Trauma and what it left behind
Trauma counseling for adults
You got through it. Getting past it turns out to be a different thing.
A trauma counselor works on what an experience left behind, whether it was one day or years of them: a body that will not stand down, the people and places you manage around, and the story you have never told in full. Weekly counseling, in person in the Houston area or online anywhere in Texas.
What you still carry can be set down.
- Select insurance plans accepted
- Self-pay $100–$150 per session
- For adults in Houston-Willowbrook, The Woodlands, and Katy
- Online across Texas
In crisis or thinking about suicide? Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, any time.
If someone is in immediate danger, call 911. Counseling here is not an emergency service.
Who you might work with
Licensed counselors, matched to what you need
Tell us that trauma is what you want to work on, and whether it was one event or a long stretch of them, and we will take both into account when we match you.
AJ Huynh
Director · LPC
Works with ACT, CBT and mindfulness-based approaches, with a focus on what matters to you rather than symptoms alone.
Brenda Resendez
Clinical Director · LPC
Blends ACT, CBT and motivational interviewing, adapting the approach to where you are rather than a fixed program.
Ricardo Alvarez
LPC
Draws on mindfulness, IFS and ACT, and offers EMDR at The Woodlands. A gentle, flexible approach that meets you where you are.
Cost and coverage
Know the cost before you begin.
For insured sessions, we verify your benefits and share an estimated out-of-pocket cost before the first session. That estimate is separate from the self-pay rates below.
Self-pay, per session
- Fully licensed clinician
- $150
- Associate clinician
- $100
Matching may include an associate clinician. Tell us if cost is a concern so we can discuss the options available to you.
Plans we currently work with
Coverage, cost, and availability depend on your plan, your eligibility at the time of service, and the clinician you see.
- Aetna
- Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Texas
- UnitedHealthcare
- Cigna
- Oscar
- Oxford
- Horizon BCBS
- BCBS of Massachusetts
- Original Medicare
- UHC Medicare Advantage
- Quest Behavioral Health
- Carelon Behavioral Health
Do not see your plan? Ask our team: consultations are free, and a limited number of sliding-scale openings may be available.
Daily life
Nothing is happening right now. Your body has not agreed.
The seat that faces the door. The apology that is out of your mouth before anyone is upset.
A smell, a tone of voice, a song in a shop, and for a few seconds you are not here. The subject you steer every conversation away from so smoothly that nobody has noticed, including you.
Being fine at work, all day, and then sitting in the car for twenty minutes before you can go inside.
None of that is weakness, and none of it means you are stuck this way. It is what a person learns in order to get through something, still running after the something has ended.
It can be unlearned. That is most of the work.
- The room you scan first What your body does before you have decided anything, and how to get the next ten seconds back.
- The apology that comes first Where the reflex to keep everyone calm came from, and what it costs you now.
- The subject you steer around Naming what you avoid and what each detour costs, before deciding which ones to keep.
- Saying it for the first timeHow to put words to something that never had a name, to one person you choose, without owing anyone the whole story.
Understanding trauma
What trauma is, in plain terms
Trauma is not the event. It is what happens when an experience (one day of it, or years) was more than a person could take in at the time, and the mind and body found a way through that never got switched off.
These are the parts people tend to recognize. They are a starting point for a conversation, not a test you have to pass to deserve help.
01
One day, or a long time
Some people have a single day with a clear before and after. Others have something that went on for years and had no before to go back to, so it never got a name.
Both count, and the second is usually the harder one to say out loud. Counseling starts from whichever shape yours has, without ranking it.
02
The body keeps the schedule
The startle at a door closing. Sleep that goes light at three.
The stomach, the jaw, the tiredness of being on duty in a room where nothing is happening. This is the part counseling works on first, because an alarm that never stands down makes everything else harder to reach.
03
What you learned to do to stay safe
Managing the mood of the room. Saying yes first.
Keeping control of the details, or keeping yourself small enough not to be noticed. Those were good answers to the situation you were in; they are expensive in a life that no longer needs them.
The work separates the skill from the situation, so you keep the one and put down the other.
04
Feeling it, or feeling nothing
Too much, and then flat, crying at an advert one week and unreachable at your own birthday the next, and privately sure that the numb stretches mean you do not really care. They are the same system, turned up and then turned off.
Counseling works on the range between them rather than picking a side.
05
What it did to trust
Of other people, and of your own read on them: waiting for the turn, testing, or handing everything over too fast and calling it closeness. That is rebuilt in the room first (with one person, once a week, who does the same thing every time) before it is rebuilt outside it.
06
The story with the gaps in it
Some parts are in colour and some are missing, and you have wondered whether that means you are making it up. Memory does that with an experience taken in under pressure.
Counseling does not require the whole thing in order, and never asks you to fill a gap to prove it happened.
What can contribute
- Abuse: physical, sexual or emotional, at any age
- Being neglected, or raised by someone who was not safe
- A relationship that was controlling or violent
- An accident, an assault, or a medical emergency
- A loss that nobody around you treated as one
- Work that puts you near other people’s worst days
What counts is not how bad it looks from outside; it is whether it is still running things. If you want to read more first, see how trauma affects the brain.
If what happened was one nameable event and the after-effects have a diagnosis attached, or you suspect they should, PTSD counseling is the page written for that; the counselors are the same.
How we work
How trauma counseling works here
This is weekly individual counseling with one therapist, usually in this order, with mindfulness running through all of it. Nobody is asked to retell what happened in the first session, and you can ask about the approach at any point and change your mind later.
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Steady first
Before anything from the past is worked on, the present gets quieter: sleep, grounding, the ten seconds after a sound, the reflex to keep everyone calm. Cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness, aimed at the week you are actually having, and if steady is as far as you want to go for a while, that is a complete piece of work on its own.
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Working with what happened
What the experience left you believing (about danger, about blame, about what you are worth) is looked at directly and at a pace you set, using CBT. Two counselors on this team, Ricardo Alvarez and Maria Landa, are trained in EMDR, an approach with strong evidence for the after-effects of trauma; if EMDR is what you want, say so when you ask to be matched and we will tell you plainly who has room.
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Acceptance and commitment therapy
ACT is the approach every counselor here works from. It does not ask you to feel differently about the past before you get your life back; it works on what the managing and avoiding have cost (the friendship, the trip, the conversation) and on doing those things with the feeling still present rather than waiting for it to leave.
Getting started
You do not have to tell the whole story to begin.
Matching starts with what matters to you. You have a say in your goals and in whether the therapist feels like a fit.
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Tell us what you need
Use the matching form to share what brings you here and whether you prefer an office or online sessions.
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Explore your match
We suggest a counselor based on what you shared, who is available, and whether you want an office or online. You can ask about their approach before you decide.
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Start where you are
In your first session, talk about what feels hard. Nobody will ask you to go through what happened on day one.
Before your first session
If it helps, you might jot down:
- Roughly when it was, and roughly what kind of thing: a sentence is enough, and “a long time” is a valid answer
- What you have stopped doing, going to, or talking about since
- One thing you would like back
These notes are optional. You do not need a log, a count, or a tidy history: bring whatever you can say that day.
The Reset Guarantee
If the fit is wrong, your first session with a new counselor is free.
Near you, or online
Choose where you meet
Meet in person at one of our three Houston-area offices, or choose telehealth anywhere in Texas.
Houston-Willowbrook
12807 Haynes Rd, Building C1
Houston, TX 77066
The Woodlands
2219 Sawdust Rd, Suite 1204
The Woodlands, TX 77380
Online across Texas
Prefer to meet from home? Explore telehealth counseling in Texas.
Online sessions run the same way as an office visit, with the same counselors. If the waiting room, the drive, or being somewhere you cannot leave quickly is part of what makes this hard, online trauma therapy from your own room is a reasonable first step, and you can move to an office later.
A few questions
Before you start
If the one you are carrying is not here, ask us when you get in touch.
Do I need a diagnosis to see a trauma counselor?
No: most people arrive with an experience, not a label, something that happened and a life organised around it since. Working out what is going on is part of the first few sessions, not a gate you have to clear before you are allowed in.
Do I have to go through it all again?
Not in the first session, and never all at once: some of the work looks at what happened directly, and a good deal of it is about the present, such as sleep, the alarm, and the things you have stopped doing. The pace is yours, and “not yet” is a normal answer that your counselor will take at face value.
Is EMDR available?
Yes, from two named counselors, Ricardo Alvarez and Maria Landa, at The Woodlands and Katy, who use it alongside ACT, IFS and mindfulness, including for things that happened over years. This is not an EMDR clinic and there are no intensives, so ask when you request a match and we will tell you plainly who has room.
What if it was not one event, but my whole childhood?
That counts, and it is the more common shape: it tends to show up as patterns rather than memories, such as what you expect from people, how much you can ask for, and how quickly you agree. That is workable and worked on slowly, and our writing on complex trauma and on childhood trauma therapy for adults goes into more detail.
Does it count if nothing that dramatic happened?
It counts if it is still running your life. Measuring what happened against something worse is a way people get through it, and it keeps you out of a counseling room long afterwards, but the room is for what it did to you, not for how it ranks.
Do I need medication as well?
Some people take something for sleep or mood alongside counseling, and many people do not. Our counselors do not prescribe; if you see a prescriber, the two run side by side and the counseling does not wait for it.
Can I meet with a counselor online?
Yes, secure video sessions are available across Texas, with the same counselors you would see at one of our offices. Telehealth counseling in Texas has the details.
What if my therapist is not the right fit?
If the fit is wrong, tell us and we will match you with a different counselor. Your first session with them is free.
Your next step
What happened is not going to change. What it does to you can.
Tell us what has stayed with you, and we will help you find a counselor.
In crisis? Call or text 988 any time.
Counseling here is not an emergency service.
We provide diagnosis, assessment and therapy. Our clinicians are licensed in Texas as professional counselors, clinical social workers or marriage and family therapists, and none of them prescribe medication; if you see a prescriber, counseling runs alongside that.
We do not run a residential or intensive day program; this is weekly outpatient counseling.
