Trauma Informed Therapy
The past can’t be erased—but through trauma-informed therapy, it can be understood and healed.
Do you ever notice yourself reacting in ways that don’t quite make sense—pulling away when someone gets close, feeling uneasy when life finally feels calm, or repeating patterns you thought you’d outgrown? You’re not broken or “too much.” These responses are often adaptive patterns—protective parts of you that learned how to survive.
Trauma-informed therapy helps you gently uncover the “why” beneath those patterns—the emotions, beliefs, and body memories that shaped your nervous system’s responses. As you begin to understand your internal world with curiosity and compassion, the old survival strategies that once protected you can start to soften.
At Anne Giles Counseling, we use a trauma-informed, relational approach to help you feel safer within yourself, deepen self-understanding, and reconnect with the parts of you that long to feel calm, present, and whole.
What Does It Mean to Be Trauma-Informed?
A trauma-informed approach recognizes that our past experiences—especially those involving stress, loss, or disconnection—can shape how we think, feel, and relate to ourselves and others today. Rather than asking “What’s wrong with me?”, trauma-informed therapy asks, “What happened to me—and how did I learn to adapt?”
This lens honors the wisdom of your survival responses. The patterns that once helped you get through difficult moments—such as shutting down, people-pleasing, overachieving, or staying on alert—are seen not as flaws, but as protective strategies your system created to stay safe.
In trauma-informed therapy, the focus is on creating safety—both within the therapeutic relationship and within your own body. Healing unfolds at a pace that feels manageable. Together, we work to build awareness of your emotional and nervous system responses, strengthen your sense of safety and control, and support the parts of you that are ready to experience more connection, calm, and trust.
At Anne Giles Counseling, a trauma-informed approach means meeting you with compassion, curiosity, and respect for your story—helping you move from simply surviving to feeling grounded, empowered, and whole.
What to Expect
In a trauma-informed approach, sessions are centered around safety, curiosity, and gentle exploration rather than quick fixes or forced change. Together, we’ll explore what’s beneath the surface of your current challenges—understanding the protective patterns, emotional defenses, and relational dynamics that once helped you cope but may now feel limiting.
The process often involves noticing recurring themes—how you respond to closeness, conflict, or uncertainty—and tracing how those responses developed over time. Instead of simply analyzing the past, we focus on how it lives in the present: in your body, emotions, and relationships. This awareness creates an opportunity to respond with greater intention rather than from old survival strategies.
Sessions are collaborative, flexible, and paced around your comfort and readiness. We’ll move slowly enough to stay within your window of tolerance, ensuring the work feels safe and grounded. Over time, this compassionate awareness allows for genuine healing, deeper self-trust, and a more regulated, connected sense of self.
Psychodynamic Therapy: Depth, Safety, and Lasting Change
At Anne Giles Counseling, we work with thoughtful, high-functioning individuals who have done the work—read the books, practiced the coping tools, gained awareness—yet still find themselves repeating familiar emotional patterns. Trauma-informed psychodynamic therapy helps bridge the gap between understanding why you feel the way you do and actually experiencing lasting change.
This approach honors that many of our current struggles began as protective adaptations to earlier experiences. Together, we gently explore the underlying emotions, beliefs, and relational templates that shaped how you learned to connect, protect, or withdraw. By bringing these unconscious dynamics into awareness—at a pace that feels safe and grounded—you gain the capacity to respond with intention rather than react from old wounds.
We often return to guiding questions like: What’s happening inside and why? Where do you long to go? And what within you needs care or attention to get there?
Through this process, clients begin to feel more connected to themselves, more regulated in their relationships, and more confident navigating life with clarity and self-trust. The insight and integration that emerge create not just awareness, but enduring emotional freedom.
Reconnect, Reflect, and Reclaim Your Inner Clarity
At Anne Giles Counseling, we take a trauma-informed approach to therapy—helping you understand not just what you feel, but why those feelings and reactions arise. Many of our current struggles stem from protective patterns formed in response to earlier experiences of stress, disconnection, or overwhelm. These patterns were once essential for survival; now, they may simply be asking for understanding and care.
In our work together, we explore the roots of your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors with gentleness and curiosity. Rather than focusing on what’s “wrong,” we look at how your system learned to adapt and protect you. As you begin to notice these patterns and hold them with compassion, the nervous system starts to settle, allowing more space for grounded awareness, emotional flexibility, and authentic connection.
Trauma-informed therapy isn’t about changing who you are—it’s about deepening your relationship with yourself. Through this process, you’ll begin to feel more safe within your body, more attuned to your needs, and more empowered to shape your story from a place of clarity and self-trust.
Trauma Informed Therapy Boulder, CO
1650 38th Street, Suite 100, Boulder, CO 80301