Trauma Therapy in Austin, TX

Evidence-based care for PTSD, complex trauma, anxiety, and grief — without being rushed.

If you're searching for trauma therapy in Austin, you're likely already carrying more than most people realize. Maybe a single event keeps replaying in your mind. Maybe the past is showing up in your body, your relationships, or your sleep. Maybe you've been "fine" for a long time, and lately fine has stopped working.

Haven & Harbor Counseling is a small, intentional practice in Austin focused on doing trauma therapy well. The work is unhurried, evidence-based, and shaped to your nervous system. You stay in control of what you share, when you share it, and how fast we move.

Brittany Zientek, LPC, has eight years of clinical experience treating PTSD, complex trauma, anxiety, and relationship concerns using EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Trauma-Focused CBT. Faith is welcome when you want it; the work stands on its own when you don't.

What kind of trauma we treat

Trauma is not one thing. The therapy that helps a car accident is different from the therapy that helps childhood neglect, and both differ from the therapy that helps spiritual abuse. Brittany works with all of these.

PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)

Symptoms that show up after a discrete event: car accidents, assault, medical trauma, a sudden loss, military or first-responder exposure, witnessing violence. PTSD often looks like flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, avoidance, and a nervous system that can't quite tell the difference between then and now.

EMDR is a first-line treatment for single-incident PTSD, recommended by the APA, the WHO, and the VA. Many clients see meaningful improvement in 8–12 sessions.

Complex trauma (C-PTSD)

Ongoing experiences — usually beginning in childhood — that shape how the nervous system, the sense of self, and relationships develop. Emotional neglect, abuse, family dysfunction, attachment wounds, growing up in a high-conflict or high-control home. Complex trauma rarely looks like a single memory. It looks like patterns: chronic shame, people-pleasing, difficulty trusting, a fragile sense of self, anxiety that has no obvious cause.

Complex trauma takes longer than single-incident trauma — typically several months of stabilization before deeper memory work, and often a year or more of overall therapy. IFS is especially well-suited for this work, because it honors the protective parts of you that helped you survive.

Religious and spiritual trauma

Church hurt, spiritual abuse, high-control religious environments, manipulative leaders, and the long shadow they leave on your faith, body, and relationships. This work requires a therapist who can hold both the psychological and the spiritual without weaponizing either. Brittany does. Learn more about our approach to Christian counseling →.

Trauma-related anxiety and grief

Chronic anxiety, panic, hypervigilance, and complicated grief that traces back to earlier wounds. Many adults walking into therapy with anxiety as the presenting issue are actually walking in with untreated trauma. Sometimes the most direct path to peace runs through the past.

How we work — three evidence-based modalities

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

EMDR helps the brain finish processing memories that still feel raw. Through bilateral stimulation — typically eye movements or light tapping — your brain is able to integrate stuck memories into your broader life story, so they stop hijacking the present.

EMDR has more clinical research behind it than almost any trauma treatment. It is a first-line PTSD treatment recommended by the APA, the WHO, and the VA. It works in-person and via telehealth (with small adjustments). Learn more about EMDR therapy →.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

IFS understands you as a system of "parts" — the protective part that doesn't trust people, the perfectionist part that drives you, the wounded part that learned to stay quiet. None of these parts are bad. They learned to keep you safe.

In IFS, we get to know each of those parts with curiosity rather than fight them. The protective parts can step back. The wounded parts can be tended to. Over time, the system reorganizes around the Self — calm, compassionate, present. IFS is especially powerful for complex trauma. Learn more about IFS →.

Trauma-Focused CBT

Structured, well-researched cognitive-behavioral work that gently restructures the thoughts and beliefs trauma left behind ("I'm not safe," "I'm too much," "It was my fault"). Brittany pairs it with traditional CBT, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), and solution-focused brief therapy depending on what your nervous system needs.

What a course of trauma therapy looks like

We follow the phase-based model that's standard in trauma treatment. You stay in control at every stage.

Phase 1 — Stabilization. Before any memory work, we build resources: tools for nervous-system regulation, grounding, safety planning, and a clearer sense of what we're working with. For some clients this takes a few sessions; for others, several months. There's no rush.

Phase 2 — Reprocessing. Using EMDR and/or IFS, we work through the memories and parts that drive current symptoms. This is the part most people imagine when they think of "trauma therapy," but it only happens after stabilization is solid.

Phase 3 — Integration. We translate the shifts into your daily life — relationships, work, faith, body, identity. The wins stick because they're integrated.

Throughout, you decide what to share and when. Trauma therapy that retraumatizes is bad trauma therapy. We don't do that here.

Practical details — insurance, cost, location

In-network with most major plans

Through Headway, Brittany is in-network with Aetna, Cigna, United Healthcare, Oscar, Oxford, and Anthem. Most clients with these plans see therapy covered with a standard copay.

Self-pay rates

Self-pay sessions are $130–$225 depending on session type. Superbills are available for out-of-network reimbursement. See the full cost of therapy in Austin →.

Office location

The Austin office is at 6448 East Hwy 290, Ste E108, Austin, TX 78723. Easy parking, quiet waiting area, no walk-by traffic.

Telehealth across Texas

EMDR and IFS work well via secure telehealth platforms, with small adjustments. Telehealth is available for any client physically located in Texas at the time of session.

Meet your therapist

Brittany Zientek, LPC — Licensed Professional Counselor in Texas, eight years of clinical experience in trauma, anxiety, PTSD, and relationship concerns. Trained in EMDR, IFS, Trauma-Focused CBT, CBT, MBCT, and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.

Warm, collaborative, and committed to going at your pace. Faith-friendly without being faith-required.

More about Brittany →