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TRAUMA THERAPY · CORONADO, CA
The body remembers what the mind tried to forget.
Trauma is not just what happened to you. It's what happened inside you as a result — the ways your nervous system adapted, the beliefs that formed, the parts of yourself you learned to put away. It lives in the body long after the events themselves have passed. It shapes how you respond to threat, how close you let people get, how safe you feel in your own skin.
People often come to trauma therapy expecting to talk through what happened until it loses its charge. Sometimes that's part of it. But effective trauma therapy looks less like narrating the past and more like slowly changing your relationship to it — building safety in the body, processing what the nervous system never fully resolved, and restoring a sense of agency and trust.
In-person at 1111 5th St, Coronado · Telehealth statewide · Private pay
FREE CONSULTATION
15 minutes · No obligation
In-person or telehealth
MEANING · HEALING · DIRECTION · PRIVATE PAY · LICENSED CLINICIANS · CORONADO, CA
OUR APPROACH TO TRAUMA TREATMENT
Trauma therapy requires care, pacing, and clinical skill. We don't rush toward the material. We begin by building the relational and internal resources that make processing possible — because safety is not a prerequisite you arrive with, it's something we build together.
Our trauma-informed approach may draw from:
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EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) — an evidence-based protocol for processing traumatic memories that have remained "stuck" in the nervous system, preventing normal integration
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Attachment-based and relational approaches — to address the relational roots of trauma and rebuild a sense of safety in connection
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Psychodynamic depth work — to understand how traumatic experiences have organized beliefs, identity, and unconscious patterns
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Somatic approaches — working with the body's stored responses to trauma, not just the narrative
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Stabilization and nervous system regulation — foundational skills that support the processing work and generalize to daily life
We follow a phase-based model: stabilization and resourcing first, processing when the foundation is solid, integration as the ongoing work. We move at a pace that is grounded and safe.
The past that lives in the present.
Trauma exists on a wide spectrum. There is what clinicians call "Big T" trauma — single-incident events like accidents, assaults, or combat exposure. And there is complex or relational trauma (cPTSD) — the result of chronic, repeated experiences, often in childhood: emotional neglect, inconsistent caregiving, abuse, or growing up in an environment where safety was never a given.
Both are real. Both cause suffering. And both can be worked with in therapy.
Common trauma presentations we work with include:
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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (cPTSD)
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Trauma related to military service: combat exposure, moral injury, MST
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Childhood adversity and developmental trauma
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Relational and attachment trauma — including emotional abuse, neglect, or chronic invalidation
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Grief and traumatic loss
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Medical trauma
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First responder trauma
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Trauma symptoms without a clear single event (often cPTSD or developmental trauma)
"Most people who carry trauma aren't defined by a single dramatic event. They're defined by a nervous system that learned, under real circumstances, that the world wasn't safe — and never quite got the message that things have changed. Therapy is how that message finally arrives."
OUR APPROACH
We don't start with a protocol.
We start with you.
At True North Clinical Counseling, our approach to trauma is careful, paced, and deeply relational. We don't move straight to processing. We begin by building the safety and internal resources that make healing possible — because those foundations aren't prerequisites you arrive with, they're something we build together. From there, we work at a pace that is always yours to set.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
CBT helps identify the thought patterns that amplify anxiety — catastrophizing, threat overestimation, all-or-nothing thinking — and builds practical skills to interrupt them. Within a trauma-informed framework, we also trace where those patterns originally came from.
Somatic & Mindfulness-Based
For many people, anxiety lives in the body first. Somatic approaches and mindfulness practices teach you to notice what's happening internally without being swept away by it — building genuine regulatory capacity, not just coping skills.
Attachment-Based Relational Work
Chronic anxiety is often rooted in early relational experiences. Attachment-based therapy addresses those roots — not to revisit the past endlessly, but to understand how it organized the nervous system and to build something genuinely different.
EMDR
Where anxiety is connected to specific traumatic experiences or memories, EMDR helps the brain complete the processing that trauma interrupted — so the memory becomes something that happened, rather than something still happening now.
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THE CORONADO CONTEXT
A community where struggle stays private.
Coronado is home to a significant military community — Navy SEALs, active duty service members, veterans, and their families. The trauma that comes with service is real and complex: combat exposure, moral injury, military sexual trauma, the psychological toll of sustained high-stress operational roles, and the particular grief of losing teammates.
We understand this world. We work with military-connected clients with the specificity, directness, and respect that their experience deserves. You won't need to translate your experience for us.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PACING
Trauma therapy is not a linear process, and it isn't always comfortable. There are weeks of steady progress and weeks that feel harder. We talk openly about pacing, about what's working and what isn't, and about how to take care of yourself between sessions. Your sense of safety and agency in this process matters to us — not just as a clinical consideration, but because healing requires it.
MEET THE PRACTICE OWNER
Dr. Jenny Palmiotto
Psy.D., LMFT #47573 · Founder, True North Clinical Counseling
Dr. Jenny Palmiotto is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with deep expertise in relational, attachment-based, and trauma-informed therapy. With extensive training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and relational models, she guides clients through meaningful healing by helping them explore core emotional patterns and strengthen connections. She founded True North Clinical Counseling to bring depth-oriented care to the Coronado community — the kind of thoughtful, relational work that addresses the root, not just the symptom.
GETTING STARTED
What to Expect
1
Free Consultation
We offer a free 15-minute consultation to assess your treatment goals and possible next steps. We prioritize both clinical and relational fit.
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Therapeutic Engagement
Beginning with intake, we provide evidence-based care in an empathetic, safe space as we walk alongside you through healing and growth.
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Applied Growth Work
Together we integrate practical tools, skills, and reflection so you can generalize new learning and make sustainable changes in everyday life.
Individual therapy in Coronado is available in-person at our private office or via secure telehealth throughout California.
LOCATION
1111 5th St, Suite 2, Coronado
ALSO AVAILABLE
Telehealth Statewide
PAYMENT
Private Pay Only
CORE SERVICES
Trauma Therapy
Depth-oriented, paced trauma treatment for adults navigating PTSD, complex trauma, and adverse history.
EMDR Therapy
One of the most evidence-supported trauma treatments — often reaching what years of talk therapy couldn't.
Depression Therapy
For the flatness beneath the functioning — depth-oriented care for adults who look fine on the outside.
Life Transitions
For adults who've outgrown who they were and aren't yet sure who they're becoming.
