Trauma Therapy in Whitefish Bay, WI
For many people, trauma also carries a layer of shame.
Even when you logically know something wasn’t your fault, there can still be feelings of embarrassment, self-blame, or discomfort that make it hard to talk about what happened.
So you carry it on your own.
You wish you could just move on; to put it behind you and stop feeling so impacted by it. But trauma isn’t something you can simply think or cope your way out of.
How Trauma Therapy Can Help
Effective trauma therapy focuses on helping your brain and body fully process what happened, so it no longer feels like it’s happening right now.
Our goal is not to erase your memory—but to reduce the intensity, reactivity, and distress connected to it.
So instead of feeling triggered or overwhelmed, you’re able to remember what happened without it taking over your mind or body.
At ERA, we take an integrative and evidence-informed approach to trauma treatment.
This includes traditional cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps you understand patterns in your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, as well as Brainspotting or EMDR. These are brain-body methods of therapy that works with the deeper, subcortical parts of the brain where trauma is often held.
These methods allow us to access and process trauma at a level that doesn’t rely solely on talking through it, which can be especially helpful when experiences feel difficult to put into words.
Together, these approaches allow for both insight and deeper, long lasting healing.
We work with a range of trauma experiences, including:
Sexual or physical assault
Traumatic birth or medical trauma
Accidents, sudden events, or natural disasters
Childhood trauma or abuse
Relationship trauma
Emotional neglect or manipulation
Healing from trauma doesn’t mean forgetting what happened.
It means being able to live your life without feeling constantly pulled back into it.
With the right support, it’s possible to feel more grounded, more in control, and more like yourself again.
There are experiences that the mind doesn’t easily file away.
Something happened that shouldn’t have happened. But instead of feeling like it’s in the past, it keeps showing up in the present.
You might notice intrusive memories that come out of nowhere, or images that replay in your mind like a loop. Sometimes they’re triggered by something specific. Other times, they seem to appear without warning.
It can feel unsettling, even frightening, to not have control over when those memories surface.
Trauma doesn’t just live in your thoughts. It affects your body, your emotions, and your nervous system.
You may find it hard to relax or feel constantly on edge. Sleep can become difficult, whether that looks like trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or experiencing vivid dreams or nightmares.
At times, your emotional responses might feel stronger or more unpredictable than you’d like. It’s like your system is reacting faster than you can make sense of.
You might also notice yourself avoiding certain situations, conversations, or even your own thoughts because they feel too overwhelming to face directly.
Click the link below to schedule a new client consultation and get started with one of our therapists.
FAQs About Trauma Therapy
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All kinds! Birth trauma, abuse (sexual, physical, emotional, financial), natural disasters, accidents, etc.
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Really anything that you feel traumatized by. The hallmark of trauma isn’t that we were in actual danger, it’s that we either were really in danger, or thought we were in danger. If you reasonably believed that you or someone else was going to be seriously harmed or killed, that can be trauma. Sometimes it’s explained away by other people, like “at least you’re ok” or “the baby is healthy and that’s what matters” - but that isn’t all that matters. What you went through matters.
It also doesn’t matter if someone else went through the same thing, or something “worse” and doesn’t seem to be impacted by it. We all react to trauma in our own ways, there isn’t a hierarchy of what qualifies.
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It can be just about anything - from flashbacks and panic attacks, to changes in eating or sleeping habits, to intrusive thoughts about the trauma. It can look different for each person, and even for different trauma the same person experiences.
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Intrusive thoughts are thoughts that pop into your head and are unwanted or disturbing. In relation to trauma, they can be thoughts or images of the trauma, or even a “replay” of it in your head.
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Brainspotting and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT, especially TF-CBT which is specifically trauma related) can be helpful for trauma.
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Specific therapy for trauma can be helpful when something is really intense, or it’s just not healing with time or other methods of therapy. Specific methods like EMDR or Brainspotting work from a bottom up approach - we’re healing your brain differently than a top down method like talk therapy.
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Unfortunately, this varies a ton depending on a lot of factors - what the trauma is, if the memory is intense or tied to other situations, beliefs, or values, how old the trauma is, what the overall goal of the trauma therapy is, etc. Your clinician will work with you at your pace, we tailor sessions to each individual client, not a cookie-cutter process.
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That’s actually sometimes an option! In Brainspotting, we don’t need to verbally discuss all of the details of what happened to effectively heal. It’s pretty cool stuff.
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Not a problem! We can help heal trauma that is super recent all the way up to many decades old.
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Well, you’re here! So we’re an option. You can schedule a consult on our calendar and we will call you at that time to chat about what is going on for you and how we might be able to help. All therapists at ERA have experience with helping heal trauma, and some of us have additional trauma training and modalities that we use.
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At ERA, we have several tiers of clinician pricing. You can find our full fee schedule here: https://www.erawellnesstherapy.com/fees
An intake (first session) ranges from $60-$200 depending on the clinician, ongoing 50 minute sessions range from $50-$150 depending on clinician. At times, we do have some sliding scale spots available. If this is needed, please ask your clinician during the consultation call.
ERA's Favorite Trauma Resources
The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
The Internatioal Society for Traumatic Stress Studies has information and pamphlets about traumatic stress and how to heal. They also have a blog and information for both adult and child survivors of trauma.
PATTCh
PATTCh is an organization based in Washington that focuses on the prevention and treatment of traumatic childbirth. They have a lot of helpful articles on their “Resources” page about various topics relating to traumatic child birth. Please note that there may be some triggering details in the articles.
How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime
This is a really wonderful Ted Talk from Nadine Burke Harris, the Surgeon General for California. She talks about the landmark ACES study and how it affects our health outcomes for the entire lifespan.