Therapy Services

Trauma Therapy in Atlanta, GA

Heal from the past. Reclaim your present. Rediscover yourself.

Individual Therapy, Trauma EMDR Therapy. In person in Atlanta GA and Online in GA, FL, SC & NC

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trauma therapy

How trauma affects your life?

Trauma always tells you something negative about yourself. "You're not good enough, You're unworthy, You're unlovable, You're not smart...etc." As a result of these hidden messages, you find ways to over-compensate for these lies. Maybe you give more in your friendships than you receive and continue to find yourself in one-sided relationships! Maybe you became a perfectionist and are the best at what you do, but still, feel inadequate and anxious. Has trauma said you are not smart, despite excelling at your job or school? Maybe you shrink yourself or put yourself in a box and allow your talents to go unnoticed?

When the effects of trauma strikes, it can often happen when you least expect it. Sometimes years have passed then suddenly you are riddled with anxiety or depression. You feel triggered by relatively benign things...Your partner, kids, relationships and job are all sources of triggers. Consider what it would feel like to live without the burden of trauma!

Is The Past Still Shaping Your Present?

Do painful memories intrude when you least expect them, leaving you anxious, on edge, or numb?
Do you find yourself reacting to your partner, your kids, or your work in ways that feel bigger than the moment calls for?
Have you learned to push difficult experiences down, only to feel them resurface in your sleep, your body, or your relationships?
Do you wish you could finally feel safe, settled, and like yourself again?

Trauma has a way of staying with us long after the event is over. You may have told yourself it “wasn’t that bad,” or that you should be over it by now. But trauma isn’t measured by how an experience looks from the outside — it’s measured by how it lived in your body and nervous system. When something overwhelms our ability to cope, the brain stores it differently, and it can keep firing off alarm bells years later.

If you are carrying something heavy, you don’t have to carry it alone. With trauma therapy, you can learn to quiet those alarms, make sense of what happened, and feel grounded in your own life again.

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Healing your trauma

You Are Not Broken! And You Are Not Alone

If you are struggling, please know that what you’re experiencing is far more common than you might think. Roughly six percent of U.S. adults will experience post-traumatic stress disorder at some point in their lives, and the rate is even higher for women, at around eight percent.¹ Many more people live with the effects of trauma without ever meeting the full criteria for a diagnosis.

Trauma doesn’t only come from a single catastrophic event. It can grow out of childhood experiences, loss, medical events, a difficult birth or postpartum season, betrayal in a relationship, or years of chronic stress. However it began, the nervous system responds in similar ways — hypervigilance, avoidance, shutdown, or feeling disconnected from the people you love.

Why Trauma Lingers

When we feel threatened, the thinking part of the brain steps back and the survival part takes over. That’s helpful in the moment, but it can leave memories “stuck” — unprocessed and easily triggered. The good news is that the brain is built to heal. With the right support, those stuck experiences can be processed and filed away where they belong: in the past. With compassionate, experienced trauma therapy, you can move from simply surviving to genuinely living again.

Trauma Doesn't Always Look Like PTSD…

Many people don't realize these experiences may be connected to unresolved trauma.

Sometimes trauma looks like:

✓ Constant overthinking

✓ Perfectionism

✓ Anxiety that won't turn off

✓ Feeling emotionally numb

✓ People pleasing

✓ Difficulty trusting others

✓ Panic attacks

✓ Always expecting the worst

✓ Feeling responsible for everyone else's emotions

✓ Struggling to feel "good enough"

✓ Emotional overwhelm

✓ Relationship patterns you can't seem to change

I’m Kaara Kiddoe, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a master’s degree in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I’ve spent the last ten years specializing in trauma and EMDR, walking alongside people as they reclaim their lives from the past. I’ve seen again and again that healing is possible — even when it has felt out of reach for years.

Kaara Kiddoe

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Trauma Therapy Helps You Heal At The Root

My approach to trauma therapy is gentle, paced, and rooted in your sense of safety. We begin by helping you feel stable and resourced — learning tools to calm your nervous system so that healing never feels overwhelming. Only when you’re ready do we turn toward the experiences that brought you here.

I draw heavily on EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), one of the most well-researched trauma treatments available, alongside an emotionally focused, attachment-based lens that honors how trauma shows up in your closest relationships. You can read more about how I use EMDR therapy to help the brain reprocess painful memories.

In our sessions, we’ll move at your pace. Some weeks we’ll build coping skills and stability. Other weeks we’ll gently process specific memories so they lose their grip. Throughout, my goal is for you to feel less reactive, more present, and more connected — to yourself and to the people who matter most.

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Are you ready to

heal your trauma?

Do you want to learn how to manage your triggers and emotions? Are you ready to restore balance in your life? I can teach you the skills to reclaim your life and find peace you deserve!

Healing is possible, and you don’t have to figure it out alone. If you’re ready to feel safe and settled in your own life again, I’d be honored to help. To get started with trauma therapy in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, or North Carolina, please complete the New Client Inquiry form and I’ll be in touch to talk about next steps.

What you need to know

Please note I currently do not accept insurance and I am considered an out-of-network provider. If your insurance has out-of-network benefits for mental health, I can provide you with a Superbill for you to seek reimbursement with you insurance. You are also welcomed to use your HSA or FSA card for your sessions. Payments for sessions are made with a debit or credit card.
Please note, Authentic Marriages requires 48 hours notice to cancel or reschedule a session otherwise a cancellation fee is charged at the rate of your full session fee.
It’s a fair worry. We never rush into painful material. We spend real time building safety and stability first, and we only approach difficult memories when you feel ready and resourced. Processing trauma in a supported, intentional way is very different from being ambushed by it alone …the goal is relief, not re-injury.
No. One of the things people appreciate about EMDR-based trauma therapy is that you don’t have to narrate every detail to heal. Trauma lives in the body and the nervous system, and much of the work happens there. You stay in control of what you share and when.
Whether something happened three months or thirty years ago, it can still be processed and healed. The brain’s capacity to heal doesn’t expire. Many of the clients I work with came in convinced they were a hopeless case — and found real relief.

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