I offer individualized help for processing and healing from trauma. I believe in a customized, multi-faceted approach, pulling from Brainspotting, cognitive processing therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, and other approaches to create solutions tailored to your needs.
Brainspotting Therapy (BSP)
Explore your values, goals, and challenges; get to know yourself; and develop coping skills to build a life more authentic to who you are and what you want.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Become more in tune with yourself and learn practical tools to help you manage your emotions and bring yourself down from crisis.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
Analyze your inner narrative about the traumatic event to make sense of it in a more realistic way, reducing its effect on how you view yourself, others, and the world as a whole.
I am an associate licensed counselor under supervision of John Thorington, LPC-S.
-Zachary Michael Sheeley, MA, ALC, CAMS-II
Trauma Therapy in Huntsville & Florence
Who I Work With
I work with teens and adults 13+ in Huntsville, Florence, & all of Alabama via telehealth who:
- Have experienced a traumatic or deeply distressing event
- Are dealing with symptoms of PTSD or trauma
- Experience intrusive memories, nightmares, or unwanted thoughts
- Feel constantly on edge, anxious, or hypervigilant
- Avoid people, places, memories, or situations connected to the past
- Experience emotional numbness or disconnection
- Struggle with shame, guilt, or self-blame
- Have difficulty trusting people or maintaining relationships
- Notice past experiences affecting their current life
- Want to understand their trauma responses and develop healthier ways of coping
What We Can Work On
- Trauma and PTSD symptoms
- Anxiety and fear
- Intrusive memories
- Hypervigilance
- Emotion regulation
- Anger and irritability
- Shame and self-blame
- Avoidance
- Relationship difficulties
- Boundaries and communication
- Coping with triggers
- Childhood trauma
- Difficult past experiences
- Feeling disconnected or emotionally numb
- Living in the present
FAQ
What is trauma therapy?
Trauma therapy is counseling designed to help you understand and recover from the effects of traumatic or deeply distressing experiences. Trauma can affect your emotions, thoughts, relationships, sense of safety, and ability to manage stress. Trauma therapy can help with symptoms such as anxiety, intrusive memories, avoidance, emotional numbness, hypervigilance, anger, shame, and difficulty trusting others. I provide trauma-informed therapy for teens and adults in Huntsville and Florence, Alabama, as well as secure online therapy throughout Alabama.
Do I need a PTSD diagnosis to receive trauma therapy?
No. You do not need a formal PTSD diagnosis to benefit from trauma therapy. People seek trauma counseling for many different reasons, including childhood trauma, relationship trauma, difficult life experiences, anxiety following a traumatic event, or ongoing reactions to experiences that continue to affect their daily lives. During therapy, we can work together to understand how your experiences are affecting you and determine what approach best fits your goals.
Can trauma therapy help with childhood trauma?
Yes. Childhood trauma can continue to affect emotional regulation, relationships, self-esteem, anxiety, trust, and coping well into adulthood. Trauma therapy can help you understand patterns that developed as ways of coping with earlier experiences and develop healthier ways of responding in the present. You do not have to have a PTSD diagnosis for childhood trauma to be an appropriate focus of therapy.
What types of trauma therapy do you use?
I tailor trauma therapy to your individual needs, goals, and experiences. Depending on what is appropriate for you, treatment may incorporate Brainspotting, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), CBT, and DBT-informed skills. These approaches can help address trauma-related thoughts and beliefs, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, anxiety, and other effects of trauma. The goal is not to use one approach for everyone, but to find strategies that fit you and support meaningful progress.
Do I have to talk about everything that happened in trauma therapy?
No. Trauma therapy does not require you to immediately describe every detail of what happened. Therapy should move at a pace that feels manageable and appropriate for you. We can begin by focusing on your current symptoms, coping skills, emotional regulation, and sense of safety before processing difficult experiences more directly. You remain an active participant in deciding what you are ready to work on.