. We’ll consider what support you need now, how to pace the work, and whether collaboration with a dietitian, physician, or other provider would be helpful.
Many of our clients are:
Making sense of a difficult childhood
Working through the impact of a harmful relationship
Setting boundaries with family
Feeling on edge, shutting down, or struggling to trust
Healing after sexual assault or abuse
Finding that past experiences keep showing up in daily life
You may have spent years telling yourself it wasn’t that bad, or that you should be over it by now. It can be hard to know what to call an experience, especially when it involved someone you loved or depended on. You can bring those questions into therapy. We’ll take time to understand what happened, how it’s affecting you, and what you need now.
THERAPISTS WHO ARE HUMAN + HUMANS WHO ARE THERAPISTS
Meet Our NYC Trauma Therapists
-
![A woman with shoulder-length dark hair standing outdoors on a city street, wearing a beige blazer and light blue jeans, with a background of red brick buildings, green trees, and a sidewalk.]()
Sophia Witheiler, LMHC
LICENSED THERAPIST
-
![A woman with shoulder-length blonde hair smiling, wearing a black and white checkered blazer over a white top, standing in front of a leafy green hedge.]()
Caroline Kirby, LMFT
CLINIAL SUPERVISOR
-
![A smiling woman with long dark hair wearing a navy blazer and pants, standing on a street with brownstone buildings and green trees in the background.]()
Sam Mauser, LMSW
CLINICAL DIRECTOR
-
![A woman with curly hair, glasses, and tattoos on her arms standing on a city sidewalk in front of a brick building with stairs and lush green trees.]()
Kiana Kohr, MHC-1
-
![A young woman with long brown hair, smiling and standing outdoors in front of a brick wall and green plants, dressed in a light blue and white striped blouse with puffed sleeves and black pants.]()
MJ Falcon Gimenez, LMHC
LICENSED THERAPIST
-
![A woman with long brown hair smiling and standing on a city street, wearing a striped button-up shirt and blue jeans, with brick buildings and greenery in the background.]()
Brooke Thomas, MHC-LP
-
![A smiling woman with blonde hair in a vintage-style black dress, standing outdoors with her hands on her hips, in front of a brick building and green trees.]()
Lauren Larkin, LMHC
FOUNDER
Lauren is not currently accepting new therapy clients.
-
No. You can seek support for distressing experiences without already having a diagnosis. Experiencing trauma and having PTSD are not the same thing; your therapist can help assess what’s going on.
-
You can begin with what feels possible to share. We’ll discuss the work together, including what different treatment approaches involve, before asking you to engage with difficult memories.
-
You can still talk about your current distress and the experiences you do remember. Therapy does not require a perfect account, and we won’t treat missing details as something you need to recover.
-
Yes, we can discuss both concerns and what support you need. When appropriate, we may work with other providers involved in your care. We’ll consider your current needs when deciding the pace and focus of treatment.
-
There isn’t one timeline. Your experiences, goals, current safety, and support all matter. We’ll check in about how the work is going and adjust together.
-
Yes. We offer virtual therapy for adults across New York State, including all five NYC boroughs and Long Island. We’ll discuss whether online sessions are a good fit for your needs and circumstances.
Questions about trauma therapy
You can start with, “I’m not sure how to talk about this.”
That’s a place to begin. We’ll help you find the next words together.
Related Services
We provide trauma therapy for clients throughout:
Manhattan
Brooklyn
Staten Island
Upper East Side
Upper West Side
Chelsea
Williamsburg
Long Island
Queens
Bronx
Midtown
Tribeca
and virtually throughout New York State.
More on trauma and recovery
Read about trauma therapy, relationships, and making sense of experiences that can be hard to put into words.
Psychotherapist Lindsay Mann explores OCD through a trauma-informed lens, explaining how compulsions may develop as attempts to create safety and control. She shares how combining evidence-based treatment with compassion can reduce shame and support recovery.