PSYCHOTHERAPY SERVICES
Trauma & PTSD Therapy
Trauma Therapy in Vancouver: Healing, Connection, and Coming Back to Yourself
Gentle, relational support for making sense of what you’ve lived through, soften old survival patterns and finding new ways of being with yourself and others
If you have lived through experiences that overwhelmed you, frightened you, or left you feeling alone with more than you knew how to carry, those experiences can continue to shape how you feel long after the danger has passed. As a trauma therapist in Vancouver, I work with people recovering from PTSD, Complex PTSD, childhood trauma, neglect, emotionally immature parenting, and other experiences that have affected their sense of safety, connection and self.
Trauma can leave us feeling anxious and on guard, shut down or disconnected, overwhelmed by shame, or caught in patterns that are difficult to understand or change. For many people, it also reaches deeply into how they see themselves. You may know intellectually that you are worthy of love and belonging, while somewhere inside still carrying the feeling that you are too much, not enough, difficult to love, or somehow fundamentally flawed. These beliefs can become woven into our relationships, our choices and the way we move through the world.
My approach to trauma therapy is relational, compassionate and collaborative. Rather than asking, “What is wrong with you?”, I am much more interested in understanding what happened to you, how you learned to survive it, and what those ways of surviving may still be trying to do for you now. The work is not about fixing a broken person. It is about creating enough safety, understanding and connection that the parts of you that have had to protect, hide, brace or disappear can begin to have other possibilities.
Through trauma therapy in Vancouver and online across British Columbia, I help clients make sense of what they have lived through, develop a different relationship with themselves, and gradually move toward greater freedom, connection and aliveness. Healing can take time, but meaningful change is possible, and you do not have to find your way there alone.
Understanding PTSD:
A Normal Response to Abnormal Events
Trauma creates intense emotional and psychological responses to physically and mentally harmful events, such as abuse, violence, or neglect. It overwhelms the nervous system, potentially leading to profound effects on a person’s emotional and cognitive well-being.
Carly Goodfellow provides specialized trauma therapy in Vancouver and online to help individuals process and heal from these deep-seated emotional wounds and help individuals regain a sense of safety, balance, and emotional resilience.
Trauma, and the residue of trauma, called Post Traumatic Stress, can lead to persistent feelings of fear, anxiety, and dysregulation in the nervous system, sadness, anger, and distress intolerance. It can distort a person’s self-perception and beliefs, making them feel ashamed, worthless, or mistrustful.
This can also result in behavioral changes, such as avoiding reminders of the trauma or withdrawing from social interactions.
Physically, unprocessed trauma can manifest as chronic pain, fatigue, autoimmune issues and other stress-related symptoms.
Another painful symptom of trauma is the way we have learned to cope and protect ourselves form future pain, can often lead to withdrawal and distancing in our close relationships leading to more isolation and pain.
These reactions to trauma are normal ways for your nervous system to respond but they do not have to persist forever.
As a Trauma Therapist in Vancouver, I understand these challenges and offer support to help you repair and shift the negative residue from trauma. You deserve to feel better, and recovery is possible with appropriate support tailored to you.
"Throughout our lives we develop ways to cope and protect ourselves. That is a very smart thing to do, especially if we have had hard experiences. The truth is you are not broken. Even though you may feel lost from your self, it never went away. We just need to clear the path."
~ Carly Goodfellow ~
How Trauma Can Show Up
Trauma can affect us in many different ways. Sometimes the signs are obvious. Other times, they show up quietly in how we feel, relate to others, move through the world, or experience ourselves.
You may notice some of the following:
Feeling as though the past is still happening. Intrusive memories, nightmares, flashbacks, or sudden waves of emotion can make it feel as though your body and nervous system have not fully registered that the danger is over.
Avoiding what feels too painful. You might steer away from certain people, places, conversations, memories, feelings, or situations because they bring up too much. Avoidance often begins as a way of protecting ourselves, even when over time it can make life feel smaller.
Feeling constantly on alert. Your nervous system may stay prepared for something to go wrong. This can look like difficulty sleeping, irritability, anxiety, trouble concentrating, feeling easily startled, or finding it hard to truly relax.
Trauma can also shape how you feel about yourself and how connected you feel to other people.
Changes in how you see yourself and the world. Trauma can leave behind shame, self-doubt, guilt, mistrust, or a sense that something is wrong with you. You may feel distant from others, struggle to let people in, or find yourself expecting rejection, criticism, or hurt even when part of you knows you are safe.
Feeling shut down or disconnected. Trauma does not always make us feel more activated. Sometimes it does the opposite. You may feel numb, foggy, exhausted, detached from yourself, or less interested in things that once mattered to you. You may find yourself withdrawing or simply going through the motions.
These responses are not random. They are often ways your mind and body learned to help you survive experiences that felt overwhelming, unsafe, or too much to manage alone.
In trauma therapy, we can begin to understand these patterns with compassion rather than judgment, and gradually create more choice, connection, and ease.
How Trauma Therapy Can Help
Living with the effects of trauma can be exhausting. You may feel constantly on alert, unsure of yourself, emotionally overwhelmed, or disconnected from the person you used to be.
When trauma has shaped how you see yourself, other people, or the world around you, it can be hard to imagine feeling different.
Trauma therapy can offer a space to begin making sense of these experiences, gently and at a pace that feels manageable.
My approach is collaborative and tailored to you, drawing from research-informed methods including Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and other somatic approaches, EMDR, clinical hypnotherapy, mindfulness, music integrated psychotherapy, and DBT-informed tools.
The goal is not simply to reduce symptoms, but to help you develop a different relationship with yourself and with what you have been through.
Over time, trauma therapy may help you feel more steady, more connected, and more able to respond to life with choice rather than from old survival patterns.
You may begin to notice:
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Greater ability to stay with difficult emotions without becoming overwhelmed by them.
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More awareness of your nervous system and a stronger capacity to settle, regulate, and recover after stress.
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Greater trust in yourself and more confidence in your own perceptions, needs, and boundaries.
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More satisfying and connected relationships, with greater capacity for intimacy and closeness.
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A stronger sense of connection between different parts of yourself, particularly if you have experienced dissociation or fragmentation.
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A growing sense of feeling more like yourself again, with greater freedom, ease, and aliveness.
Some common questions you may have about trauma therapy
If your question is not answered below, please feel free to reach out or book a free online meet & greet.
01
What does online trauma therapy involve?
Online trauma therapy involves working together to understand how past experiences may still be affecting you in the present, including your emotions, relationships, sense of self and nervous system. Sessions take place by secure video, allowing you to do this work from the privacy and familiarity of your own space. My approach is relational, collaborative and tailored to you. Depending on what is most helpful, our work may include talking, noticing patterns in relationships, paying attention to body-based responses, and drawing from approaches such as Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, EMDR-informed therapy and clinical hypnotherapy. The focus is not simply on revisiting what happened, but on helping you understand the ways you adapted, develop greater choice in how you respond now, and reconnect with parts of yourself that may have become harder to access.
02
Is online trauma therapy as effective as in-person therapy?
Yes. For many people, online trauma therapy can be just as meaningful and effective as working together in person. Research on psychotherapy delivered by secure video has found that trauma-focused treatment can be effectively provided online, with outcomes for PTSD that are generally comparable to in-person care. There can also be particular benefits to working from home. Some people find that being in their own familiar environment makes it easier to settle, notice what is happening internally, or explore difficult experiences without the additional demands of travelling to and from an appointment. As with any therapy, the relationship you develop with your therapist matters. Feeling understood, safe enough to be yourself, and able to work at a pace that feels manageable can be just as important as the particular therapeutic approach being used.
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What concerns can online trauma therapy help with?
Online trauma therapy can support people living with the effects of PTSD, Complex PTSD, childhood or developmental trauma, emotional neglect, abuse, attachment and relationship trauma, difficult family experiences, or growing up with emotionally unavailable or emotionally immature caregivers. Trauma does not always look like flashbacks or vivid memories. It can also show up as anxiety, hypervigilance, shame, emotional numbness, difficulty trusting people, people-pleasing, perfectionism, difficulty setting boundaries, feeling easily overwhelmed, feeling disconnected from your body or emotions, or a sense that you have lost touch with who you really are. You do not need to have a formal PTSD diagnosis, or even be certain that what you experienced was “traumatic enough,” to seek trauma counselling. We can begin with what you are experiencing now and make sense of it together.
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Do I have to describe my traumatic experiences in detail?
No. Good trauma therapy does not require you to immediately tell the whole story or relive everything that happened. In fact, with complex or developmental trauma, moving too quickly into traumatic material can sometimes be overwhelming rather than helpful. We can begin by getting to know how your experiences affect you in the present, understanding the ways your mind and body have learned to protect you, and developing enough safety and stability for deeper work when and if it feels appropriate. We work collaboratively, and you remain in control of what you share. Trauma therapy can involve remembering, but it can also involve noticing, understanding, feeling, making connections, experimenting with something different, and gradually developing a different relationship with yourself.
05
Can EMDR therapy be provided online?
Yes. EMDR therapy can be adapted for online sessions and may be an effective option for some clients. Online EMDR can use several forms of bilateral stimulation, including eye movements, alternating sounds or self-administered tapping. EMDR is also more than simply following a light or moving your eyes from side to side. It is a structured therapeutic approach that helps the brain process experiences that continue to feel unresolved or emotionally charged. When I use EMDR-informed approaches, I integrate them within a broader relational and trauma-informed therapy rather than assuming that every difficult experience needs to be processed in the same way. We would talk together about whether EMDR is appropriate for you, what you hope to work on, and how to approach the work at a pace that feels manageable.
06
Can Sensorimotor Psychotherapy be used during virtual sessions?
Yes. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy translates particularly well to online trauma therapy because much of the work involves becoming curious about what is happening within your own body. During a session, we might notice sensations, posture, breathing, impulses to move, changes in tension or energy, or subtle ways your body responds as we talk. Rather than trying to make a particular response happen, we become curious about what your nervous system may already be communicating. This can be especially helpful when your experience is difficult to put into words, or when you intellectually understand something but still find that your body reacts as though the past is happening now.
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What happens during an online trauma therapy session?
There is no single formula for a trauma therapy session. Sometimes we may talk about something happening in your life now and notice how it connects with older patterns or experiences. At other times we might slow things down and pay attention to an emotion, physical sensation, belief, memory or relational pattern that is emerging in the session. We may use approaches drawn from relational psychotherapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, EMDR-informed work, mindfulness or clinical hypnotherapy. We may also simply talk. The method should serve the therapy, rather than the therapy becoming a series of techniques. An important part of my approach is paying attention together to your pace and capacity. I want to understand not only what has happened to you, but how you experience yourself and other people now, what has helped you survive and adapt, and what might allow more freedom, connection and aliveness to emerge. Online trauma therapy is collaborative. We will talk about what is helping, what is not, and what you need from me as we work together.
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Are online trauma therapy sessions private and secure?
Yes. Online sessions are provided through Jane Video, a secure telehealth platform used by many healthcare professionals in Canada. You can join your appointment from a computer, tablet or phone. For the best experience, I recommend finding a private and comfortable space where you are unlikely to be interrupted, and using headphones if that gives you greater privacy. For trauma therapy in particular, it can also be helpful to give yourself a few minutes before and after the session rather than moving immediately from therapy into another meeting or responsibility.
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Where is online trauma therapy available?
I provide online trauma therapy for adults located throughout British Columbia and Alberta. Working online means you can access specialized trauma counselling without needing to live near my practice in the Vancouver area. This can be particularly helpful for people living in smaller communities, rural or remote areas, or anyone who simply finds online therapy more comfortable or practical.
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How many online trauma therapy sessions will I need?
There is no predetermined number of sessions for trauma therapy. Someone seeking support after a single traumatic experience may need something very different from someone working through years of developmental trauma, relational trauma or Complex PTSD. Some people come to therapy with one particular area they want help with, while others are looking for deeper, longer-term psychotherapy. We can talk together about what brings you to therapy, what you would like to be different, and what kind of support makes sense. We can also revisit those goals as the therapy develops. You do not have to know at the beginning exactly where the work will lead.
A Gentle Place to Begin
Reaching out for therapy can feel like a big step, especially if you are not quite sure what you need yet or whether a particular approach will feel right for you.
You do not have to have everything figured out before getting in touch.
If you are feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or simply ready for something to begin to change, reaching out can be a small but meaningful act of courage.
You are very welcome to reach out with questions, ask for more information, or book a free online meet and greet. This gives us a chance to talk through what you are looking for, go over any questions you may have, and help you get a feel for how I work and whether working together might feel like a good fit.
There is no pressure to decide anything right away. Sometimes the first step is simply having a conversation.