Trauma is an experience or pattern of experiences that leaves our minds and bodies on high alert for days, months, or years after the danger has passed. It can be a singular moment, or it can be passed down, both genetically and through patterns of relationship and behaviors from the ones who raised us and from our communities. Trauma teaches us that the world is not safe, and we move through our lives with that hard-earned knowledge impacting us in ways both subtle and obvious. For example, we may be quicker to react to stress, or we may freeze or suddenly feel faint or fatigue with seemingly no cause. The result is a body and mind that is continuously trying to find a way back to safety, back to connection, back to balance, but hindered by its past experience of danger.

This is therapy that takes into account the overwhelming impact of trauma on your mind, body, relationships, and community. It respects the need for safety in order for healing to take place. It is flexible, not one-size-fits-all, and it centers your unique experiences and nervous system in the therapy space. 

As a provider of trauma-informed care, I come alongside you, sharing my knowledge of the ways trauma can show up in the day-to-day and providing guidance and support as we work on re-establishing a felt-sense of safety and balance. While it is true that the world is not safe, trauma-informed therapy helps us to remember that safety, joy, connection, and fun still exist. 

It doesn’t have to be, and it often isn’t, directly. What I’ve found is that as we work through the day-to-day, learning how to manage anxiety, relationships, stress, or depression, trauma shows up. I work with you to either address it or manage the effects of it.

My goal is to support your autonomy, and I do everything I can to support your ability to create and hold boundaries, especially in the therapy room. You are in the driver’s seat, and I will not make you talk about something that hurts you. My hope is to create a safe-enough space that we can address the pain, even if we cannot address the cause of it. There may come a time when you feel ready to process specific memories, and there may not. That’s okay. 

I have training in multiple methods, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), motivational interviewing, and psychodynamic therapy. But my bread and butter, the types of therapy that I blend and practice more often than not, are the following:

• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) - Everything we experience, we experience with our whole selves, including our bodies. SP is a method of including and working with all the different parts of our experience in therapy. It is mindful, holistic, and body-based, centered on helping us feel safe or safe-enough in our bodies to go about enjoying our lives. It is also a method of processing traumatic memories, but always from a resourced and supported place. 

• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) - This is a skills-focused therapy that helps us learn mindfulness, tolerate distress, understand and manage emotions, and navigate relationships, all while helping increase self-awareness, self-compassion, and our ability to accept what life brings us.

• Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) - We all have parts of ourselves that come up at different times. Often these parts are there to manage day-to-day tasks and to protect us from real or perceived harm. If you’ve ever said something like: “Well, part of me feels this, while another part of me wants…” then you already have the language for it. IFS is a technique that helps us distinguish specific parts of ourselves that may be getting in the way of what we want or need, even if they are trying to help us. With IFS, we learn how to intentionally communicate with these different parts of ourselves with curiosity and compassion in order to create change.

Not at this time, though there are plans to offer it in the future.

This is a great question that I love to explore early on in our sessions. For some, we know we are ready to end therapy once we have met the goals you came in with at the start of our work together. For others, goals may shift and change with time. But for both, I hope to help you find relief from symptoms of PTSD and confidence in managing stress, anxiety, and life’s challenges on your own. I like to joke that I am trying to work myself out of a job.

If it feels like our work is starting to ebb, there are less pressing issues each week or you are feeling safe, hopeful, and grounded, we can start winding down, seeing each other every other week to once a month.

Ending therapy is always something we talk about and plan for, with the understanding that you can return if you feel you need more support in the future.

At this time, I offer the therapy standard of 50 minute sessions.

Currently, I accept New Jersey’s Aetna, Cigna/Evernorth, Independence Blue Cross, and Centivo insurance plans, and California’s Blue Shield of CA and Anthem Blue Cross of CA insurance plans through an online therapy platform called Octave. You can find my Octave profile and book with me here: Megan Jones, LCSW

I am in the process of becoming paneled with New Jersey’s Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield and will update this space once that is complete. Otherwise, I can provide a superbill for out-of-network clients.