Trauma Therapy

Online Trauma Therapy & PTSD Treatment in North Carolina

Something happened. Maybe you've never called it trauma. Maybe the word feels too big, or not quite right, or like it belongs to people whose experiences were worse than yours.

But you're still carrying it. It shows up in how you react, what you avoid, who you trust, how you sleep. Tracey Stracener, LCMHCS, offers trauma-focused therapy via telehealth throughout North Carolina using EMDR and ART, approaches that don't require you to describe what happened in detail.

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Free 15-minute call · Telehealth · North Carolina

What Trauma Actually Is

Trauma therapy treats the lasting effects of overwhelming experiences on the nervous system, including PTSD, complex trauma, and childhood trauma. Unlike traditional talk therapy, trauma-focused approaches like EMDR and ART work with how the brain stores distressing memories, helping them feel like the past rather than the present, often without requiring you to recount the details of what happened.

Trauma is what happens when an experience overwhelms the nervous system's ability to process it. The brain stores it differently, not as a resolved memory, but as something that stays active, reactive, and present-tense. That's why trauma doesn't feel like the past. It feels like now.

Single-incident trauma

A specific event that the nervous system couldn't absorb: an accident, assault, medical emergency, loss, natural disaster, or witnessing something terrible. The memory is often vivid and intrusive.

Complex and developmental trauma

Repeated or prolonged exposure to overwhelming experiences, often in childhood. Emotional neglect, abuse, unstable environments, or growing up with a parent who was unpredictable or frightening. Less one dramatic event; more like a pattern that shaped everything.

Both kinds are real. Both can cause lasting disruption. The "big T / little t" framework, where only dramatic events count, keeps a lot of people from recognizing that what they're carrying is trauma and that it can be treated.

How Trauma Shows Up

Trauma doesn't always look like flashbacks or visible distress. It often shows up in subtler ways that are easy to attribute to personality or circumstance:

Hypervigilance, always scanning for threat

Emotional numbness or disconnection

Intrusive memories or flashbacks

Sleep disruption, nightmares

Difficulty trusting people

Shame that doesn't respond to logic

Anxiety that doesn't have a clear source

Feeling easily overwhelmed or triggered

Avoidance of people, places, or topics

Feeling stuck or frozen when you want to move forward

Relationship patterns that keep repeating

A persistent sense that something is wrong with you

If several of these sound familiar, trauma-focused therapy may be the most direct path forward, even if you've tried other approaches.

Why Talk Therapy Alone Often Isn't Enough

Understanding your trauma cognitively doesn't always change how it's stored. You can have years of insight, know exactly where your patterns come from, understand why you react the way you do, and still have the same reactions. That's not a failure. It's a feature of how trauma is held in the body and nervous system.

EMDR and ART work at a different level. They're not insight-oriented approaches. They work with the nervous system directly, allowing the brain to complete the processing that got interrupted when the original experience was too overwhelming to absorb.

This is why people who have done years of talk therapy sometimes find that a few months of EMDR accomplishes something the other work couldn't.

How Tracey Approaches Trauma

Tracey uses two evidence-based trauma therapies: EMDR and ART. She's one of a relatively small number of therapists trained in both. In a consultation, she can help determine which fits better for your specific situation.

EMDR Therapy

An 8-phase protocol using bilateral stimulation to help the brain reprocess traumatic memories. More client-led, works well for complex trauma and multiple targets.

Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)

A more directive, faster-moving approach. Often produces results in 1–5 sessions. Involves voluntary image replacement, where you actively reshape what you see rather than only reprocessing what's there.

"You don't have to describe what happened. Not in detail, not at all. The brain does the work. You just have to be willing to let it."

Who Trauma Therapy Helps

Childhood abuse or neglect survivors

Domestic violence survivors

Sexual assault survivors

Veterans and active duty military

First responders

Medical trauma (ICU, surgery, illness)

Accident survivors

People who experienced sudden loss

Adults with difficult or chaotic childhoods

Caregivers carrying vicarious trauma

Educators with secondary trauma from students

People who've tried talk therapy without progress

Fees, Insurance, and Availability

Trauma therapy sessions are covered by Aetna, NC State Health Plan, and BlueCross BlueShield of NC. The self-pay rate is $180 per session; $215 for the intake. Sessions available Monday–Thursday 11AM–6PM, some Saturdays. If your plan isn't listed, you may still have out-of-network benefits — Tracey provides a superbill after each session. Learn how out-of-network coverage works →

All sessions are via telehealth. If you're in North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Wilmington, or anywhere else in the state), this is available to you.

You Don't Have to Keep Carrying This

Schedule a free 15-minute call. Tell Tracey what's going on, ask whatever you need to ask, and see if this feels right. No commitment, no paperwork, just a conversation.