FAQS

Yes. Due to the Interstate Counseling Compact some of our counselors provide services in various states and even other countries. Please contact us for more information on this. Currently We provide counseling/ therapy online, and in person in the U.S. and internationally. For those who wish to work with us, we recommend that we use online video chat programs like Zoom, Vsee or Jitsi which allow us to talk and see each other online. For clients that have never used programs like these on a computer we are happy to guide you through the process of setting them up.

Each therapist will arrange a schedule with you personally that you both agree upon however; trauma therapy is different and usually requires more time. than a standard session. Standard counseling sessions for individuals and couples are scheduled for 75 minutes and 90 minutes for couple or family sessions. This is very different from a normal therapy session which is called a 50 minute hour. In our experience, a 50 minute session is unrealistic for trauma work and to find some level of resolution in a session. Counselors, will discuss with you how they will conduct sessions with you individually, as well as what your treatment plan will be. Please let us know if you have a preference of a specific method you would like the therapist to use with you.

The time it takes to see changes will vary from one person to another. Trauma is very tricky to work with as we often are triggered by unpredictable circumstances. What is most important to us and to a clients recovery is that they feel safe when they are in a session. Typically, we see changes happen more rapidly when an individual is consistent with sessions and motivated towards change. We can say however that clients report to us that there is a huge difference between talk therapy and somatic therapy in that somatic therapy is much more result oriented and most clients report they feel a drop in thier anxiety within the 1st few months.

Yes. In fact recent research has actually demonstrated that telehealth therapy and counseling online may even be more effective than in person meetings as the client has a greater chance to feel safe in their own environment. Though many of us prefer to be in the actual presence of the person we are working with, We have had excellent results working with individuals and have found very few differences.
It is important however that you do not use your phone as the meeting place but rather a laptop or desktop as results will be much better if we have face to face contact that is as realistic as possible.

Prescribe Medication
As therapists or counselors, we cannot prescribe medication or advise you on what medications to take. We can provide you with referrals to Doctors and Psychiatrists who would be happy to help you determine what medications would be right for you.

Make decisions for you
We know how challenging life can be at times and know how uncertainty can make us feel scared and incapable of making decisions. We are here to help you work through that and come to your own conclusions. Together we will walk the path toward self-discovery, clarity, and transformation. We believe you are capable of discovering your own truth.

Project any of my own beliefs onto your experience
You are the expert of your own life and have unique experiences, upbringings, cultural backgrounds, wants, needs, and feelings. We cannot tell you how to live or what you should do with your life, but we can give you guidance, feedback, and support on your journey.

We recommend weekly sessions when starting therapy /counseling. However for complex trauma we reccomend you be seen 2x a week if it is possible. PTSD is very serious and has been shown in research that symptoms will worsen over time if not treated.
We believe that if we experienced trauma over a 5 year period then a 1 hour session might not be enough to reolve this trauma in a short period. Together we determine the frequency after an initial four sessions.

Fees are set by individual therapists. This is based upon income, country of origin and number of dependents in your household . . Some of our therapists have a sliding scale for fees based upon income, which means we may be able to negotiate a reduced fee. Please do not hesitate to call if you need help. We try our best to accommodate everyone who would benefit from our services.

Please have a look through the section on our site called Methodologies. All of the therapists associated with Seattle trauma counseling work dominantly as Somatic therapists. We believe it is the most effective way to treat trauma.

What is Somatic therapy? Lets have a look at the differences between normal talk therapy, aka, psychotherapy or counseling and Somatic therapy.

Psychotherapy or Counseling

Psychotherapy is a form of psychological treatment in which great emphasis is placed on providing a safe, non-judgmental space and relationship in which to explore issues pertaining to mental health and problems of living. The Psychotherapeutic relationship provides specific theories and techniques embedded into conditions of empathy, acceptance and mindfulness designed to facilitate the appropriate inner psychological conditions so that people can grow and develop in ways which may not have been possible earlier in their lives. Psychotherapy is a research-evaluated method of bringing change to our experience of life. It has various methods associated to it but these methods are dominantly about using talking and verbal reflections to increase awareness and decrease symptoms. While talk therapy can be very helpful with various types of psychological issues, most modern research on trauma suggests that talk therapy may actually make trauma symptoms worsen. The reason for this is that telling the story of trauma over and over again,, as in the case of exposure therapy for example, may tend to actually amplify the feelings associated with the stories of the past. i.e. every time I have to tell my therapist the story of the trauma, I have to relive the whole thing all over again. A lot of evidence shows that this can reinforce the very symptoms we are seeking relief from.

Somatic Psychotherapy

Although situated in the broad family of psychotherapeutic treatments, Somatic Psychotherapy is a unique discipline. Soma is a Greek word meaning “the living body” therefore Somatic Psychotherapy adds a significant dimension to verbal psychotherapy by including bodily experience as correlative, causative and caused by psychological experience. It is grounded in the belief that not only are thought, emotion and bodily experience inextricably linked (creating a bodymind), but also that change can be brought about in one domain of experience by mindfully accessing another.

The method of Mindfulness is intimately connected to the work of somatic psychotherapy. Mindfulness is an ancient psychological method that has recently been incorporated into modern therapeutic techniques. Mindfulness refers to a non-critical state of self-observation. It is a non-judgmental state of consciousness that allows a person to experience themselves in a new way.

Like other contemporary psychotherapies, emphasis is placed on the uniqueness of the individual, and the qualities present in the particular therapeutic relationship formed by each therapist-client dyad. The work of somatics is guided by several philosophies and more recently by research in Infant Development, Neurobiology, and Attachment theories. All of which converge in several areas, most notably in their agreement that:

• Mind and Body are not separate entities but mutually influencing aspects of the overall organism, and


• there is an innate capacity of the human bodymind to move towards healing and growth given the appropriate therapeutic environment.


• That interpersonal interaction in the form of respectful, safe and appropriate relationships positively and directly influence and mediate/regulate the bodymind.

Codependency can be defined as; relying on another person to manage or take care of our emotions. This pain in adulthood, that comes from being wounded in childhood leads to a high probability of relationship problems and addictive/compulsive behavior. It is a combination of immature thinking, feeling and behaving that generates an aversive relationship with the self (self-loathing), which the codependent individual acts out often through self-destructive or unduly self-sacrificial behavior.

We no longer accept insurance although we do offer a sliding fee scale for folks who need it. We also can offer a superbill which many insurance companies will reimburse. We at Seattle trauma counseling see money as something that represents time and energy. You put in your time and energy at work to make money. When you come to see us you pay that time and energy to us and we give you back our time and energy towards what you want to change. Unfortunately, we have experienced so many difficulties working with insurance companies that we no longer accept insurance at this time. We accept out of pocket- cash, payment through Paypal, Square or Gopayment.

Each counselor at Seattle Trauma Counseling uses mindfulness practices within somatic therapy as well as guided visualization practices. Robert Espiau has been teaching meditation and mindfulness for nearly 30 years and spent 6 years living as a monastic. For this reason, he is able to offer a unique perspective and training that you will not find amongst most therapists in the United States. He can offer to teach you a specific ancient meditative technology called Jhana by the Buddha; also Samatha meditation or Samadhi training. This involves learning how to enter into 8 different deep states of absorption concentration(Samadhi) into qualities of your own consciousness.

Though the explanation here will sound abstract, these states of consciousness have a profound effect on the nervous system and offer as a side effect deep states of serenity and equanimity that do not depend upon happy memories or physical experiences. In a normal yoga class student learn forms of concentration practice but do not learn how to enter into the stillness and silence of the mind known as samadhi in the east. We offer this unique training which is very effective for treating severe PTSD as well as compassion fatigue and combat trauma.