Online Trauma Therapy in California

for adults

You Survived What Happened to You

What happened to you was not your fault, and you do not have to rush your healing. Trauma can affect how you feel, relate to others, experience your body, and understand yourself. You don't have to minimize what happened or have a clear explanation for why you're struggling before reaching out for support. I provide online trauma therapy for adults throughout California, offering a safe, non-shaming, and non-judgmental space to process painful experiences and develop a greater sense of safety, self-trust, and emotional well-being.

Healing at YOUR pace

When you feel ready, we can work together in a grounded, collaborative space to process what happened. This may mean we move at your pace, and at speed you are ready for. You may experience reclaiming power that was taken from you. Together, we can support your mind and body to honoring the reactions that had to happen, and the normal responses that helped you survive. Liberation-centered healing is about reclaiming your voice, your body, your choices, and your sense of self, so you can experience liberation, reconnect with your authentic self, and self empowerment.

“Your connectedness to other people is so key to buffering any current stressor—and to healing from past trauma. Being with people who are present, supportive, and nurturing. Belonging.”

Dr. Bruce D. Perry

Psychiatrist, Writer

What Is Trauma?

Trauma isn’t limited to one type of experience. It can result from a single overwhelming event, ongoing experiences of harm, or patterns that develop over years.

You may be carrying the effects of:

Childhood abuse or neglect
Sexual abuse
Domestic or intimate partner violence
Emotional or psychological abuse
Racial trauma
Intergenerational trauma
Relational trauma
Experiences of discrimination or othering (bullying)
Difficult or unsafe relationships
Experiences that left you feeling powerless, unseen, or unsafe

Sometimes you may know exactly what happened. Other times, you may simply know that something doesn’t feel right.

You may feel disconnected from yourself, struggle with relationships, have difficulty trusting others, experience shame or self-criticism, or feel like you’re constantly trying to hold everything together.

Trauma therapy can offer a space to understand these patterns without blaming yourself for having them.

How Trauma Can Affect You

The effects of trauma aren’t always obvious. You may notice feelings of:

Anxiety, overwhelm, or difficulty relaxing
Shame or persistent self-criticism
Low self-worth or negative beliefs about yourself
Difficulty setting boundaries
People-pleasing or perfectionism
Feeling disconnected from your emotions or body
Difficulty trusting yourself or others
Challenges with intimacy and relationships
Feeling stuck in patterns you don’t understand
Difficulty feeling safe even when you know you’re no longer in danger
A sense that past experiences continue to affect your present

You don’t have to identify with the word “trauma” to seek trauma therapy.

If something continues to affect how you experience yourself, your relationships, or your life, it may be worth exploring together.

LGBTQ+ Trauma, Identity & Internalized Homophobia

For members of LGBTQ+ community, trauma can sometimes be intertwined with experiences of rejection, discrimination, bullying, family conflict, or being made to feel that who you are is wrong or unsafe. These experiences can affect your sense of self, relationships, and ability to feel comfortable being seen and known.

Hate can become internalized. Internalized homophobia or shame leads folks to absorb negative and untrue messages about LGBTQ+ identities from family, religion, culture, media, or their own communities. This can look day to day like self-criticism, difficulty accepting yourself, fear of judgment, discomfort with intimacy, people-pleasing, or feeling disconnected from your identity.

Together, we can work toward separating your own values and desires from messages that taught you to feel shame about yourself, while building greater self-acceptance, self-trust, authenticity, and a sense of belonging.

My approach is LGBTQ+ affirming and grounded in a liberation-focused, anti-oppressive perspective. Your identity is not something that needs to be fixed. Therapy with me can instead be a place to understand what you’ve experienced, reclaim your sense of identity, and explore what living more freely and authentically can feel

Racial & Intergenerational Trauma

Trauma can also exist within larger cultural and historical contexts.

Experiences of racism, discrimination, cultural expectations, migration, family histories, and intergenerational patterns can influence how we understand ourselves and our place in the world.

For some people, healing involves exploring not only personal experiences but also the messages and systems that have shaped their sense of safety, identity, worth, and belonging.

My approach considers these experiences within their broader context rather than treating them as problems that exist solely within the individual.

Healing From Sexual Abuse and sexual Trauma

Survivors of sexual abuse, domestic violence, and intimate partner violence may carry experiences of shame, self-blame, fear, difficulty trusting, or challenges with boundaries and intimacy.

Healing doesn’t mean forgetting what happened or forcing yourself to move on.

It can mean developing a greater sense of safety, reconnecting with your own needs, rebuilding trust in yourself, and reclaiming parts of yourself that may have become disconnected through trauma.

Healing From Trauma

Experiences from childhood and throughout our lives can continue to shape how we relate to ourselves and others long after we leave the environment where they occurred.

You may have be told and learned that your needs weren’t important, that you had to take care of everyone else, or that love and acceptance depended on how well you performed.

As an adult, these experiences can show up as perfectionism, people-pleasing, difficulty setting boundaries, low self-worth, shame, or difficulty knowing what you actually want.

Therapy can help you understand these patterns with compassion while creating space to develop new ways of relating to yourself.

How I can help you...

My approach integrates Brainspotting and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), along with Liberation Psychology, Critical Race Theory, identity and belonging work, and exploration of the intersections of culture, race, gender, and sexuality. I incorporate somatic awareness, mindfulness, and self-compassion to help you notice how stress and trauma can be held in the body, while creating space to process traumatic experiences and develop greater awareness of the patterns you learned or inherited.

You and I will explore how trauma, racism, oppression, family patterns, cultural experiences, and identities may shape the way you see yourself, relate to others, and experience your body and emotions.

Our sessions together help to put language to your experiences, understand intergenerational and learned patterns, challenge internalized oppressive beliefs, and reconnect with your identity and sense of belonging. I support you in developing greater self-compassion, resilience, agency, and liberating yourself to live more authentically—while reclaiming the parts of yourself, your culture, and your story that may have been silenced

Healing isn’t about becoming someone else. It’s about creating more space to be fully yourself.

Schedule a free 15 minutes phone consultation

619-719-5567

angel@crescentshorespsychotherapy.com

I live and work on unceded land of Kumeyaay Nation.
To learn more and join me in supporting Indigenous communities,
visit Native Governance Center, Museum of Us, and Native Lands.