Therapy for Trauma

At Moving Forward Staying Present, we offer trauma therapy in Portland, Oregon for people carrying the impact of painful, overwhelming, frightening, or destabilizing experiences. We view the majority of Trauma as complex. 

Trauma can live in memory, in relationships, in the body, and in the ways we learn to move through the world. Sometimes trauma comes from a single event. Sometimes it grows from repeated experiences of fear, neglect, instability, rejection, or disconnection.

Many people seek trauma therapy when past experiences continue to shape how they feel, react, trust, protect themselves, or relate to others.

Trauma can show up as:

  • Feeling easily activated or shut down

  • Difficulty trusting others

  • Emotional numbness or disconnection

  • Panic, fear, anger, or overwhelm

  • Relationship patterns that feel hard to shift

  • Shame, self-blame, or harsh self-talk

  • Feeling on guard, even in safe situations

  • A sense that your body responds before your mind can catch up

  • Physiological hyper-arousal when confronted with thoughts or memories related to trauma 

  • Difficulty emotionally regulating

  • Emotional variability 

  • Flashbacks

  • Difficulty sleeping

  • Emotional flashback

  • Avoidance

  • Intrusive thoughts 

  • Physiological /psychological distress in response to stimuli

How Therapy Helps

Trauma therapy can help you build internal safety, understand your responses with more compassion, and develop tools for grounding and regulation. This work may also help you explore relationship patterns, reconnect with your body and emotions, and move toward more agency, self-trust, and connection.

You can begin with what is present now: your body, your relationships, your patterns, your questions, and your hopes for how life could feel.

Our Approach

Our therapists may draw from trauma-informed therapy, MBNET,  EMDR, somatic awareness, attachment-based work, narrative therapy, and relational therapy. Trauma work at MFSP is paced with care and guided by your nervous system, your goals, and the therapeutic relationship.

Our therapy office is located in the Sellwood neighborhood of SE Portland. We also offer telehealth across Oregon.

Ready to start your healing journey?Request a consult call.

If you’re looking for trauma-informed support, schedule a consult and we’ll help match you with a therapist who feels like the right fit.

Book a consult call

GETTING HERE

Location:

Our office is located in the Sellwood neighborhood of Southeast Portland at 8083 SE 13th Ave, Suites 2 & 4. Your therapist will specify which suite they are in. Come on upstairs to the second floor, but please keep in mind we are not ADA accessible.

Parking:

There is plenty of free street parking in front of the building as well as in the lot in the back of the building, just behind OnPoint Credit Union (13th and Tacoma St). Park in a spot NOT labeled OnPoint Credit Union and walk up the stairs at the back of the building. Find your Suite: 2 or 4.

Public Transport:

From downtown

  • Take the southbound #40 bus towards Tacoma, get off at SE Tacoma & 13th, or

  • Take the southbound MAX orange line towards Milwaukie, get off at SE Bybee Blvd and transfer to the northbound #40 bus towards Swan Island. Get off at SE Tacoma & 13th.

From Concordia, Grant Park, Buckman, Hosford-Abernathy, etc.

  • Take the southbound #70 bus towards Milwaukie, get off at SE 17th & Tacoma. Walk four blocks west to SE 13th & Tacoma.

  • From anywhere else:

  • Google Maps can provide useful routes that include bus schedules.

By Bike:

From anywhere along the Willamette

  • Take the Willamette Greenway Trail along the river to the Sellwood Bridge, cross the bridge and take Tacoma St to SE Tacoma & 13th.

  • Take the Springwater on the Willamette, turn off and take Spokane St to Spokane & 13th.

From anywhere else