Online Trauma Therapy in Texas
Shruti Surya Ph.D. Licensed psychologist. 15 years of experience treating trauma
What is Trauma?
Trauma is your mind and body’s response to an event that overwhelmed your ability to cope. The reactions you’re having, the tension, the mood swings, the exhaustion, are a normal response to an abnormal event.
If those reactions are running your life, online trauma therapy can help you understand them and loosen their grip.
How trauma shows up in your body and mind
Trauma doesn’t stay in the past, and it doesn’t stay in your head. After a stressful event, or a series of them, you might notice:
- Feeling wired, tense, or on guard without knowing why
- Low mood, tearfulness, or a flatness you can’t shake
- Getting irritated or angry in situations that never used to bother you
- Mood that swings widely, fine one minute, overwhelmed the next
- Exhaustion that sleep doesn’t fix
- Physical changes: pain, trouble sleeping, brain fog
- Losing interest in your hobbies, your work, your relationships
- Feeling different about yourself than you used to
Normal Response to an Abnormal Event
If you experience any of these symptoms, I will let you in on something: all of these reactions are a normal response to an abnormal event. Yes, you read that right. These are completely normal responses to an event that is abnormal. It is very important to know that the reactions you are having is your brain and nervous system doing what they can to keep you protected, safe, and functioning. Right now, your brain and body are doing exactly what they should be.
How trauma therapy works
Our work together starts here. Trauma work is often best started with education. It is important you understand what and why you are experiencing what you are. It sounds cliché, but it’s the truth, knowledge is power.
Knowledge helps shift the power balance from the difficult experience back to you, where it belongs. We then help you master a foundational set of coping tools for your mood and overall wellbeing.
Lastly, we work to unravel your experience of the stressful life event in a way that is more balanced and less impactful on your current life.
In Texas, I’m in-network with Aetna and Carelon Behavioral Health, and many out-of-network plans reimburse a share of the cost. See Insurance & Rates for details.
Approaches I Use
How we work depends on what you need and what you’re ready for. Some people want a structured protocol with a clear arc. Others need to go slower, and that’s a legitimate choice, not a lesser one.
For those interested, I’m trained in two structured, evidence-based trauma protocols:
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) focuses on the beliefs that formed around what happened, about yourself, other people, and safety, and tests whether they still hold. It runs on a defined structure over a set number of sessions.
Prolonged Exposure (PE) works by gradually and safely approaching the memories and situations you’ve been avoiding, so they lose their grip. We move at a pace you set.
I also draw on mindfulness and body-based practices, which matter with trauma because so much of it lives in the nervous system rather than in words.
What trauma therapy will help you do
- Understand your reactions to trauma such that you become less afraid of them. The power goes back to you.
- Learn how your trauma manifests in your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, allowing you to be more present within your life and relationships.
- Create more safety within yourself such that you can better regulate the ups and down of your mood
- Unravel imbalanced beliefs caused by the trauma and replace them with beliefs that are more grounded, centered, and compassionate.
- Use somatic and body-based practices to connect with deeper emotional states in a safe and contained method.
- Feel unstuck from your past and move forward with growth and hope.
When Trauma Shows Up Alongside Other Things
Trauma often arrives with company. Anxiety that won’t switch off. Depression that settled in months or years later. Sleep that never came back. If you’re dealing with more than one of these, that’s expected, and we’d work on them together rather than treating them as separate problems.
Trauma also lives in the body. Chronic pain and chronic illness frequently coexist with a history of trauma, and a nervous system stuck on high alert makes physical symptoms harder to live with. This overlap is a core part of my practice.
Starting trauma therapy in Texas
I deeply and personally understand the often difficult nature of trauma work. It is personal, vulnerable, and sometimes scary. Trauma does not happen in isolation. So your healing doesn’t have to either.
My role as your therapist is to walk beside you and guide you as you work at your own pace. Our work together will integrate effective research based tools, theories, and techniques with real human connection and conversations.
If you’re ready, even just curious about taking the next step, contact me to schedule a free consultation.
About Dr. Surya
I’m Shruti Surya Ph.D., a licensed psychologist with 15 years of experience working with chronic illness and chronic pain. Texas license #38571.
I’ve spent most of my career at the intersection of physical health and mental health, and I’ve seen how often people with chronic conditions get handed a referral for “the stress” when what they need is someone who understands what they’re actually managing. I won’t ask you to prove your symptoms are real. We start from the assumption that they are.
I see adults individually, by telehealth only.
Insurance, Rates, and Where I Practice
I’m in-network in Texas with Aetna and Carelon Behavioral Health. BCBS, United, and Medicare are in progress.
Cash rates are $165 for a 60-minute session and $225 for 90 minutes. If you’re using out-of-network benefits, I provide superbills you can submit for reimbursement.
Through PSYPACT, I’m authorized to practice in 43 states – those sessions are cash-pay.
Learn more about insurance and rates on my insurance page.
There IS a better way.
You deserve to feel grounded in your body and connected to your life – not just functional.
As your therapist, I’ll support you with empathy, honesty, and the tools you need to feel more like yourself again. If you’re ready to live your life with more clarity and strength, not just survive it, I’d love to connect.
Please see the trauma page on my blog for more articles on the physical side of anxiety, why it becomes chronic, and what helps.
Frequently Asked Questions About Trauma Therapy
Not before you’re ready, and not in more detail than the work requires. Some approaches involve going back through the event directly; others don’t. We’d decide together, and you can tell me at any point that something is too much.
Plenty of people come in unsure. Trauma isn’t defined by how bad an event looks from the outside — it’s about whether it overwhelmed your ability to cope. If your reactions are affecting your life, that’s reason enough to talk.
The structured protocols run a defined number of sessions. Less structured work varies. We’d set goals early and check progress as we go.
Research finds teletherapy comparable to in-person care for trauma, including for structured protocols. Many people also find it easier to do this work from a space where they already feel safe.
That happens, and it’s worth telling me early. Sometimes it’s a matter of pacing, sometimes of fit. Knowing what went wrong before helps us avoid repeating it.
In Texas, I’m in-network with Aetna and Carelon Behavioral Health. See Insurance & Rates for current information.