Your chest tightens when you hear a raised voice. You’re back in that moment again—heart racing, body frozen, even though you know you’re safe now. Trauma isn’t just a memory. It’s your nervous system trying to protect you long after the danger has passed.
If you’ve felt trapped in that loop, wondering why you can’t simply “move on,” the issue isn’t willpower—it’s wiring. The encouraging truth is that the brain can be rewired. Trauma therapy helps the nervous system learn safety again.
Trauma therapy goes beyond talking about what happened. It helps the brain and body process the past so the present feels safe. Each therapy approach uses specific techniques to regulate the body’s alarm system, rebuild a sense of control, and create new emotional associations with memories that once felt overwhelming.
At Layers Counseling Specialists, our clinicians are trained in several evidence-based trauma treatments designed to meet each client where they are in their healing process.
Each trauma therapy works differently, but all share a common goal: helping the brain and body reconnect in safety.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy, or ART, helps the brain release the emotional charge of painful memories while keeping the facts intact. We often say, “keep the knowledge, lose the pain.”
Through a combination of eye movements and guided imagery, ART allows clients to reprocess distressing experiences so that the mental images tied to those memories are replaced with more peaceful ones. You still know what happened—you just no longer see it in vivid, intrusive detail.
Many people describe ART as fast, gentle, and empowering. It doesn’t require you to retell your trauma over and over. Instead, your brain learns that the danger has passed, and your body can finally relax. Clients often leave sessions feeling lighter, calmer, and more in control than they ever thought possible.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is one of the most effective, research-supported treatments for children and teens who’ve experienced trauma. It helps young people make sense of what happened, learn that it wasn’t their fault, and rebuild a sense of safety and trust.
Sessions combine emotional education, coping skills, and gradual exposure to the memory of what happened—always at the child’s pace. Parents or caregivers are often involved, learning how to support their child between sessions and reinforce safety at home.
At Layers Counseling Specialists, TF-CBT often includes creative, play-based, or expressive activities so that children can communicate feelings they don’t yet have words for. Over time, kids become less reactive, more confident, and able to see themselves as more than what happened to them.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) provides structure and skills for those who feel overwhelmed by emotions or stuck in cycles of chaos after trauma. Many people describe it as learning a new way to live inside your own skin—calmer, clearer, more connected.
DBT teaches four key skill sets: mindfulness (staying present), distress tolerance (getting through painful moments without making things worse), emotion regulation (understanding and managing feelings), and interpersonal effectiveness (building stable, healthy relationships).
For trauma survivors, DBT lays the foundation for deeper healing by strengthening emotional regulation before trauma processing begins. At Layers Counseling Specialists, DBT helps clients rebuild stability, self-trust, and the confidence to move into trauma work when they’re ready.
Brainspotting (BSP) is a focused therapy that uses eye position to access where the body stores trauma. By finding and holding a specific “brainspot”—a point in your visual field connected to emotional activation—the brain can naturally process and release what’s been stuck.
Clients often notice that difficult emotions or sensations shift during the session, without needing to explain everything in words. Brainspotting gently bridges the mind-body connection, helping the nervous system reset.
Many describe Brainspotting as deeply calming and even surprising—it allows healing to happen from the inside out, at the brain’s own pace.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation—eye movements, tapping, or sounds—to help the brain reprocess traumatic memories. Clients remain fully aware and in control while the brain integrates the memory in a way that no longer triggers the same physiological alarm. EMDR is widely supported by research and is highly effective for PTSD, complex trauma, and anxiety-related disorders.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) focuses on identifying and challenging unhelpful beliefs formed after trauma—such as “It was my fault” or “I can never trust anyone.” Through structured cognitive techniques, clients develop more balanced and adaptive perspectives. CPT is commonly used with survivors of assault, veterans, and individuals experiencing moral injury or shame after trauma.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) helps clients gradually confront traumatic memories, sensations, or situations they’ve avoided. Over time, repeated exposure teaches the brain that these memories are not dangerous, reducing avoidance and distress. When delivered by a trained clinician, PE is a powerful, evidence-based treatment for PTSD.
Because trauma often lives in the body, somatic approaches like Somatic Experiencing and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy focus on body awareness, grounding, and nervous system regulation. Clients learn to recognize physical signs of stress and gently restore balance from the inside out.
Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) allows children to process experiences through play—the language of childhood. In the playroom, a child may recreate moments of fear or loss, but this time, they control the outcome. Through this process, children regain a sense of safety, agency, and emotional understanding.
At Layers Counseling Specialists, play therapy is often integrated with trauma-informed approaches like TF-CBT or family sessions to support healing for both the child and caregiver.
Healing is not one-size-fits-all. Some clients benefit from structured processing through EMDR or ART, while others begin with stabilization skills from DBT or grounding through somatic work before addressing deeper trauma. Children may thrive in play therapy or TF-CBT, where safety and relationship are central.
At Layers Counseling Specialists, our trauma-informed clinicians tailor each treatment plan to your needs, pace, and goals—creating a path toward recovery that honors both your story and your nervous system.
Untreated trauma can manifest as irritability, chronic anxiety, emotional numbness, or even physical pain. The nervous system remains on alert—like a smoke detector that can’t tell the difference between steam and fire. Over time, this constant state of hyperarousal can lead to burnout, depression, relationship strain, and health issues such as fatigue or headaches.
Healing doesn’t mean erasing the past—it means helping the body believe that it’s safe again.
After trauma therapy, many clients describe feeling calmer, more present, and more connected. Sleep improves. Triggers lose their intensity. Relationships feel safer. The memory remains—but it no longer defines the person carrying it.
If you’ve been carrying the weight of trauma for years, you don’t have to carry it alone. Contact Layers Counseling Specialists in Plano, Texas to schedule a consultation and learn which trauma therapy approach may be the right fit for your healing journey.
