Adult PsychiatryIs The Past Still Shaping Your Present?
Do painful memories intrude when you least expect them, leaving you anxious, on edge, or numb?
Do you find yourself reacting to your partner, your kids, or your work in ways that feel bigger than the moment calls for?
Have you learned to push difficult experiences down, only to feel them resurface in your sleep, your body, or your relationships?
Do you wish you could finally feel safe, settled, and like yourself again?
Understanding the Impact of Trauma
Trauma has a way of staying with us long after the event is over.
You may have told yourself it “wasn’t that bad,” or that you should be over it by now. But trauma isn’t measured by how an experience looks from the outside — it’s measured by how it lived in your body and nervous system.
When something overwhelms our ability to cope, the brain stores it differently, and it can keep firing off alarm bells years later.
If you are carrying something heavy, you don’t have to carry it alone.
With trauma therapy, you can learn to quiet those alarms, make sense of what happened, and feel grounded in your own life again.
Trauma and Ptsd Statistics
You Are Not Broken - And You Are Not Alone
Struggling with your mental health as an adult is extraordinarily common.
Roughly 6%
Roughly six percent of U.S. adults will experience post-traumatic stress disorder at some point in their lives.1
Around 8%
The lifetime rate of PTSD is even higher for women, at around eight percent.1
Trauma Without A Diagnosis
Many more people live with the effects of trauma without ever meeting the full criteria for a diagnosis.
Trauma doesn’t only come from a single catastrophic event.
It can grow out of childhood experiences, loss, medical events, a difficult birth or postpartum season, betrayal in a relationship, or years of chronic stress.
However it began, the nervous system responds in similar ways — hypervigilance, avoidance, shutdown, or feeling disconnected from the people you love.
Why Trauma Lingers
When we feel threatened, the thinking part of the brain steps back and the survival part takes over.
That’s helpful in the moment, but it can leave memories “stuck” — unprocessed and easily triggered.
The good news is that the brain is built to heal.
With the right support, those stuck experiences can be processed and filed away where they belong: in the past.
With compassionate, experienced trauma therapy, you can move from simply surviving to genuinely living again.
A Safe and Gentle Approach
Trauma Therapy Helps You Heal At The Root
My approach to trauma therapy is gentle, paced, and rooted in your sense of safety.
We begin by helping you feel stable and resourced — learning tools to calm your nervous system so that healing never feels overwhelming.
Only when you’re ready do we turn toward the experiences that brought you here.
I draw heavily on EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, one of the most well-researched trauma treatments available.
I combine EMDR therapy with an emotionally focused, attachment-based lens that honors how trauma shows up in your closest relationships.
You can read more about how I use EMDR therapy to help the brain reprocess painful memories.
Emdr Therapy
What Trauma Therapy May Include
In our sessions, we’ll move at your pace.
Some weeks we’ll build coping skills and stability.
Other weeks we’ll gently process specific memories so they lose their grip.
Throughout, my goal is for you to feel:
Meet Kaara Kiddoe, LCSWI’m Kaara Kiddoe, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a master’s degree in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
I’ve spent the last ten years specializing in trauma and EMDR, walking alongside people as they reclaim their lives from the past.
I’ve seen again and again that healing is possible — even when it has felt out of reach for years.
But You May Still Have Questions About Trauma Therapy…
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Unresolved trauma can show up in many ways, including anxiety, emotional numbness, intrusive memories, irritability, sleep difficulties, avoidance, relationship conflict, or reactions that feel larger than the present situation.
You do not need a formal PTSD diagnosis to benefit from trauma therapy. If past experiences continue to affect your emotions, body, choices, or relationships, therapy may help you understand and process them.
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EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
It is a structured trauma treatment that helps the brain process painful or disturbing memories that may still feel emotionally active. During EMDR therapy, bilateral stimulation is used while you focus on specific parts of an experience.
The goal is not to erase the memory, but to reduce its emotional intensity so it feels like something that happened in the past rather than something you are still reliving.
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Trauma therapy begins by understanding what you are experiencing and helping you feel safe, stable, and supported.
Early sessions may focus on your history, current symptoms, goals, nervous-system regulation, and coping skills. When you feel ready, we may begin processing specific memories or experiences using EMDR and other trauma-informed approaches.
The process is paced according to your needs and comfort level.
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No. You remain in control of what you share and when you share it.
One benefit of EMDR-based trauma therapy is that you may not need to describe every detail of an experience for healing to occur. Much of the work focuses on how the memory is stored in your brain, body, emotions, and nervous system.
You will never be pressured to disclose more than you are ready to discuss.
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Yes. Anxiety and depression can sometimes be connected to unresolved trauma, chronic stress, painful relationships, loss, or earlier experiences.
Trauma therapy can help identify and process the experiences contributing to these symptoms. As the underlying distress is addressed, many people begin to feel calmer, more emotionally present, and less overwhelmed.
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The length of trauma therapy varies from person to person.
It may depend on the type of trauma, how long symptoms have been present, whether there were multiple experiences, your current support system, and your treatment goals.
Some people experience meaningful relief within a focused period of treatment, while others benefit from longer-term support. We will regularly discuss your progress and adjust the treatment plan together.
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EMDR is a widely researched treatment used to address trauma and PTSD.
Many people find that it helps reduce the emotional intensity of painful memories, triggers, and trauma-related beliefs.
Results vary, and no therapy works the same way for everyone. We will determine together whether EMDR is appropriate for your experiences, goals, and current level of stability.
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Yes. Childhood trauma can influence how adults experience trust, closeness, conflict, safety, vulnerability, and emotional connection.
You may find yourself withdrawing, becoming highly reactive, fearing abandonment, struggling to communicate your needs, or repeating patterns that once helped you survive.
Trauma therapy can help you understand these patterns and develop healthier, more secure ways of relating to yourself and others.
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Trauma therapy may improve a marriage when unresolved experiences are contributing to emotional distance, conflict, mistrust, avoidance, or intense reactions between partners.
Individual trauma therapy can help you better understand your triggers and respond more intentionally. When appropriate, trauma work may also be coordinated with couples therapy to support healing within the relationship.
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Yes. Online trauma therapy is available through telehealth for clients located in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
Telehealth allows you to attend sessions from a private, comfortable location while receiving the same thoughtful and trauma-informed care.
You Don’t Have To Stay Stuck In The Past
Healing is possible, and you don’t have to figure it out alone.
If you’re ready to feel safe and settled in your own life again, I’d be honored to help.
To get started with trauma therapy in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, or North Carolina, please complete the New Client Inquiry form and I’ll be in touch to talk about next steps.
Source
Goldstein, R.B., et al. — NESARC-III
National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions-III research on lifetime PTSD prevalence among U.S. adults.
View PTSD prevalence researchWhat you need to know-
Authentic Wellness Group is a private-pay practice and does not participate with insurance plans. This allows us to make treatment recommendations based on your individual clinical needs rather than insurance requirements, while providing thoughtful evaluations and personalized psychiatric care.
Payment is due at the time of service. Upon request, we can provide a superbill that you may submit to your insurance company for possible out-of-network reimbursement. Reimbursement is not guaranteed, so we encourage you to contact your insurance provider directly to confirm your benefits.
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Individual therapy - $250/50 minutes
Couples therapy - $300/50 minutes
*Please inquire about pricing for longer or intensive sessions.
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Please note, Authentic Marriages requires 48 hours notice to cancel or reschedule a session otherwise a cancellation fee is charged at the rate of your full session fee.
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Our therapy services are designed for adults only, offered as individual therapy for adults navigating life's challenges and couples therapy for partners seeking to strengthen their relationship.
If you are looking for psychiatric care for a child or teenager, Dr. Kiddoe does provide psychiatric services for children and adolescents. Please don't hesitate to reach out — we're happy to help point you in the right direction.