Trauma therapy is a collaborative process designed to help you understand your story, reduce the weight of past experiences, and feel more grounded in your day-to-day life. You set the pace, I provide the guidance, tools, and steady presence to help you make sense of what’s been overwhelming.
Whether your trauma is rooted in a single event, a series of challenges, or years of carrying more than anyone ever realized, we’ll work together gently and intentionally.
How it Works
Trauma-informed therapy for any residents in Washington
I’ve walked alongside many clients navigating these exact experiences.
You’ve handled it alone for years, but it still shows up in the background of your life.
A HISTORY YOU’VE NEVER FULLY TALKED ABOUT
Pulling back from people or situations because they feel draining or overwhelming.
AVOIDANCE OR NUMBING OUT
Caring for others while carrying your own history leaves little space for your needs.
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION
A nervous system that feels stuck in overdrive, always jumpy, tense, or braced for the next thing.
Feeling on edge
Have You been struggling with...
Trauma has a way of weaving itself into the background of everyday life. It can influence how you react, what you avoid, and even how safe you feel moving through the world, often without you realizing it. When old experiences start steering more of your present than you’d like, it may be time for support that helps you untangle what’s been lingering beneath the surface.
Who This Service is For:
More capacity for everyday life
A calmer baseline instead of constant tension.
Less overwhelm, less reactivity, more room to breathe.
Common Shifts Might include
Trauma work isn’t about erasing the past or forcing breakthroughs. It’s a steady, supported process that helps your nervous system unwind patterns it learned during overwhelming moments. Over time, your mind and body relearn how to move through daily life without being pulled back into old responses.
Many clients notice that things that once felt heavy, confusing, or “too much” start to feel more manageable, and that they have more room, mentally and physically, to navigate their days with clarity.
Benefits & Outcomes
I’ll meet you with curiosity, not judgment, and we’ll move at a pace that actually feels doable. You can expect clarity, steadiness, and a therapist who’s right there in the work with you, not sitting back with a clipboard.
Think of me as a collaborator.
I’m a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker with more than a decade of experience supporting people through trauma, burnout, and major life transitions — in both inpatient medical settings and now in private practice. Before opening Paper Birch Therapy, I spent over ten years working in emergency departments alongside healthcare workers and first responders, shoulder-to-shoulder on some of their hardest days. That work shaped the way I show up in the therapy room: steady, regulated, and unafraid of the heavy things that often feel “too much” to say out loud.
My clinical background includes advanced training in trauma-informed care, crisis intervention, and EMDR. I frequently support clients processing birth trauma, childhood trauma, vicarious trauma, and single-incident or cumulative stress that has quietly built up over years. As a parent with lived experience of pregnancy complications and early-infancy caregiving, perinatal mental health is both professionally and personally meaningful to me.
Hi, I'm Vickery
Trauma therapy follows a steady, supportive structure that helps you understand your patterns, regulate your nervous system, and work through what’s been heavy, without rushing or forcing anything.
Here's What to Expect
A pace that matches your real-life responsibilities
Practical coping tools
Nervous system education
We begin by building safety and understanding your goals. You’ll learn simple grounding tools you can use anytime life feels overwhelming.
A Steady Start
phase 1
Making sense of past and present connections
Understanding emotional patterns
Identifying triggers
We gently explore the experiences, patterns, or stress points that continue showing up today.
Finding the Right Threads
phase 2
Support to help the shifts take root in daily life
Building new insights and self-compassion
Trauma-informed processing
This is where deeper healing begins. We’ll work through the memories, beliefs, or emotional responses that keep you stuck, helping them soften over time.
Reprocessing & Relief
Phase 3
Insurance is accepted, and superbills are available for out-of-network plans.
$200
53-minute session
Starting trauma therapy is a meaningful commitment to your wellbeing and your future. My goal is to make the process clear and approachable, so you always know what to expect.
Investment Overview
YOUR TIME IS NOW
I accept both insurance and private pay for trauma therapy sessions. If you’d like to use your insurance, I’m happy to help you understand your benefits and what your out-of-pocket costs may be.
Under the No Surprises Act, you’re entitled to a Good Faith Estimate outlining expected costs for your care. You’ll receive this information before we begin, and you can request it at any time.
GOOD FAITH ESTIMATE & INSURANCE
Understanding Your Coverage
Trauma isn’t defined by the size of the event, it’s defined by how your body and nervous system had to adapt in order to get you through it.
Many people come to therapy with a history of chronic stress, unstable environments, complicated relationships, or years of being in survival mode. Those experiences can shape you just as much as a single incident.
We focus on how your system learned to cope, how those patterns show up today, and how to create more safety and ease moving forward.
You don’t need a label to benefit from this work. You just need to notice that something in your life, your reactions, or your body isn’t feeling the way you want it to. We'll explore your history and focus on what your nervous system has carried, not on whether you meet a specific definition. You get to define your own story, and therapy simply gives you a space to understand it more fully.
You don’t have to commit to trauma-focused work unless that’s what you want. Many clients see me for a blend of approaches, sometimes we’re exploring patterns from the past, and other times we’re talking through what’s happening in your life right now.
Therapy is always client-driven, and you get to decide what feels most helpful each session. Whether you want deeper processing, practical support, or space to sort out everyday stress, we can shape the work around your goals and your capacity.
Yep! Many people don’t remember the details of what happened, and you don’t need a perfect timeline for this work to be effective.
Trauma often shows up through the body: tension, overwhelm, shutdown, reactivity, or a sense that something isn’t right. Your nervous system remembers even when your mind doesn’t. We can use somatic exercises, grounding tools, and gentle insight-building to understand your patterns and support healing without needing every detail of the past. Your body gives us plenty to work with.
Absolutely. Trauma doesn’t disappear just because time has passed. It often shows up in the patterns, reactions, and stress responses you’re experiencing today. We don’t need every detail of the original event to understand how it’s affecting you now.
Many of my clients have layered experiences, whether that’s a history of substance use, ADHD, autism, or identifying as neurodivergent in other ways.
I previously worked as an SUDPT and feel very comfortable supporting people who have a past relationship with substances or patterns they’re still making sense of. While I don’t typically work with individuals who are actively using or needing substance-use–focused treatment, a history of use is absolutely welcome here.
I also have extensive experience working with neurodivergent clients and tailor therapy to fit how your brain processes, communicates, and regulates