Move from pain to purpose. Depth-oriented trauma therapy online across Texas and in person in San Antonio. English and German.
Trauma Therapy
Many of the people I work with arrive carrying patterns they have already named. The trouble is not that they do not understand what happened; it is that understanding has not changed the shape of their life. Old wounds keep showing up in adult relationships, in work, in the body, in the quiet feeling of not quite belonging to one's own life. Trauma therapy, the way I practice it, begins where symptom management has stopped being enough — not by replacing what was useful before, but by going underneath it.
Norman Klaunig, MA, LPC, NCC | Texas LPC #89856 | EMDR-trained | Certificate in Traumatic Stress Studies, Trauma Research Foundation (Bessel van der Kolk)
At a glance
Specialization: Complex trauma (CPTSD), PTSD, childhood and developmental trauma, relational trauma, religious trauma, intimate partner violence and domestic violence trauma, traumatic loss
Trauma-specific training: Certificate in Traumatic Stress Studies, Trauma Research Foundation (Bessel van der Kolk); EMDR (EMDRIA-approved); IADC® Therapy for traumatic grief; Written Exposure Therapy; IFS-inspired parts work
Theoretical orientation: Depth-oriented, existential, trauma-informed, transpersonal
Therapist: Norman Klaunig, MA, LPC, NCC
License: Texas LPC #89856
Office: 1528 W Contour Dr, Suite 102, San Antonio, TX 78212
Service area: Online statewide in Texas; in person in San Antonio
Languages: English, German
Insurance accepted: Aetna, BCBS, Curative, United Healthcare, and Medicare (traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans from Aetna, BCBS, and United Healthcare)
What trauma is
Trauma is not the event itself but the lasting response to overwhelming experience — the way the nervous system, memory, relationships, and sense of self continue to organize around something that could not be metabolized when it happened. Two people can live through the same event and carry it differently. When the imprint of past experiences continues to shape present-day functioning — in the body, in relationships, in mood, in patterns of avoidance or hypervigilance — we are speaking of trauma.
This distinction matters clinically. A traumatic event is something that happened. Trauma is what remained. Treatment is concerned with what remains.
How trauma shows up
The body and mind keep running protocols that once made sense. The protocols do not stop running when the danger ends. So you may find that:
Familiar situations feel charged or unsafe for reasons you cannot quite name
You are on alert most of the time, even when nothing is actually wrong
Sleep is broken, with intrusive thoughts, nightmares, or middle-of-the-night wakings
Trust comes hard, with yourself or with others
Strong emotions arrive disproportionate to what is in front of you
You shut down, dissociate, or feel numb when you would expect to feel something
Relationships repeat patterns you swore you would not repeat
You cope with the weight through habits — substances, food, work, screens, sex, control — that you know are not serving you
Your body holds the work as much as your mind does: chronic pain, gut symptoms, fatigue, tension that no posture fixes
You feel different from other people in a way that is difficult to explain
Trauma can also be quieter than this. Not every survivor recognizes themselves in the loudest symptoms. For many of my clients, the central experience is a persistent sense of not quite being at home in their own lives.
The kinds of trauma I work with
Trauma takes many forms. The work I do most often includes:
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Complex trauma describes the lasting effects of repeated, prolonged, or developmentally early traumatic experience, particularly when escape was not possible and the harm came from within relationships meant to provide safety. Childhood neglect, ongoing abuse, growing up in an unsafe home, being raised by a parent whose own pain could not be set aside — these tend to produce trauma that is less about one event and more about an organizing pattern that shaped development. For the clinical distinction from PTSD, see PTSD vs complex trauma.
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PTSD is the diagnosis most often associated with single-incident or finite trauma — accidents, assaults, combat, medical emergencies — though it can also follow chronic exposure. Its core features are intrusive re-experiencing, avoidance of reminders, persistent negative shifts in mood and cognition, and heightened arousal. PTSD can be treated effectively. Most of my work with PTSD draws on EMDR and Written Exposure Therapy alongside the broader depth work.
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The harm that arose inside the relationships that were supposed to keep you safe — caregivers, partners, communities, religious authorities. Relational trauma tends to show up in adult life as difficulty trusting, difficulty being known, difficulty leaving relationships that are not working, and a felt sense that connection itself is unsafe. This is some of the deepest work I do.
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The trauma sustained inside intimate partnerships — physical, sexual, psychological, or coercive — and the trauma carried by adults who grew up inside homes where intimate partner violence was present. IPV trauma frequently meets the criteria for both PTSD and complex trauma, and it carries particular relational features that require trauma-informed care attuned to safety, pacing, and the long aftermath of leaving. I also work with adult children of DV/IPV homes, whose witnessed-violence trauma often does not become fully visible until well into adulthood. See therapy for domestic violence and intimate partner violence.
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Harm sustained inside religious environments, communities, leaders, or teachings — including spiritual abuse, high-control groups, fear-based theology, suppression of identity, and the slower harm of being shaped by a system whose costs only become visible later. Religious trauma is real trauma, and the religious context does not soften the wound. See religious trauma therapy for a fuller description.
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Sudden, violent, or otherwise traumatic deaths, including loss by suicide or accident. Traumatic loss sits between trauma and grief, and it needs both. I integrate grief counseling.
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The trauma of difficult diagnoses, intensive treatment, near-death medical events, and the long aftermath of serious illness — for the patient or for the people closest to them. This work often overlaps with existential therapy and grief work.
How trauma therapy actually works
The first task is making the work survivable. We start with stabilization — building the resources, regulation skills, and relational safety that let the deeper work happen without overwhelming you. You set the pace. You decide what you are ready to touch and what stays out of reach for now. Nothing here requires you to relive what happened in detail.
From there, the work tends to move in two directions at once. We process what has been carried — using EMDR, Written Exposure, parts work, or other modalities chosen for what fits — so that the memory loses its grip on the present. And we look at the patterns: the relational reflexes, the coping strategies that no longer serve, the felt sense of self that formed under pressure. Trauma therapy is not only about what happened. It is about who you became around it, and who you might become now that the conditions have changed.
The work is slow where slowing matters. It is also active. We use the body, the breath, the relationship in the room, and your own intelligence about your life. The goal is not to make the past disappear. The goal is to change its grip on the present, so that you have more room to live the life that is actually available to you.
Approaches and modalities I draw from in trauma work
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) — EMDRIA-approved training
Written Exposure Therapy (WET) — evidence-based, brief-form trauma protocol
IFS-inspired parts work (Internal Family Systems)
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT Tapping)
Polyvagal-informed somatic and breath work
Psychoeducation about the nervous system, attachment, and the long arc of trauma
IADC® Therapy (Induced After-Death Communication) — for traumatic grief (if and when appropriate)
Existential and depth-oriented therapy, as the work asks for it
These are tools, not a protocol. We use what fits, and only what fits.
What the work makes possible
Trauma therapy does not promise a different past. It can change the present in ways that matter:
The grip of intrusive memory loosens
The body settles toward something like baseline calm more often
Relationships that previously felt impossible become possible
You stop needing the coping strategies that were keeping you alive but costing you
You begin to recognize yourself as someone with a history, rather than someone defined by it
Meaning becomes available where there was only pain
This is not the same as being "fixed." It is closer to being free.
Free yourself from the chains of the past!
It’s time to move from pain to purpose.
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation for trauma therapy online across Texas or in person in San Antonio.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
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Trauma, clinically, refers to the lasting response to overwhelming experience — not the event itself. A traumatic event is something that happened. Trauma is what remained: the way the nervous system, memory, relationships, and sense of self continue to organize around something that could not be metabolized when it happened. Two people can live through the same event and walk away carrying very different things. The clinical question is not what was bad enough; it is what stayed.
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Trauma can show up in different ways. You might feel anxious or easily startled. You find yourself avoiding activities you used to like. There are situations in which you are not comfortable anymore. You cannot trust others. It also shows up in behaviors that distract you from or cover up difficult emotions. If events of the past influence the way you act today in a way you don’t like, you probably have trauma.
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Trauma therapy is a type of treatment that helps people cope with the emotional and psychological effects of traumatic experiences, such as abuse, violence, or accidents. Depending on your situation and needs, I integrate different treatment modalities, like EMDR, EFT Tapping, parts work, mindfulness, written exposure, psychoeducation, and CBT.
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If you experience symptoms like flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, depression, or difficulty functioning in daily life due to a traumatic event, you may benefit from trauma therapy.
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Facing trauma can be painful. This is why it is important for you to let me know what you are ready for. You determine the speed and intensity. It is not necessary for you to talk about details of your trauma you are not comfortable talking about. There are ways for us to address your trauma without you having to talk about it and in small slices.
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No, not in the way that question often gets asked. Effective trauma therapy does not require detailed retelling of what happened. Some modalities — EMDR and Written Exposure in particular — work specifically by processing memory in ways that do not require you to narrate it in full to me. You set the pace, you decide what you are ready to touch, and there are ways to work with trauma in small, bearable slices. What matters is that the memory's grip changes, not that you describe it in detail.
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PTSD is the diagnostic category most often associated with discrete traumatic events — accidents, assaults, single-incident exposures. Complex trauma describes what tends to happen when traumatic experience was prolonged, repeated, and especially developmental — meaning it occurred during the years your sense of self was forming, often inside relationships that were supposed to keep you safe. Complex trauma typically includes the symptoms of PTSD plus broader difficulties in emotion regulation, self-perception, and relationships. The two often overlap, and many people carry both. A fuller treatment of the distinction is on the dedicated page: PTSD vs complex trauma.
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Yes, and this is one of the areas I work with most. It's common for long-buried patterns to become loud when life shifts. The good news is that the door has opened — and we can do the work now.
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EMDR is one tool used in trauma therapy. It is not the whole of trauma therapy, and it is not the only effective approach. I am EMDR-trained and use it where it fits — usually integrated with other approaches like Written Exposure, parts work, mindfulness-based methods, and the broader existential and depth-oriented frame I work within. The right approach depends on what you are carrying, what you are ready for, and what your nervous system can use right now.
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It depends on what kind of trauma we are working with and what you are coming for. Discrete-event PTSD can sometimes resolve in a relatively short course of EMDR or Written Exposure — sometimes a handful of sessions, sometimes a few months. Complex trauma is, by its nature, longer work; it involves not only processing memory but also reworking patterns that formed across years. I do not promise a number. I do promise that we will check in honestly, regularly, about whether the work is moving and what the work is asking for next.
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Yes. Trauma therapy has substantial research support across multiple modalities, including EMDR, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure, Written Exposure, and trauma-focused CBT. None of this means recovery is fast or linear. It does mean that the body of evidence supports something the work itself bears out: trauma is not a life sentence, and the grip of the past on the present can change. Whether it will help you depends in part on the fit of the work, the readiness of the moment, and the relationship we build together, which is part of why I offer the consultation before scheduling.
For fees, insurance, telehealth setup, and in-person availability, see the FAQs.
Further reading
The following sources are credible places to read more about trauma, recovery, and treatment. They are not affiliated with my practice; they are listed because they offer reliable, clinically informed information.
National Institute of Mental Health — PTSD. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd — For general readers: plain-language overview of PTSD, symptoms, and treatments from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.
APA Topics — Trauma. https://www.apa.org/topics/trauma — For general readers: psychological perspectives on trauma, recovery, and treatment.
SAMHSA — Trauma and Violence. https://www.samhsa.gov/trauma-violence — For general readers and families: U.S. federal resource on trauma's effects, recovery, and finding help.
The Sidran Institute. https://www.sidran.org/ — For survivors: long-standing nonprofit focused on traumatic stress education, including resources on dissociation and complex trauma.
CPTSD Foundation. https://cptsdfoundation.org/ — For people exploring complex trauma: peer-supported education and community focused on CPTSD recovery.
National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). https://www.nctsn.org/ — For families and parents:research-informed resources on the developmental impact of childhood trauma.
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS). https://istss.org/ — For clinicians, researchers, and serious learners: the leading international professional organization for traumatic stress.
move from pain to purpose
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move from pain to purpose —