Therapy for
CPTSD & Childhood Trauma in NYC
Be seen. Be heard. Be supported.
ONLINE therapy AVAILABLE ACROSS
MARYLAND, NEW YORK, & VERMONT
It’s not just what happened;
it’s the voice it left behind.
When you’ve experienced childhood or complex trauma, the danger doesn't always stay in the past. It moves into your mind as an inner critic that never lets up. You might find yourself constantly "checking" your behavior, apologizing for things that aren’t your fault, or feeling a deep, heavy sense of shame that you can’t quite name.
You’ve likely been told you’re “too sensitive” or that you should “just let it go.” When you grow up in an environment that doesn't feel safe, your mind and body learn that staying on high alert is the only way to get by. That constant watchfulness was a tool that protected you then, but it is exhausting you now.
At Work: You push yourself to the limit to prove your worth, leading to a cycle of total burnout.
At Home: You aren’t the partner or parent you want to be. You find yourself shutting down or reacting in ways that leave you feeling guilty and disconnected.
In Your Health: You’re always on edge. Whether it’s trouble sleeping, a complicated relationship with food, or chronic stomach issues, your body is carrying the stress you can’t put down.
In Your Healing: Maybe you’ve tried therapy or self-help books, but that heavy sense of shame hasn't shifted. You can't just think your way out of a feeling that is rooted so deeply.
You aren't broken, and you aren't alone. You have simply been protecting yourself for a very long time.
It’s time to quiet that inner critic and finally
find the peace you’ve been working so hard to earn.
Our approach
Specialized trauma care from
a therapist other therapists seek out
Healing from complex trauma requires more than a sympathetic ear. It requires a therapist who understands, at a clinical level, why your mind and body stay stuck in the past even when you're working hard to move forward.
Randi Robbins is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with 11 years of experience working in trauma treatment. She is certified in EMDR through EMDRIA and in Brainspotting. Randi is an active member of both EMDRIA and the International Society of Accelerated Resolution Therapy (IS-ART). Her advanced training includes IFS (Internal Family Systems), ego states therapy, and polyvagal theory, the latter completed under Rebecca Kase, LCSW, author of Polyvagal-Informed EMDR. She also provides EMDR consultation and clinical supervision to other therapists, a reflection of the trust her professional community places in her expertise.
What sets her approach apart is integration. Rather than applying a single protocol, Randi weaves EMDR together with IFS and ego states, both "parts work" approaches that help you understand and work with the different parts of yourself that formed in response to trauma, rather than fighting them. Grounded in polyvagal theory, this work addresses your nervous system directly, not just your thoughts about what happened.
The result is therapy that doesn't just help you understand your trauma. It helps your body actually release it.
Her practice is built on a foundation of identity-affirming care, meaning she brings the same clinical rigor to every client while remaining deeply attentive to how your specific background, identity, and lived experience shape how trauma has shown up in your life.
who this is for
Trauma Therapy for Adults:
Across New York, Online, & Built Around You
Many people who find their way here have already spent years in therapy. They understand their history intellectually, have read the books, done the journaling, but something still hasn't shifted. The anxiety is still there. The shame hasn't lifted. The body still reacts.
If that resonates, you're likely in the right place.
This practice has particular depth working with adults who grew up with emotionally unavailable, immature, or narcissistic parents; childhood emotional neglect or abuse; childhood sexual abuse; or a parent or caregiver living with alcoholism, addiction, or untreated mental illness.
You may also find a particularly good fit here if you are:
Neurodivergent (ADHD, Autistic, or both). Your nervous system stores and processes trauma in ways that make traditional therapy feel like it wasn't built for you. Because often, it wasn't.
LGBTQ+ or queer, carrying identity-based wounds alongside, or woven into, your childhood history.
Living with chronic pain or chronic illness, beginning to connect the dots between your physical symptoms and your past, and needing a therapist who already understands that connection.
If you look fine from the outside but feel exhausted inside, this work was built for you.
Secure, fully online sessions are available throughout New York, Maryland, and Vermont. No commute. No waiting rooms. Just consistent, focused trauma care from wherever you feel most at ease.
HOW WE WORK
Therapies for CPTSD & Childhood Trauma That Go Beyond Talk
If you've spent years in traditional talk therapy and still feel stuck, that isn't a failure. It's a signal. Complex trauma and childhood wounds are stored in the nervous system and the body, not only in memory. Healing requires approaches that work at that level.
Every modality offered here was chosen specifically for how effectively it reaches the parts of the brain and body where trauma actually lives.
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EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing): Offered by an EMDRIA-certified therapist, EMDR helps your brain reprocess traumatic memories so they lose their emotional charge, without requiring you to describe them in detail. For adults with CPTSD and childhood trauma, it is one of the most rigorously researched treatments available.
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IFS (Internal Family Systems) and Ego States Therapy: Both are forms of "parts work," approaches that help you build a relationship with the different parts of yourself that developed in response to trauma. Rather than fighting the part of you that shuts down, or shaming the part that overreacts, you learn to understand where those parts came from and what they need. IFS and ego states are woven directly into the EMDR work here to make both more effective. They are particularly powerful tools when working with dissociation, including DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder).
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ART (Accelerated Resolution Therapy): A brief, structured therapy that helps rapidly reprocess distressing memories and images. This practice holds active membership in IS-ART, the International Society of Accelerated Resolution Therapy.
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Brainspotting: A body-based approach derived from EMDR that uses fixed eye positions to locate and release trauma held in the nervous system. It can reach experiences that are pre-verbal or difficult to access through memory alone, making it especially effective for early childhood trauma.
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Polyvagal-Informed Care: All sessions are grounded in polyvagal theory, the science of how your nervous system responds to perceived threat. The work is paced to move with your nervous system's capacity, not push past it. This approach draws on advanced training completed under Rebecca Kase, LCSW, author of Polyvagal-Informed EMDR.
The Next Step on Your Path to Healing:
What to Expect
1
Consultation
(The “Vibe Check”)
We start with a free 15-minute phone or video consultation. This isn't a therapy session; it’s a chance for you to see if you feel safe and heard by us. You can ask questions about our approaches, and we can discuss whether our practice is the right fit for your specific needs. There is no pressure to commit.
2
Intake Session
(Getting the Lay of the Land)
In your first session, we’ll talk about what is bringing you in now. While we will touch on your history, you do not have to "tell your whole story" or relive your trauma. We focus on your current symptoms—like burnout, people-pleasing, or family stress—and what you hope your life will look like as you heal.
3
Therapy
(Leaving the Past Behind)
We’ll create a roadmap together. Whether your priority is setting boundaries with your family of origin, reducing work-related burnout, or processing specific childhood memories using ART or EMDR, you are in the driver's seat. With those goals in mind, we’ll work towards your healing at the pace that works for you.
What life looks like when the weight is lifted
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That constant "background hum" of anxiety and self-doubt begins to fade, leaving room for actual peace.
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You’ll find the strength to set boundaries that stick, without the crushing guilt that usually follows.
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Instead of spiraling when triggered, you’ll have the internal "buffer" to stay present and choose how you want to show up
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When your body isn't spending all its fuel on survival, you’ll find you have more energy for the things and people you actually love.
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Moving from "What is wrong with me?" to a place of genuine self-compassion and curiosity.
We want you to know:
It’s never too late to
change your life.
faq
Common questions about therapy for CPTSD and childhood trauma
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There is no such thing as “not bad enough.” If what happened still bothers you or negatively affects your life, you deserve to heal from it. We don’t get to decide what traumatizes us. Our brains and bodies react on an instinctive level, and we get stuck in that reaction. What triggers that reaction is different for each person, and is influenced by a wide variety of things.
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The therapies offered here don't require that you remember what happened for healing to take place. Even if we can't access a specific memory, your body and brain still hold the effects of what happened. There are ways to work through and heal that.
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Many important developmental things happen throughout our childhoods, and those things lay the foundation for the rest of our lives. Research has shown that childhood stress affects not only our mental health, but our physical health, as well. It may be affecting you in ways you haven’t connected to what happened in your childhood. In healing those childhood wounds now, you can improve your mental and physical well-being for the rest of your life.
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Talk therapy works with the "thinking" part of the brain (the prefrontal cortex). Trauma, however, lives in the "survival" part of the brain (the limbic system). You can know you are safe intellectually, but still feel terrified. We use somatic and "bottom-up" therapies to reach the parts of the brain that talk therapy often misses.
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Research consistently shows that online therapy is as effective as in-person therapy for trauma treatment, including EMDR. Sessions are conducted via secure, HIPAA-compliant video. Many clients find that being in a familiar, comfortable space actually makes it easier to do deep therapeutic work.
Ready to get started?