CHILDHOOD TRAUMA THERAPY IN Pasadena & SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
THERAPY for CHILDHOOD TRAUMA in SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Break the shackles of childhood trauma &begin creating the life you want.
You Grew Up. The Wound Didn't.
You've built a life. Maybe a career, a family, a version of yourself that looks, from the outside, exactly like someone who has it together. But underneath the accomplishment — underneath the composure — something still doesn't feel right.
You get triggered in ways that embarrass you. You pull away when people get close. You work harder than anyone around you, and still feel like you're never enough. You find yourself repeating the same painful patterns in your relationships, your career, your inner life — and you can't understand why.
This is what unhealed childhood trauma looks like in adults. Not always flashbacks and nightmares. More often, it shows up as a quiet, relentless feeling that something is fundamentally broken inside you.
It isn't. And it doesn't have to stay this way.
What Is Childhood Trauma?
Childhood trauma occurs when early experiences overwhelm a child's ability to cope — leaving lasting imprints on the nervous system, the brain, the body, and the spirit. It doesn't require a single catastrophic event. Some of the deepest wounds are quiet ones: chronic neglect, emotional unavailability, growing up in an unpredictable household, witnessing violence, or surviving abuse that no one ever named or acknowledged.
Common forms of childhood trauma include:
Physical, emotional, or verbal abuse
Childhood sexual abuse and sexual trauma
Neglect (emotional or physical)
Abandonment, loss of a parent, or attachment disruptions
Growing up with a parent struggling with addiction or mental illness
Witnessing domestic violence or community violence
Religious or institutional abuse
Bullying, social isolation, or peer trauma
Medical trauma and invasive procedures in childhood
Racial trauma and intergenerational trauma
Trauma is not defined by the severity of the event. It is defined by what happened inside you when it did — how much it overwhelmed your ability to feel safe, seen, and protected. Two people can experience the same event and carry it completely differently. Your pain is valid regardless of whether others would call it "traumatic enough."
The science is clear: adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are directly linked to anxiety, depression, PTSD, complex PTSD, relationship difficulties, physical illness, and struggles with self-worth and identity well into adulthood. Healing requires more than willpower. It requires a therapeutic approach that works at the level where trauma actually lives — in the body, the nervous system, and the deeper self.
How Childhood Trauma Shows Up in Adult Life
Many adults seeking therapy don't immediately connect their present struggles to their childhood. They come in feeling anxious, exhausted, relationally stuck, or chronically unfulfilled — and they want to know why.
Here is how unresolved childhood trauma commonly surfaces in adult life:
In your body: Chronic tension, pain without a clear medical cause, hypervigilance, an inability to fully relax, fatigue, and a pervasive sense of being "on alert" even when there is no threat.
In your emotions: Emotional flooding — intense reactions that feel disproportionate to the moment — or the opposite: emotional numbness, difficulty feeling anything at all, or a sense of being cut off from your own inner life.
In your relationships: Difficulty trusting others. Fear of abandonment. Pushing people away before they can leave you. Repeating the same painful relationship dynamics across different partners, friendships, or family systems. Confusing love with control, anxiety, or intensity.
In your identity: A pervasive sense of shame. The feeling that you are fundamentally flawed or broken. High-achieving behavior driven not by joy but by the terror of being found out. Perfectionism as a survival strategy, not a personality trait.
In your sense of meaning: Feeling disconnected from yourself, your purpose, or any sense of spiritual groundedness. A creeping hollowness underneath external success. A longing for something more that you can't quite name.
If you recognize yourself in any of these — you are not alone. And this is exactly where holistic trauma therapy begins.
Why Holistic Childhood Trauma Therapy Is Different
Most traditional therapy focuses on what you think about your past. Talk therapy has its place — but for trauma that is stored in the body, in the nervous system, and in the deeper layers of self, talking about it is often not enough.
At Holistic Trauma Therapy, we go deeper.
The holistic approach recognizes that trauma lives in three interwoven dimensions:
The Mind — the beliefs, narratives, and cognitive patterns that formed when you were a child trying to make sense of an overwhelming world.
The Body — the nervous system responses, somatic sensations, and physical holding patterns that are the body's memory of what happened to you, even when the conscious mind can't access it.
The Spirit — your sense of meaning, purpose, authentic self, and the wholeness that trauma interrupted. This is the dimension most traditional therapy ignores entirely.
True healing — lasting healing — addresses all three. Not one at a time. Together.
This is why Holistic Trauma Therapy, led by Chief Traumatologist, Seema Sharma, employs an approach that integrates the most advanced, evidence-based trauma modalities available, woven together with the transpersonal and somatic frameworks that allow healing at every level of human experience.
Our Approach to Healing Childhood Trauma
Seema Sharma, LMFT, SEP is one of Southern California's most credentialed and experienced holistic childhood trauma specialists. As Chief Traumatologist, she leads a team dedicated to embodied and transformational healing. Every treatment plan is deeply individualized — because no two trauma histories are alike, and no single modality is sufficient for complex healing.
Somatic Experiencing (SE)
Developed by Dr. Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing works directly with the nervous system to complete the survival responses that became "stuck" during overwhelming experiences. Rather than revisiting trauma through narrative, SE works with the body's physical sensations to gently discharge the residual activation that trauma leaves behind. A practice led by a Certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) — one of the most rigorous certifications available in the field — ensures a team understands the nervous system..
EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
EMDR is one of the most extensively researched trauma treatments in the world, recognized by the American Psychological Association and the World Health Organization. It works by engaging the brain's natural processing systems to reprocess traumatic memories — moving them from raw, overwhelming experience to integrated, resolved recollection. We are EMDR-trained through EMDRIA and have used EMDR extensively in the treatment of childhood trauma, including childhood sexual abuse.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
IFS understands the psyche as a system of "parts" — including the parts of you that developed to protect you from childhood pain. In IFS, we don't pathologize these parts; we get curious about them. We meet the inner child. We work with the managers, the exiles, and the firefighters — all the internal strategies that once kept you safe and now may be keeping you stuck. Seema holds IFS Level 2 training, and the team is certified in parts work.
Transpersonal and Integral Psychology
This is where Holistic Trauma Therapy stands apart from virtually every practice in Southern California, drawing upon consciousness, meaning-making, and the deeper spiritual dimensions of identity and healing. This is not "woo-woo." This is evidence-informed, research-grounded work on the edge of what Western psychology is only beginning to understand.
Sex Therapy for Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors
Seema is an AASECT-trained sex therapist with specialized expertise in the treatment of childhood sexual abuse and its impact on adult sexuality, intimacy, and body image. This is a clinically distinct specialization — and it is rare. Many trauma therapists are not equipped to address the specific ways childhood sexual trauma reshapes the relationship to one's own body, sexuality, desire, and relational safety. Seema leads a team deeply knowledgeable of sex therapy and related issues to serve clients where they are at.
Helping you heal from your past, so that you may create the future you want.
I understand that the word “trauma” can sometimes be jarring; if you feel like your experience doesn’t meet some kind of standard for pain, you might discount it as “not serious enough.” But that fact is: if it felt traumatic, it was traumatic. And if you’re still experiencing the effects of it today, therapy can be a powerful tool to help you move forward.
Does the phrase “childhood trauma” bring up tears, sadness, or specific memories that are hard to shake?
Do you wake up in the morning and experience a wave of dread?
Do you think about the childhood and feel a sadness or grief that won’t go away?
Are you tormented by intrusive memories, flashbacks, or nightmares?
Do you avoid home or family because of the way it makes you feel or behave?
Are you ready to tackle your panic attacks, impulsive behavior, ruminating thoughts, fear, dread, or suffering?
Are you sick and tired of feeling this way and want to finally work on your past trauma?
Is your childhood holding you back?
When you have had painful experiences, especially in childhood, it becomes hard to move forward and get on with life.
You may feel like you can’t trust the people closest to you or are isolated even though you want to connect. Your relationships may feel as if they go through ups and downs, and you don’t feel understood. You may also be noticing the impact of your past on your body: difficulty sleeping, upset stomach, headaches, or feeling constantly on edge.
Your life may be been like this for a long time, and you may not realize what you are physically feeling or mentally experiencing may be connected to childhood trauma.
Your mind and body may have a mind of their own, and react in ways that seem out of control. You may be scared by the way you react, the way you are in relationships, or you internal dialog mimicking that of an abuser. You may have tried traditional “talk therapy” but want something different that may help address all parts of trauma. You have a sense that something from your past is still at play, and you’re ready to address it at its source.
HOW IT WORKS
Healing is not a quick fix or a one-dimensional process—and neither is our work. Our model is built around three pillars: insight, embodiment, and transformation. This integrative framework is what sets our holistic trauma therapy apart from traditional talk therapy alone. We don’t just help you understand your patterns—we help you experience real, embodied change that lasts.
STAGE 01: INSIGHT
We begin by understanding your story. Together, we explore patterns shaped by childhood trauma, attachment wounds, and nervous system adaptations. Through trauma-informed, depth-oriented therapy, you gain clarity about how early experiences influence your relationships, leadership, anxiety, perfectionism, or sense of self today. Insight brings language to what once felt confusing or overwhelming.
STAGE 02: EMBODIMENT
But insight alone is not enough. Trauma lives in the body. Through holistic trauma therapy, somatic trauma therapy, EMDR therapy, and nervous system regulation, we work with how your body learned to survive. You’ll learn to track sensations, build internal safety, and gently release stored stress. Embodiment allows healing to move from intellectual understanding into lived experience.
STAGE 03: TRANSFORMATION
As insight meets embodiment, transformation becomes possible. Old protective patterns soften. Relationships shift. Your nervous system stabilizes. You begin responding rather than reacting. This is not about becoming someone new—it’s about integrating the parts of you that had to fragment in order to cope. The result is greater freedom, authenticity, and the capacity to live and lead from a grounded, regulated place.
what you’ll gain
Therapy for childhood trauma can help you…
Improve relationships impacted by trauma
Eliminate intrusive memories, nightmares, and flashbacks
Regulate your emotional response to trauma triggers
Stop avoiding people, places, or situations
Feel more comfortable and secure in your body
Build trust in your own perceptions, feelings, and instincts
Make sense of traumatic experiences so that you can move forward
TOGETHER, LET’S DISCOVER THE courage & strength THAT’S already WITHIN YOU TO move forward.
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Childhood trauma therapy is a specialized form of trauma therapy that helps adults and children heal from early adverse experiences such as emotional neglect, abuse, abandonment, or chronic stress. It addresses how those experiences shaped the nervous system, attachment patterns, and sense of self. Holistic trauma therapy integrates somatic therapy, EMDR therapy, and attachment-informed work to promote deep healing.
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ICommon signs of unresolved childhood trauma include anxiety, perfectionism, people-pleasing, difficulty with intimacy, emotional reactivity, chronic shame, or feeling “not good enough.” Many high-achieving professionals appear successful externally while internally struggling with nervous system dysregulation. A trauma-informed therapist can help assess patterns rooted in early attachment wounds.
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Yes. Childhood trauma often impacts adult relationships, leadership capacity, stress tolerance, and emotional regulation. Early trauma shapes the nervous system and attachment system, which influences how you respond to conflict, intimacy, and pressure later in life. Without treatment, these patterns tend to repeat.
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The most effective therapy for childhood trauma typically includes a combination of approaches. Research supports EMDR therapy, somatic trauma therapy, and attachment-focused psychotherapy. Holistic trauma therapy goes beyond talk therapy by addressing how trauma lives in the body and nervous system, not just in thoughts or memories.
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Holistic Trauma Therapy heals trauma top-down (through talk therapy), bottom-up (through the body), and Inside-Out (your sense of consciousness and sense of self). Holistic healing is multi-layered and allows all parts to heal once and for all.
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Healing childhood trauma is not a quick process. The timeline varies depending on the depth of trauma, nervous system regulation, and relational patterns. Complex trauma and developmental trauma often require longer-term, depth-oriented therapy to create lasting transformation rather than temporary symptom relief.
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While you cannot erase what happened, you can heal its impact. With holistic trauma therapy, clients often experience reduced triggers, greater nervous system stability, improved relationships, and a stronger sense of self. Healing means integration—where the past no longer controls your present reactions.
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Yes. I have extensive experience and training working with clients that struggle with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) / OSDD. Quite a large portion of my training has been centered on dissociative disorders. I predominantly work with clients with DID/OSDD who are high-functioning individuals. The “soul wounding” in clients with dissociation requires diving into the underworld of their consciousness (Kalsched, 2013), which requires a depth, analytical, and holistic approach.
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I am certified in Somatic Experiencing, EMDR trained, and AASECT Sex Therapy trained, and have Advanced Professional Trauma Training from the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. To learn more about how I work, click here.
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Yes. Somatic trauma therapy is particularly effective for childhood trauma because early trauma is often stored in the body before language fully developed. Somatic approaches help regulate the nervous system, release stored survival responses, and build internal safety. When combined with EMDR therapy and attachment repair, outcomes are even stronger.