Structured group and individual therapy several days a week, useful when symptoms are heavy or weekly sessions alone are not holding. You live at home throughout.
What we treat
Trauma and PTSD treatment
in Houston
Trauma can keep its grip long after the danger has passed, surfacing as flashbacks, sleepless nights, or a constant sense of being on guard. It is not weakness, and it does not have to be permanent. With the right support, the nervous system can learn to feel safe again, and we go at a pace that works for you.
Outpatient care in Montrose, Houston. Most major insurance accepted.
Understanding trauma and PTSD
When the alarm will not switch off
A traumatic event can overwhelm the mind, and sometimes the body keeps responding as though the danger is still here. That is the heart of post-traumatic stress: the event has passed, but the alarm has not turned off.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is more common than many people realize. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that about 3.6% of U.S. adults experience PTSD in a given year, and roughly 6.8% will at some point in their lives. It is more common in women than in men, and it can follow many kinds of overwhelming experience, not only combat.
Trauma takes many forms: a serious accident or medical event, physical or sexual assault, abuse, the sudden loss of someone close, combat, or childhood experiences that shaped how safe the world feels. Not everyone who lives through trauma develops PTSD. How the body responds depends on the event, on past experiences, and on the support around you. None of it is a personal failing, and none of it means you are stuck with it.
What it can look like
Common signs
and symptoms.
PTSD shows up differently from person to person, but its symptoms tend to fall into four groups. Most people recognize several of these at once.
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Re-experiencing the event
Flashbacks, intrusive memories, and recurring nightmares, along with intense physical or emotional reactions when something brings the trauma back. It can feel like the past is happening again in the present.
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Avoidance
Steering clear of the people, places, conversations, or reminders tied to what happened. The effort to not feel it can quietly narrow your world until daily life starts to shrink.
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Being on guard
Feeling keyed up and easily startled, trouble falling or staying asleep, irritability, and sudden anger. The nervous system stays braced for danger long after the danger has passed.
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Changes in mood and thinking
Emotional numbness, persistent guilt or shame, a bleak view of yourself or the world, and feeling cut off from the people you love. Interest in things you once enjoyed can fade.
When to reach out
When it may be time
for more support.
A hard reaction right after a trauma is normal. These are the signs that it has become something worth treating, and the sign that it cannot wait.
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Symptoms have lasted more than a month
A stress reaction in the days right after a trauma is normal and often eases on its own. When the flashbacks, avoidance, and being on edge stretch past a month, it is worth talking to someone.
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It is reaching into daily life
Trauma is affecting your sleep, your work or school, or your relationships, or you are pulling away from the people and routines that usually keep you steady.
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You are coping in ways that hurt
Leaning on alcohol or drugs, isolating, or taking risks to outrun the feelings. These bring short relief and tend to deepen the problem over time, and they respond well to real support.
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It is an emergency
Any thought of harming yourself, or of not wanting to be here, needs help right away. Call or text 988 or go to the nearest emergency room. Once you are safe, outpatient care can take over the ongoing work.
Our approach
How we treat
trauma and PTSD.
At The Lovett Center, trauma treatment is built around safety and pace. Care begins with a careful assessment, then we match the therapy and the level of structure to what you actually need, and we never push faster than you are ready to go.
The American Psychological Association recommends trauma-focused psychotherapies as the first-line treatment for PTSD, and that is where we begin. For many people the foundation is EMDR, which helps the brain reprocess a traumatic memory so it stops hijacking the present, often without a detailed retelling.
Our team includes clinicians who specialize in this work, such as Melanie Somerville, PhD, an EMDR therapist and attachment specialist. Alongside EMDR we draw on trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy and a steady trauma-informed approach across everything we do. When medication will help, our psychiatrists are part of the same plan.
Trauma can take time to work through, so we build for the long term: not just quieting the symptoms, but helping you feel safe in your own life again.
- A thorough clinical and psychiatric assessment
- Trauma-focused therapy, often EMDR or CBT
- Safety and pacing at every step
- Support for any co-occurring conditions
Treatment options
Where trauma treatment
can start.
Trauma and PTSD are treated successfully on an outpatient basis, with the intensity matched to the moment. More structure during an acute stretch, a steadier pace for the longer work. If you are not sure where to begin, we will help you figure it out.
Regular individual sessions and trauma-focused therapy at a steadier pace. For many people, this is where the longer work of processing trauma happens over time.
Our most intensive outpatient level: full days of structured treatment, with the freedom to go home each night. A way to stabilize during an acute stretch without an inpatient stay.
How we work
Therapies we use
for trauma and PTSD.
No single approach works for everyone. These are the ones we most often combine for trauma, matched to what fits you.
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Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
A structured, well-studied therapy that helps the brain reprocess a traumatic memory so it loses its charge. You do not have to recount every detail out loud for it to work.
EMDR for trauma -
Psychodynamic therapy
Depth-oriented work that helps you understand how trauma has shaped current patterns, alongside the trauma-focused methods at the center of your care.
About psychodynamic therapy -
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
Trauma-focused CBT, including exposure-based and cognitive processing approaches, helps you face what you have been avoiding at a safe pace and loosen the grip of trauma-driven beliefs.
CBT for PTSD -
Trauma-informed care
Less a single technique than the lens over everything we do: safety first, choice and pacing throughout, and an understanding that symptoms made sense as a way to survive.
Our trauma-informed approach -
Group therapy
Trauma is isolating, and it thrives on the belief that no one else could understand. A facilitated group is a place to be understood, lower the guard, and rebuild trust with others.
Explore group therapy
Common questions
Trauma and PTSD treatment,
answered.
Treatment starts with a thorough assessment of your history, your symptoms, and how trauma is affecting your life, before any of the trauma itself is touched. From there we build a plan that usually centers on a trauma-focused therapy such as EMDR or CBT, with the level of structure matched to what you need right now. Care is delivered on an outpatient basis through our outpatient program, intensive outpatient program, or partial hospitalization program, and you live at home throughout.
The therapies with the strongest evidence for trauma are the trauma-focused ones: EMDR and trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, including cognitive processing therapy and prolonged exposure. There is no single best fit for everyone, so we match the approach to you and the kind of trauma you carry, and we adjust as we go.
EMDR for traumaFor most people, trauma-focused psychotherapy is the most effective treatment for PTSD, sometimes paired with medication managed by a psychiatrist. The American Psychological Association strongly recommends approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy, cognitive processing therapy, and prolonged exposure, with EMDR also recommended. What matters most is that the therapy is trauma-focused and delivered at a pace that keeps you safe.
No. Healing from trauma does not require you to relive every detail out loud, and a good therapist never forces it. EMDR in particular works without a full retelling, and across every approach we move at your pace, building a sense of safety first so that processing the trauma never overwhelms you.
Post-traumatic stress symptoms, sometimes called PTSS, are the normal reactions almost anyone has in the days and weeks after a frightening event, and they often ease on their own. PTSD is the diagnosis when those symptoms persist beyond a month and keep interfering with daily life. The line between them is mostly about time and impact, which is why a professional assessment is the clearest way to know where you stand.
PTSD and bipolar disorder can look alike on the surface, since both can bring mood swings, irritability, and trouble sleeping, but they are different conditions with different causes. PTSD is rooted in a traumatic experience and its symptoms cluster around that trauma, while bipolar disorder involves distinct episodes of mania and depression that are not tied to a specific event. Because they are treated differently, a careful assessment to tell them apart matters.
About bipolar disorderIn many cases, yes. The Lovett Center is in network with major insurers including Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, Optum, Magellan, and TriWest, and we also work with out-of-network benefits and self-pay. Coverage varies by plan, so the surest way to know is to verify your benefits with us.
Verify your insuranceThat combination is common, because alcohol and drugs are a frequent way to quiet trauma symptoms, and treating one while ignoring the other rarely holds. Our dual diagnosis care addresses the trauma and the substance use together in a single, coordinated plan, so the two are not working against each other in recovery.
Dual diagnosis careYou are not alone
The past does not have to
define your present.
What happened to you was real. So is the possibility of healing.
When you are ready, a real person at The Lovett Center will listen and help you find the next step. No pressure, no commitment, just a conversation.
Every conversation is confidential. In a crisis, call or text 988 any time to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.