individual online therapy
Trauma Counseling in Ann Arbor
Online therapy & counseling for Trauma across Michigan. BCBS in-network.
When the Past Keeps Showing Up in the Present
Maybe it's the way certain situations leave you bracing for impact, even when nothing is actually wrong. The hypervigilance that never fully turns off. The emotional numbness that makes you wonder if you've just gone somewhere you can't come back from. The exhaustion of carrying something you've never fully been able to put down.
Trauma doesn't always look like what people expect.
It doesn't require a single dramatic event. It can be the slow accumulation of years when things weren't safe or stable. The relationships that taught you not to trust, and many other experiences you may not label as “trauma” yourself.. This left you stuck in survival mode long after the threat was gone.
The hardest part is that it works quietly. You can be high-functioning, accomplished, and managing your life just fine on the surface, while something is working underneath, shaping how you respond to the world in ways you didn't choose and may not even like.
That's what trauma therapy is actually for. Not to make you relive everything. Not to dig up the past for the sake of digging. But to help your nervous system understand that the threat is over, so you can stop bracing, start trusting, and actually be present in your own life.
At Connecting Heals, we work with the whole picture: what happened, what it did to you, and what actually helps you move forward at a pace that keeps you grounded along the way.
Trauma can take many forms.
Trauma is a broad term, and no two people's experience of it looks exactly the same. Here's what commonly shows up in our work:
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The things that happened before you had language for them, or before anyone was paying attention.
The environment that was unpredictable, the caregiver who wasn't available, the moments that should have been safe but weren't. Childhood Trauma sometimes just quietly runs the show.
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Complex PTSD develops when traumatic experiences were repeated, inescapable, or occurred in relationships where you should have been safe.
The symptoms tend to run deeper than standard PTSD, affecting how you see yourself, how you connect with others, and how much you trust your own reality.
While not an official recognized diagnosis in the US, C-PTSD is a widely recognized framework for understanding the effects of chronic, repeated trauma.
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When the people who were supposed to be safe made you feel unsafe instead. Relational trauma can come from a parent, a partner, a close friendship, or anyone you depended on.
It often shows up as difficulty trusting people, fear of abandonment, people-pleasing to stay safe, or a hard time feeling secure in any relationship.
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A car accident, an assault, a medical crisis, a sudden loss. Single-incident trauma can feel disorienting precisely because it came out of nowhere, and because the world looks the same afterward, even though something fundamental shifted.
EMDR and other trauma-focused approaches tend to work particularly well here.
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A difficult diagnosis, a procedure that felt violating, a birth experience that went nothing like it was supposed to. Medical trauma is often minimized, but the body remembers.
Birth trauma, including loss during pregnancy, can carry its own particular kind of grief and shock that deserves real support.
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For LGBTQ+ folks, this is the harm that comes from a world that doesn't affirm who you are. The exhaustion of hiding, explaining, or having to defend your identity. The chronic weight of feeling unwelcome or different in spaces that should have been safe.
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The cumulative impact of racism, discrimination, and living in a body or culture that much of the world treats as less than.
Racial trauma is real, it's chronic, and it compounds. Therapy here means working with someone who understands the specific weight of that, not just the symptoms.
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Grief is not linear and it is not a problem to be solved. It's the cost of loving something. Whether you've lost a person, a beloved pet, a relationship, a version of yourself, or a life you thought you'd have, grief that gets stuck deserves space to move.
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Emotional neglect is the absence of attunement, support, and emotional presence from the people who raised you. It's particularly sneaky because it leaves no obvious evidence, but it shapes how you relate to yourself and others in ways that are very real.
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Sometimes what looks like anxiety is the nervous system trying to keep you safe. Hypervigilance, constant scanning for threat, and difficulty relaxing are adaptations that made sense once and are now running on autopilot.
Trauma therapy can help your system update the script.
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Not all burnout is just overwork. Sometimes it's the accumulated weight of doing too much for too long because not doing enough never felt safe.
If your burnout has roots, in perfectionism, in a drive to prove yourself, in a history of not being allowed to rest, that's where the work needs to go.
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The patterns, fears, and survival strategies that get passed down through families. Sometimes explicitly, sometimes through behavior, sometimes in ways no one ever named.
You can carry the weight of something that happened before you were born. Therapy can help you figure out what belongs to you and what you can set down.
Healing from trauma isn't about re-living the past;
it’s about releasing its grip on your current life.
Trauma therapy is where you build the capacity to process what happened, update your nervous system's sense of threat, and move forward with more ground under your feet.
what it feels like
What are the Symptoms of Trauma?
Most people expect trauma to look like flashbacks and nightmares. What they don't expect is the way it quietly reorganizes everything else: the relationships that feel harder than they should, the body that stays braced even when nothing is wrong, the exhaustion that doesn't lift no matter how much you sleep. Trauma lives in the nervous system, and it shows up in ways that are easy to miss or mistake for something else.
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Neck & jaw tension
Feeling physically on edge
Chronic fatigue
Headaches, gut problems, or physical symptoms with no clear cause
A racing heart or shallow breathing
Feeling frozen & disconnected from yourself
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Hypervigilance
Emotional numbness
Shame and self-blame
Intrusive memories or thoughts
Difficulty concentrating
A persistent sense of dread
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Difficulty trusting people
Feeling stuck in survival mode
Pulling away from people
Reacting to things in ways that feel out of proportion
Struggling to feel safe
Our Approach
Trauma Therapy that Keeps You Grounded
Trauma work is not about ripping off the bandage or pushing someone past what they can handle to prove a point. The most effective approach is to build safety and stability first, then do the deeper work.
Depending on what approach is the most appropriate, we may look at the roots of what happened, why your body is still responding the way it is, and what beliefs got locked in place along the way. Other times, the most effective path forward does not require going back through the story at all.
EMDR is a good example of this. It works with the emotions, physical sensations, and beliefs connected to a memory rather than requiring you to recount every painful detail, though some elements may come up naturally as part of the process. For people who have been avoiding therapy because they don't want to relive everything, that distinction matters.
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What is EMDR?
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to help the brain reprocess memories and experiences that got stuck in a heightened, emotional place.How Does EMDR Help With Trauma?
Trauma memories often get stored in a way the brain never fully processed. EMDR works directly with those stuck memories, reducing the emotional charge they carry. -
What is TF-CBT?
TF-CBT is an evidence-based approach that blends trauma-focused techniques with the practical skill-building of CBT.How Does TF-CBT Help With Trauma?
Trauma has a way of distorting how you see yourself and the world around you. TF-CBT works through those distortions systematically, building coping skills alongside processing the trauma itself, at a pace that doesn’t overwhelm you. -
What is CBT?
CBT is a structured approach built on the connection between how you think, how you feel, and how you behave. It focuses on identifying & replacing unhelpful thought patterns.How Does CBT Help With Trauma? Trauma leaves behind beliefs about yourself and the world that likely don't serve you. CBT helps you identify those beliefs, challenge the ones that are holding you back, and build more accurate ways of understanding what happened.
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What is DBT?
DBT is a skills-based therapy that balances change with acceptance. It focuses on building practical coping tools for managing intense emotions and navigating difficult situations.How Does DBT Help With Trauma?
Trauma often lives in the body as much as the mind. DBT gives you concrete skills to manage the emotional intensity that trauma produces, stay grounded when things get activated, and build the stability needed to do deeper work over time. -
What is Ego State Therapy?
Ego State Therapy views the mind as a collection of distinct parts, each with its own history and protective role. Therapy helps them communicate and work together.How Does Ego State Therapy Help With Trauma?
Trauma often splits us into parts that are still responding to old threats. Ego State Therapy helps those parts understand the threat is over, reduce the internal conflict they create, and work together for you.
Methods We Use to Help
the benefits
What Trauma Counseling Actually Does For You
Your body stops bracing.
The chronic tension, the disrupted sleep, the startle response that fires at nothing. When your nervous system updates its threat assessment, the physical symptoms follow.
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Your head feels more clear.
Hypervigilance takes up an enormous amount of mental bandwidth. When it dials down, focus comes back & decisions get easier.
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Better emotional regulation.
Trauma therapy helps you both feel again, and not let overwhelming emotion take control. We’ll help to rebuild the middle ground.
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Be present in the moment.
Feel more present in your interactions with others and in your relationships. Less hypervigilance, less people-pleasing, and less bracing for what might go wrong
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The right support can change everything.
Let’s find out if we’re it.
A free 15-minute consultation is just a conversation. No commitment, no homework, no pressure. We'll figure out together if it's a good fit.
in-network for online therapy
BCBS In-Network Trauma Counseling in Ann Arbor
Connecting Heals is in-network with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and its affiliate companies. That means if you have BCBS coverage, your online therapy sessions are billed directly through your insurance at your in-network rate the same way you'd use insurance for any healthcare appointment.
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What does in-network mean?
It means you pay your copay or work toward your deductible rather than the full session fee. Most BCBS mental health benefits cover outpatient therapy, including online therapy.
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What about online therapy?
Blue Cross Blue Shield covers online therapy the same way it covers in-person therapy. You don't need to be in an office for your insurance to apply. As long as you're located in Michigan during your sessions, your BCBS benefits work.
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What if I don't have BCBS?
Our standard session fee is $170. We offer a sliding scale on a case by case basis for clients who need it, and we provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement if your plan allows for it.
frequently asked questions
Common Questions, Real Answers
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Everyone is different and there is no severity requirement for therapy. If it is affecting how you live your daily life, it is worth talking to someone about.
You do not need a diagnosis or a dramatic story to reach out, though if you are using insurance, one may be assigned during intake for billing purposes.
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Trauma therapy is practical work focused on understanding what happened, how it is affecting you now, and what actually helps you move forward.
Early sessions are mostly about building relationship and getting a clear picture of where you are. The deeper work happens from there, at a pace that fits you.
If EMDR is the right fit, it works a little differently, using bilateral brain stimulation to help the brain reprocess traumatic memories. You can learn more about how that works on our EMDR modality page.
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PTSD typically develops from a specific traumatic event or events, though for some people those symptoms persist long term, which is sometimes referred to as chronic PTSD.
Complex PTSD develops from prolonged or repeated trauma, often in relationships where escape was not possible, like childhood abuse, chronic neglect, or domestic violence. C-PTSD tends to affect identity, emotional regulation, and the ability to feel safe in relationships in ways that go beyond standard PTSD.
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Some approaches work with the details of what happened, but others work with the emotions and physical sensations connected to a memory rather than the story itself.
Depending on what fits you best, you may not need to recount or re-experience anything in detail for the work to be effective.
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It depends on what you are working on and how complex your history is.
Single-incident trauma often moves more quickly than complex or relational trauma that built up over a longer period.
We will give you a realistic picture of what to expect in your free consultation.
Proudly Based in Ann Arbor
We're a virtual practice rooted in Ann Arbor and serving clients across Michigan. Whether you're in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Traverse City, Flint, or anywhere in between, online trauma therapy through Connecting Heals is available to you.
