Trauma & somatic therapy
for adults, children,
and families.
Trauma rarely stays in the past. It settles into the body and, often, into a family, shaping how people brace, withdraw, and care for one another long after the original harm. Our clinicians use EMDR, parts work, and somatic approaches to help adults, children, and families set down what they have been carrying, at a pace that feels safe and with the whole person in view. This is the work we care most about.
Why the body
Trauma lives in the nervous system.
Many people arrive in therapy already understanding their history well. They can name what happened and why it mattered, and still find themselves bracing, shutting down, or reacting in ways that feel out of proportion to the moment. That gap between knowing and feeling is where trauma tends to live.
The nervous system learns from experience. After threat, it stays organized around threat: scanning, tightening, going quiet. Talk alone rarely retrains it. Somatic therapy works with sensation, breath, movement, and pacing so the body can learn, in real time, that the danger has passed.
Trauma also travels between generations.
Families carry more than stories. Patterns of silence, overwork, vigilance, and emotional distance often trace back to migration, war, poverty, or discrimination that earlier generations survived without the chance to process. Children absorb these patterns long before anyone explains them.
Kinnection has a particular focus on intergenerational trauma in BIPOC and immigrant families. Our clinicians bring lived experience of these dynamics as well as clinical training, and the work is explicitly culturally responsive: historical and racial trauma are treated as real, not as background noise.
How the work happens.
EMDR / Parts work
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) helps the brain reprocess memories that remain stuck in a raw, unfinished state. It is one of the most researched treatments for PTSD and is effective for single-incident trauma as well as for the layered, chronic experiences that build up over years. Alongside EMDR, parts work treats the mind as a system of parts that took on protective roles during hard times. Rather than fighting anxiety or shutdown, the aim is to understand what each part is protecting and to lead from a steadier place. The two approaches reinforce each other: parts work builds the internal stability that makes EMDR processing possible, and EMDR resolves what parts have been guarding.
Somatic and nervous-system regulation
Deep trauma processing is one half of this work. The other half is helping people feel physically better, day to day. Chronic activation shows up as tight shoulders, shallow breath, poor sleep, a stomach that never quite settles. Sessions attend to breath, muscle tension, posture, and the impulse to move or freeze, and teach regulation skills that lower the baseline: a body that is calmer, more present, and easier to live in. Regulation comes first, so that deeper processing, when it comes, is manageable rather than overwhelming.
Family and parent work
For children and teens, the work uses play, movement, and expressive approaches, with parents involved as partners. Family sessions address the patterns the whole system is holding, so that change is supported at home and not only in the room.
Who this is for.
- Adults with complex or childhood trauma, including experiences that are hard to name or that seem too small to count
- Children ages 5 and up, teens, and families working through trauma, loss, or disruption
- First-generation and immigrant families navigating inherited patterns and cultural expectations
- BIPOC clients carrying racial trauma, code-switching fatigue, or the cost of moving through predominantly white spaces
- Parents who want to interrupt a pattern rather than pass it on
- High-functioning people who appear fine and feel worn down underneath
Common questions
Questions people ask
before starting.
What is somatic therapy, and how is it different from talk therapy?
Somatic therapy works with the body’s stress responses directly rather than through discussion alone. Trauma is stored in the nervous system as much as in memory, which is why insight on its own often leaves symptoms unchanged. Sessions include attention to breath, sensation, posture, and pacing alongside conversation.
Do you offer EMDR in Pasadena and Los Angeles?
Yes. EMDR is offered at both the Pasadena office and the Larchmont Village office, and by telehealth for clients anywhere in California.
What is intergenerational trauma?
Patterns of fear, silence, overwork, or emotional distance that pass from one generation to the next, often without anyone naming them. In immigrant and BIPOC families these patterns are frequently tied to migration, war, poverty, or discrimination that earlier generations survived. Therapy focuses on recognizing the pattern and choosing what to carry forward.
Do you work with children as well as adults?
Yes. Kinnection works with children ages five and up, teens, adults, and families. Work with children draws on play, movement, and nervous-system regulation, with parents involved as partners in the process.
Is trauma therapy covered by insurance?
Kinnection is in network with Aetna, Cigna/Evernorth, Optum/UnitedHealthcare, Blue Shield of California, Carelon, LA Care, and Medi-Cal. Benefits are verified before the first session. A sliding scale is available for clients paying out of pocket.
How long does trauma therapy take?
It depends on history, goals, and how the nervous system responds to the work. Single-incident trauma often resolves in a shorter course of EMDR. Complex and intergenerational trauma is usually longer-term, with early sessions focused on stabilization before any processing begins.
Related
The first step is
just a call.
A free 15-minute consultation to talk through what is bringing someone in, answer questions about EMDR or somatic work, and see whether Kinnection is the right fit.