Accepting Support
Building Safety
Early Childhood and Developmental Trauma Therapy
Healing early wounds by building safety, trust, and self-compassion.
I help hold the weight of trauma so you don’t have to carry it alone - together we can move beyond the pain.
Trauma doesn't need to hold you back
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It is possible to feel safe again
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It's okay to ask for help
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Trauma doesn't need to hold you back · It is possible to feel safe again · It's okay to ask for help ·
Your Pain is Real.
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Trauma Changes Your Nervous System
Your nervous system is doing what it is designed to do - look for ways to keep you safe. Through bad experiences in early childhood and through key development phases, you learnt that too many places are unsafe and now your world feels small or dangerous.
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Developmental Trauma.
The way you interact with yourself and others is deeply impacted by early experiences such as abuse, neglect, or lacking emotional attunement from caregivers. That lack of safety made it difficult for your nervous systems to regulate to the environment and people around you.
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Specialized Trauma Therapy Can Help
Trauma therapy can help your nervous system understand what is safe and what isn’t so you do not need to exist in a state of fear all the time. Together, we make sense of the patterns that began as a way to keep you safe but now feel like a cage keeping you from living a full life.
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Trauma Therapy Leads to Real Life Change
As your body begins to trust safety again, you gain the freedom to participate in your life and connect with others in ways that once felt out of reach.
Developmental and early childhood trauma therapy based in Kitsap County, serving Poulsbo, Silverdale, and clients across Washington State.
My Approach to Online Trauma Therapy
I integrate Emotion Focused Individual Therapy to process trauma with Self-Compassion and Mindfulness work to help your body learn how to connect safely with yourself and others.
I want you to know what to expect and feel comfortable asking questions about my approach.
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Using mindfulness, stress cycle education, and taking time to build emotional safety in therapy helps your nervous system feel ready to process.
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I provide resources and tools to support you between sessions so you begin to feel empowered to care for your body and heart.
Wether you like mindfulness, reading, or listening to podcasts, I help curate the right resources for you.
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When your body feels safe and you have the tools to support your nervous system, we begin trauma processing with Emotion Focused Individual Therapy.
I am there as a support paying close attention to your emotional needs the whole time.
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If your body says talking about something is too hard, we focus on building safety and comfort, not pushing through. When you feel safe enough, your nervous system will tell us.
Frequently Asked Questions
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We move at your pace. If your body tells us something feels too overwhelming to talk about, we focus on building safety and stability rather than pushing through. When there’s enough safety, your nervous system will let us know. The process can be hard and I approach that with compassion and care.
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I’ve seen many clients develop a sense of safety in their bodies, in their relationships, and in the world around them that they didn’t realize was possible. While every experience is unique, this kind of healing takes time, and research tells us that steady, consistent engagement in therapy supports the deepest and most sustainable change.
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Because every person’s experiences are different, healing unfolds differently, too. Some clients attend weekly sessions for several months and then feel ready to pause. Others continue longer-term, either for ongoing support with trauma processing or for deeper self-exploration beyond trauma processing. We revisit your goals and progress along the way to ensure therapy continues to meet your needs.
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The initial 50-minute session is $200 and includes additional time outside of session for diagnostic assessment and treatment planning. Ongoing 50-minute sessions are $180 for the duration of your course of treatment.
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I am an out-of-network provider and offer Superbills, which many clients use to seek reimbursement from their insurance companies.
When you begin therapy, you will also receive a Good Faith Estimate outlining the anticipated cost of services for the year, so you can plan and budget with clarity and no surprises.
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For Online Therapy, I use SimplePractice as a secure, all-in-one client portal. You’ll receive an emailed video link before each session, and you can use the portal to manage appointments, update reminder settings, access shared resources, and download billing information for insurance reimbursement.
Meet your Trauma Informed Therapist
I’m Stephanie Thiessen, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor offering trauma-informed therapy grounded in compassion, curiosity, and relationship. Since 2017, I have helped clients understand and gently shift the emotional patterns shaping their relationships—with others and with themselves—so they can feel more grounded, connected, and at ease.
A Little About Me
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My Speciality
I specialize in supporting adults navigating trauma from harmful relationships at home, within religion, or from not being accepted in the world as a whole.
For many clients, these experiences show up as perfectionism, anxiety, burnout, loneliness, or a sense of being disconnected from who they truly are. I can hold the weight of those experiences and offer a safe place to feel seen and understood.
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My Training
My trauma therapy approach is informed by specialized trauma training in both Observed and Experiential Integration and Emotion Focused Individual Therapy.
These are experiential trauma-processing approaches that help you safely feel and work through emotions that once felt overwhelming or unsafe.
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Additional Insights
I also bring additional training in neurodiversity-affirming counseling—an approach that honors who you are at your core and never asks you to be someone you aren’t. Many clients come to me feeling like they’ve had to mask, perform, or be “less” to belong; therapy with me is a space where that pressure can soften and your lived experience is met with care and respect.
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My Style
I show up with warmth, clarity, and a collaborative presence—holding space for the messy, tender parts while supporting sustainable, meaningful change.
You are always going to see the real me as I create a safe place to be the real you.
Trauma Therapy goes at your pace.
We build safety and trust.
We begin where you are.
