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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 which are most often 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.
We don't move straight to the material. Safety isn't something you arrive with — it's something we build together. From there: stabilization and resourcing first, processing when the foundation is solid, integration as the ongoing work. The pace is always yours to set.
Tending to the body
Trauma doesn't live only in memory — it lives in the nervous system. The tightening in the chest before a difficult conversation. The hypervigilance that never fully switches off. The way certain sounds, smells, or situations produce a response that seems disproportionate until you understand where it came from. Effective trauma therapy works at the level of the body, not just the narrative. We incorporate somatic approaches and nervous system regulation as foundational parts of the work — not add-ons, but often where the most important shifts happen.
Rethinking trauma as a one time event
Most people associate trauma with a single identifiable incident. But much of the trauma we treat is cumulative — the result of chronic experiences over time. Emotional neglect, inconsistent caregiving, growing up in an environment where safety was never a given, relationships where love came with conditions. This kind of trauma doesn't always announce itself clearly, which is part of why it goes unaddressed for so long. You may not have a single event to point to and still be carrying something that shaped everything. That's real, and it's workable.
A military and relational lense
Coronado is a military community, and military trauma has its own particular dimensions. Combat exposure, moral injury, military sexual trauma, and the psychological weight of sustained operational stress don't resolve on their own — and they require a clinician who understands the culture, not just the clinical framework. We also work extensively with relational trauma: the damage done by chronic emotional abuse, neglect, or relationships where safety and connection were never reliably present. Both leave marks that extend well beyond the original experience.
Addressing meaning making
One of trauma's least-discussed effects is what it does to identity. The beliefs that form in the aftermath — about your own worth, your safety in the world, your right to take up space — can be more disabling than the memories themselves. Trauma therapy at True North addresses those internalized beliefs directly. Not just what happened, but what you concluded about yourself as a result. That work is often where the deepest and most durable change occurs.
THE CORONADO CONTEXT
The hardest trauma to treat is the kind you didn't know you had.
Coronado is a small, visible community where composure is the norm and difficulty tends to stay private. For many people here, trauma doesn't look like what they imagine trauma looks like — there's no single event they can point to, no obvious crisis. What there is instead is a history that quietly organized everything: how safe they feel, how close they let people get, how they respond when things go wrong.
Relational and developmental trauma is common in this population, and frequently unrecognized. It tends to show up as anxiety, as exhaustion, as patterns in relationships that keep repeating without a clear explanation. In a community where high functioning is expected and vulnerability is rarely modeled, that history can go unaddressed for years.
Therapy is often the first place it gets looked at honestly — and private-pay care means no insurance record, no diagnosis on file, and no one beyond this room needs to know you're here.
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.
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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
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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.
3
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.
