Going Home for the Holidays When You're in Trauma Recovery: A Survival Guide
Should you go home for the holidays when you're in trauma recovery? A trauma therapist's honest survival guide, from the decision to the morning after.
- The Decision You've Been Dreading Since October
- What "Going Home" Actually Means When You're in Recovery
- The Neuroscience of Exposure: Why This Visit Isn't Neutral
- How Driven Women in Recovery Navigate This Decision
- The Therapeutic Risk Assessment: Is This Visit a Titrated Exposure or an Overwhelm?
- Both/And: You Can Be Committed to Your Recovery and Still Choose to Go Home
- The Systemic Lens: Why Staying Home Feels Like Failure When It Might Be Protection
- Your Pre-Visit Protocol: What to Do in the Two Weeks Before You Go
- Frequently Asked Questions
The Decision You’ve Been Dreading Since October
Maya sits cross-legged on her therapist’s worn rug, the late afternoon sun casting long shadows. It is October once more,her third year in trauma therapy,and the familiar knot tightens in her stomach. “Am I going home for Christmas?” she whispers. Her therapist, a steady presence through years of complex family work, listens quietly. This question returns each fall, layered with hope, fear, and unresolved pain. Maya’s progress is undeniable, yet the emotional weight of this decision remains,a recurring crucible shaped by the evolving terrain of her healing journey.
For women actively engaged in trauma recovery, deciding whether to return home for the holidays is a clinical crossroads. It demands more than surface planning. Unlike those who have yet to confront familial wounds, trauma survivors face potential exposure to relational dynamics still raw and in flux. The holiday visit is not simply a social event; it is a potential trigger, an encounter with primary wounds that require careful navigation.
This decision’s emotional resonance shifts as the woman herself changes. Each year brings a new internal landscape,nervous system regulation, relational boundaries, and therapeutic resources evolve. What seemed unbearable last year might feel manageable now, or the reverse. The stakes feel higher precisely because healing remains active and vulnerable. Maya’s experience highlights this complexity: her gains bring new insights but also a deeper awareness of her family’s unpredictability.
Clinically, this decision calls for a nuanced appraisal of internal and external factors. It involves assessing nervous system regulation, availability of post-visit support, and any structural shifts within the family system. Central to this is evaluating capacity for titrated exposure,a concept emphasized in trauma therapy models such as Diana Fosha, PhD’s Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) and Pat Ogden, PhD’s Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. These approaches focus on encountering trauma material in measured doses to stay within the window of tolerance and avoid overwhelm.
Titrated Exposure
In trauma therapy, titrated exposure refers to the carefully calibrated process of facing trauma-related memories, emotions, or relational dynamics in small, manageable increments. This approach helps prevent re-traumatization by keeping the nervous system within a window of tolerance where healing can occur.
Kitchen-table translation: It’s like testing the waters slowly and steadily, so you don’t get overwhelmed and can stay in control of your feelings and reactions.
For Maya and many others, deciding whether to go home for the holidays unfolds over weeks or months. It involves consultation with therapists, reflection on emotional and physical resilience, and consideration of specific family dynamics. This question becomes less a yes-or-no dilemma and more an ongoing negotiation balancing connection with safety and self-care.
Recognizing this context is essential for trauma survivors facing the holiday season. It reframes the visit as a therapeutic exposure event rather than a neutral social obligation. Awareness of the stakes allows for compassionate self-regard and a strategic, clinically informed approach. This understanding is the foundation for the practical guidance and compassionate validation that follow in this survival guide.
What “Going Home” Actually Means When You’re in Recovery
For those engaged in trauma recovery, deciding to “go home” for the holidays is rarely a straightforward choice. Home often represents the original source of relational wounds and ongoing emotional challenges. When working through trauma in therapy, returning to that environment becomes a charged experience, directly engaging with the very wounds you are striving to heal.
Diana Fosha, PhD, developer of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), reminds us that trauma recovery is a dynamic process of integration rather than a fixed state. “Going home” is not neutral; it can reactivate unresolved relational dynamics that your nervous system continues to process. Protective strategies must therefore be grounded in your current recovery status, not an idealized past self.
TRAUMA RECOVERY
Trauma recovery is the active, ongoing process through which individuals integrate painful or overwhelming experiences into their sense of self and relational world. It involves building new capacities for regulation, connection, and meaning-making over time,often with therapeutic support,and is not a fixed destination but a dynamic journey.
Kitchen-table translation: Healing from trauma is like piecing together your story a little at a time, learning to live with the pain without it controlling you, and growing stronger step by step.
Unlike those not engaged in recovery, trauma survivors in therapy approach “going home” as a live relational experiment. It tests how much the nervous system can tolerate while progressing toward healing. This visit is not simply a family gathering but a therapeutic exposure to the primary wound unfolding in real time.
Pat Ogden, PhD, founder of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, highlights the body’s role in holding implicit memories of trauma. These often appear as somatic patterns influencing emotional and behavioral responses. Returning home can trigger these somatic memories,sometimes subtly, such as muscle tension or altered breathing, and sometimes through emotional flooding or dissociation. Awareness of these cues is vital to grasping what “going home” means in trauma recovery.
Because “home” remains tied to early relational patterns, protections during visits must align with your current therapeutic capacity. This includes setting clear boundaries, having an exit plan, and engaging support systems,all tailored to your present window of tolerance. The decision must consider both external circumstances and internal regulatory resources.
For example, Maya’s experience in her third year of trauma therapy illustrates this complexity. Despite significant progress, the question “Should I go home for Christmas?” returns annually with fresh emotional weight. Her therapist, well-versed in her family dynamics, helps her evaluate whether the visit can be a manageable exposure that fosters growth or a risk for retraumatization.
“Home” is rarely static. Family dynamics, individual emotional states, and your recovery evolve over time. What felt unbearable before may now be tolerable,or the reverse. This fluidity demands that decisions about going home be revisited each season with clinical clarity rather than relying on past assumptions.
Ultimately, “going home” during trauma recovery is an intentional, clinical choice. It requires clear-eyed assessment of your healing journey, honest appraisal of relational realities, and a practical plan to support your nervous system. This approach honors both the risks and the potential therapeutic value of returning to that foundational environment.
The Neuroscience of Exposure: Why This Visit Isn’t Neutral
Returning home for the holidays during trauma recovery is not a neutral experience but an exposure event that deeply engages your nervous system. Diana Fosha, PhD, a clinical psychologist and developer of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), highlights the importance of titrated exposure. This approach involves introducing emotionally charged family dynamics in measured, manageable doses that your nervous system can regulate. If the intensity surpasses your capacity, the visit risks retraumatization rather than healing.
Pat Ogden, PhD, founder of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, offers a somatic lens on this process. She explains how trauma is stored in the body and emphasizes somatic resourcing,engaging bodily sensations to cultivate safety before and during exposure. This practice helps maintain your window of tolerance, the zone where distress can be processed without triggering overwhelm or shutdown. The holiday visit is thus a complex interplay between your nervous system’s current regulation and the relational stressors present in the family environment.
Titrated Exposure
Titrated exposure refers to the deliberate and measured introduction of emotionally challenging stimuli or situations in a way that keeps the individual within their window of tolerance. This method allows for incremental processing and integration of difficult material without triggering overwhelming distress or retraumatization.
Kitchen-table translation: Think of it as slowly turning up the heat rather than jumping into a boiling pot. Your nervous system needs to be able to handle the intensity without shutting down or going into fight-or-flight.
Clinically, your visit can either support growth or provoke overwhelm. For example, Maya,a client working through family trauma,finds that entering the visit with somatic tools like grounding exercises and clear boundaries enables her nervous system to engage repair processes. This fosters safe activation of attachment systems, allowing her to process old wounds with curiosity rather than fear. Without these resources, or if she arrives dysregulated, the visit can push her outside her window of tolerance, eliciting dissociation or emotional flooding. These responses are adaptive nervous system reactions, not personal failings.
Stephen Porges, PhD, a neurobiologist and originator of Polyvagal Theory, elucidates how the autonomic nervous system toggles between states of safety and defense. In a family setting layered with relational trauma, ambiguous safety cues may cause your physiology to default to protective modes. This limits authentic engagement and the potential benefits of exposure.
Preparation is crucial. Assess your regulatory capacity before deciding to go home. Ensure access to therapeutic support, trusted containment figures, and practical strategies to re-center if dysregulation occurs. The visit’s impact depends on how effectively your nervous system can metabolize the exposure. Approaching this event with clinical clarity shifts the question from “Can I survive this?” to “How can I engage this exposure in a way that supports my recovery?” This subtle but essential reframing is central to trauma-informed holiday survival.
For more on navigating family-related trauma, see Surviving Family Events and Relational Trauma.
How Driven Women in Recovery Navigate This Decision
Priya, a hospital administrator in trauma therapy for eighteen months, approaches the decision to visit family during the holidays with a clinical precision familiar to many women managing recovery alongside demanding roles. She creates spreadsheets, lists criteria, and consults regularly with her therapist. This methodical process reflects her effort to balance risk and resilience, considering emotional regulation, therapy progress, family dynamics, and post-visit support.
Over-Intellectualization
Over-intellectualization is a psychological defense mechanism where an individual focuses excessively on logic and analysis to avoid processing emotional experience. In trauma recovery, it can manifest as an attempt to control uncertainty through detailed planning or excessive information gathering, sometimes at the expense of attending to bodily or affective signals.
Kitchen-table translation: It’s when your brain tries to keep you safe by turning feelings into checklists and charts, but your heart is still waiting for an answer it can’t quite find.
Priya’s analytical framework aligns with Diana Fosha, PhD’s Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy, which emphasizes titrated exposure,engaging with difficult experiences in manageable doses. Yet, this intellectual rigor can also mask emotional ambivalence. Pat Ogden, PhD, founder of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, underscores the importance of somatic awareness in recovery, encouraging attention to bodily sensations that indicate readiness for emotionally charged encounters. Priya’s therapist supports her in tracking these somatic cues alongside cognitive evaluations.
Despite careful planning, some decisions remain emotionally complex. Priya may recognize that her nervous system is within her window of tolerance and supports are in place, yet still experience deep hesitation tied to unresolved attachment wounds. Clinical wisdom suggests embracing this tension rather than rushing to resolve it. Trauma recovery is rarely linear, and some choices resist full rationalization.
This moment marks a threshold between cognitive processing and emotional integration. It invites women like Priya to lean into uncertainty and practice self-compassion. Navigating this terrain with intention and acceptance preserves agency, moving beyond a false binary of “right” or “wrong” decisions. For those who see themselves reflected in Priya’s story, this experience affirms that wrestling with complexity signals engaged, embodied healing. To explore further, see the related guide on surviving family events with relational trauma.
The Therapeutic Risk Assessment: Is This Visit a Titrated Exposure or an Overwhelm?
When navigating trauma recovery, deciding whether to go home for the holidays transcends logistics. It requires a clinical evaluation of your nervous system’s capacity to engage safely with a potentially charged relational environment. Diana Fosha, PhD, the developer of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), underscores the importance of titrated exposure,a carefully calibrated interaction with trauma-related material that promotes healing without retraumatization. Pat Ogden, PhD, founder of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, similarly stresses somatic regulation as essential to managing exposure to activating stimuli. Below are five assessment questions to help you determine if the visit will remain within your window of tolerance or risk overwhelm.
First, assess your current nervous system state. Are you grounded or already dysregulated? If you have been experiencing anxiety, intrusive memories, or somatic distress before the trip, your nervous system may not be ready for further activation. Ogden’s Sensorimotor Psychotherapy teaches that entering triggering environments without adequate somatic resourcing can deepen shutdown or hyperarousal, hindering recovery.
Second, do you have a strong post-visit support system? This includes scheduled therapy sessions immediately after the visit, a recovery day to process your experience, and trusted witnesses who can hold your emotional state without judgment. Without these supports, even a manageable visit can become destabilizing as emotional residue accumulates.
Third, consider recent changes in the family system. Have new conflicts, unresolved tensions, or boundary violations emerged? For example, the presence of a previously estranged relative or recent betrayals can heighten emotional risk and require adjusting your exposure dose.
Fourth, clarify your exit strategy. Do you have concrete options if the visit becomes overwhelming? This might mean leaving early, staying elsewhere, or having a support person available. A clear exit plan preserves agency and reduces feelings of entrapment.
Finally, reflect on your motivation. Are you choosing this visit from a place of empowerment aligned with your recovery goals, or from obligation or guilt? Agency supports resilience; obligation often increases vulnerability to overwhelm.
| Assessment Question | Clinical Considerations | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Nervous System State | Is your nervous system within your window of tolerance or already activated? | Feeling calm and centered vs. experiencing intrusive memories before travel |
| 2. Post-Visit Support | Are therapy sessions and recovery time scheduled? Is there a trusted witness? | Booked therapy the day after return and a friend available for debrief |
| 3. Family System Changes | Have new stressors or dynamics emerged that increase risk? | New family conflict or presence of previously estranged relatives |
| 4. Exit Strategy | Is there a clear plan to leave or retreat if overwhelmed? | Alternative lodging arranged and transportation planned for early departure |
| 5. Motivation and Agency | Are you choosing to go from a place of empowerment or obligation? | Decision made with therapist input vs. feeling pressured by family expectations |
This assessment is not a rigid checklist but a nuanced framework to deepen self-awareness and clinical insight. As illustrated by Priya’s experience in Section 4, ambivalence often remains even with detailed protocols. The aim is to cultivate an embodied decision-making process that honors both your progress and your limits.
If your responses reveal multiple vulnerabilities, the visit may exceed your capacity for titrated exposure. This signals the need for enhanced preparation, boundary-setting, and post-visit care,not necessarily cancellation. Conversely, if your nervous system is regulated, supports are in place, and you approach the visit with agency, it can be a meaningful step in your recovery.
For further guidance on managing the emotional aftermath of difficult family visits, see the Recovery Day After Hard Family Visit article. To explore relational trauma dynamics, consult Surviving Family Events and Relational Trauma. Your clinical team remains a vital partner,discuss these questions openly to tailor your plan with professional support. For therapy options, visit my therapy page.
Both/And: You Can Be Committed to Your Recovery and Still Choose to Go Home
Deciding whether to go home for the holidays during trauma recovery is rarely a simple yes-or-no choice. Often, people feel caught in a false binary that staying home is the “right” recovery decision while going home signals avoidance or relapse. In truth, both options can be valid and clinically appropriate depending on your current therapeutic needs and family context.
Diana Fosha, PhD, clinical psychologist and developer of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), frames trauma recovery as a dynamic process of integration and transformation. She emphasizes titrated exposure,carefully modulated engagement with challenging relational material that your nervous system can process safely. From this lens, returning home for the holidays can serve as a therapeutic exposure, provided you have the internal and external resources to regulate and reflect on what arises. For example, Maya, a trauma therapy patient of three years, planned a brief weekend visit last Christmas followed by a therapy session. This intentional pacing preserved her agency and minimized overwhelming activation.
In contrast, Pat Ogden, PhD, founder of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, highlights somatic regulation as essential to managing trauma exposure. If your nervous system is dysregulated or you lack sufficient post-visit support, going home may exceed your window of tolerance and risk retraumatization. Priya, a hospital administrator featured earlier, chose to stay home last year because her nervous system was fragile and her therapist supported the decision as an act of self-protection, not avoidance. This approach honors the clinical principle that safety and stabilization must precede exposure.
“Recovery is not about rigidly adhering to a single path but about making choices that honor your nervous system’s capacity and your evolving sense of self. Both staying home and going home can be acts of healing when approached with awareness and care.”
Diana Fosha, PhD, AEDP Developer and Trauma Therapist
The quality of your decision-making process reveals your true commitment to recovery. This involves a thorough therapeutic risk assessment: evaluating your current nervous system state, available supports, family dynamics, and exit strategies. It also requires honest reflection on your motivation,are you choosing to go home from agency and readiness, or from obligation and pressure? Neither choice is inherently better; intention and preparation are what matter.
If you choose to go home, treat it as titrated exposure with a clear plan. Define visit length, identify regulation tools, schedule therapeutic support, and clarify boundaries with family. If you stay home, recognize this as valid self-care, not failure. You might engage in alternative rituals or remote connections to meet relational needs without compromising stability.
Ultimately, trauma recovery calls for a both/and mindset. You can honor your healing and family ties simultaneously through decisions grounded in clinical insight, self-compassion, and practical preparation. This nuanced approach fosters resilience and helps you navigate the holidays with integrity and grace.
For guidance on preparing before a visit, see The Five-Phase Holiday Survival Framework. For support after difficult family interactions, visit Recovery Day After a Hard Family Visit. To explore managing ongoing relational trauma at family events, our article Surviving Family Events with Relational Trauma offers clinical tools.
The Systemic Lens: Why Staying Home Feels Like Failure When It Might Be Protection
Choosing not to return home for the holidays often feels like a personal failure, yet this belief is deeply embedded in cultural and family narratives that equate presence with loyalty and absence with abandonment. For trauma survivors, this internal conflict can be especially intense. The decision to stay away may be misread as weakness or relational failure, but it can actually represent a profound act of self-preservation informed by clinical insight. Family pressure to “do the work” by physically showing up can become coercive, overlooking individual safety and readiness.
Diana Fosha, PhD, clinical psychologist and developer of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), stresses the importance of titrated exposure within a person’s window of tolerance. When families insist holiday visits are essential to healing, they may unintentionally push trauma survivors beyond their nervous system’s capacity to regulate. This increases vulnerability to retraumatization rather than fostering integration. From this systemic perspective, choosing not to engage with family at certain times is not failure but a boundary that supports recovery.
Pat Ogden, PhD, founder of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, further illuminates how the body’s somatic signals can warn of danger even when the mind feels conflicted. Somatic memories triggered by family gatherings can activate defense responses such as freeze or shutdown. Recognizing these bodily cues as valid indicators of risk allows survivors to trust their embodied wisdom. This trust is a radical act of self-compassion and clinical insight, affirming that protection sometimes requires physical and emotional distance.
Clinical experience with survivors like Maya and Priya shows that cultural narratives framing staying home as courageous can intensify shame when that choice feels impossible or unsafe. Families often interpret absence as rejection, but trauma-informed research on family estrangement reveals that detachment can be an adaptive process involving grief and relief, not moral failure. This perspective helps survivors resist internalized blame and supports a nuanced understanding of relational boundaries in trauma recovery.
Practically, applying this systemic lens means prioritizing your clinical assessment over external demands. Your nervous system’s capacity to tolerate relational stress fluctuates, and choosing to stay home may be a strategic, self-protective decision aligned with your healing. Recognizing how family dynamics can weaponize “healing through contact” empowers you to navigate holiday decisions with clarity and compassion, preserving your agency and honoring the complexity of trauma recovery.
For more on managing family dynamics during challenging visits, see Surviving Family Events with Relational Trauma and Surviving Toxic Family Holidays. If you need support with these decisions, my clinical practice offers trauma-informed consultation tailored to your recovery; learn more at Therapy with Annie.
Your Pre-Visit Protocol: What to Do in the Two Weeks Before You Go
Preparing for a holiday visit home during trauma recovery requires a carefully structured plan that supports your nervous system and respects your therapeutic progress. Diana Fosha, PhD, clinical psychologist and developer of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), highlights the importance of titrating exposure to challenging relational environments. The two weeks before your trip are an opportunity to scaffold that exposure intentionally.
Begin by scheduling therapy sessions both before and after your visit. This allows your therapist to help you identify potential triggers and reinforce regulation strategies ahead of time, and to provide a safe space for processing and integration afterward. Priya, a hospital administrator in therapy, treats these sessions as essential anchors in her safety net. Even limited availability should not prevent you from securing at least one appointment before departure and one soon after return.
If possible, arrange accommodations outside the family home. Pat Ogden, PhD, founder of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, emphasizes the importance of having a physical retreat for somatic regulation. For example, Maya stayed in a nearby Airbnb rather than her childhood bedroom, which helped her reestablish bodily safety cues separate from family dynamics. If this is not feasible, designate a quiet room in the house where you can disengage and practice grounding techniques.
Set a clear departure time before you arrive. Establishing this boundary supports your sense of agency and control. Share your plan with a trusted support person or therapist to help maintain accountability. Knowing when your visit ends prevents the kind of open-ended exposure that risks overwhelming your nervous system.
Identify your regulation resources now,these may include supportive people, soothing places, or calming tools. Pat Ogden’s Sensorimotor approach underlines how somatic resources anchor you when relational stress mounts. Keep a checklist accessible on your phone or in a small notebook, such as a friend to text, a familiar walking route, or a breathing technique that calms your body.
Brief your partner or support person on what you might need during and after the visit. Clear communication reduces isolation and aligns with clinical principles of post-exposure support, which is vital for preventing retraumatization.
Finally, lower your baseline expectations. The goal is not to “fix” family dynamics or endure perfectly, but to maintain your regulation tools, honor your limits, and exercise your exit plan if necessary. This mindset reframes the visit as a therapeutic exposure rather than a pass/fail test, allowing you to continue your healing with patience and self-compassion.
For more on managing family events in trauma recovery, see Surviving Family Events and Relational Trauma. After your visit, explore strategies in Recovery Day After a Hard Family Visit. Your pre-visit protocol is a clinical tool designed to protect your nervous system, preserve your agency, and support ongoing integration,honoring both your courage and your healing process.
Q: 1. Should I go home for the holidays if I’m in trauma therapy?
A: Deciding whether to go home while actively in trauma therapy depends on your current window of tolerance and the support you have in place. Diana Fosha, PhD, developer of AEDP, emphasizes titrated exposure,meaning the visit should feel manageable rather than overwhelming. If your therapist and you have assessed that the visit can be held within your nervous system’s capacity, with clear boundaries and post-visit support, it can be a meaningful part of your recovery. However, it is always valid to prioritize your safety and healing by choosing to stay away if the risk feels too high.
Q: 2. How do I talk to my therapist about the holiday visit before it happens?
A: Approach your therapist as a collaborator in your safety planning. You might say, “I want to discuss the upcoming holiday visit so we can develop a plan that supports my recovery.” Share your concerns, past experiences, and any activation you anticipate. Pat Ogden, PhD, founder of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, stresses the importance of somatic resourcing before exposure events,your therapist can help you identify grounding techniques and create a clear exit strategy. This conversation helps you feel more in control and less reactive when you arrive.
Q: 3. What do I do if being home reactivates trauma symptoms I thought I’d processed?
A: It is common for trauma symptoms to reemerge in triggering environments, even after significant healing. First, remind yourself that this does not mean you have failed; trauma recovery is a non-linear process. Use grounding techniques you’ve practiced in therapy, such as breath regulation or body awareness exercises. Reach out to your therapist or a trusted support person as soon as possible. Diana Fosha’s AEDP model encourages compassionate self-reflection and the use of supportive relationships to metabolize difficult emotions that arise unexpectedly.
Q: 4. How do I limit my visit without telling my family I’m in therapy?
A: Setting boundaries without disclosing therapy is both possible and respectful to your needs. Prepare a clear departure plan before you arrive, such as booking a flight or arranging transportation in advance. You can communicate your limited availability with practical reasons like work commitments or prior obligations. Keeping your explanations simple and firm often reduces pushback. Remember, your well-being is paramount, and limiting contact can be a form of self-care rather than avoidance.
Q: 5. What’s the minimum amount of time I need to stay to avoid a family fallout?
A: There is no universal minimum time that guarantees smooth family dynamics. Sometimes, even brief visits can trigger conflict, while longer stays can be peaceful if boundaries are respected. Prioritize your emotional safety over external expectations. Communicating your plans clearly beforehand and having a trusted ally or exit strategy can help mitigate fallout. For further guidance, see Annie Wright’s article on the “Seventy-Two Hour Rule” which offers practical insights on limiting family visits without compromising your recovery.
Related Reading
- Surviving Family Events When You Carry Relational Trauma, Explore strategies for navigating emotionally charged family gatherings with clinical insight.
- The Five-Phase Holiday Survival Framework, A structured approach to planning and recovering from challenging holiday visits.
- How to Design Your Recovery Day After a Difficult Family Visit, Practical tips to restore your nervous system balance post-visit.
- The Seventy-Two Hour Rule: How to Limit Family Visits Without Guilt, Guidance on setting healthy limits that honor your trauma recovery.
- Therapy with Annie Wright, Learn about Annie’s clinical approach to trauma recovery and how to work with her.
If this article helped you name something important, you do not have to keep navigating it alone.
Annie Wright, LMFT
LMFT · Relational Trauma Specialist · W.W. Norton Author
Helping ambitious women finally feel as good as their résumé looks.
Annie Wright is a licensed psychotherapist (LMFT #95719) and trauma-informed executive coach with over 15,000 clinical hours. She works with driven, ambitious women — including Silicon Valley leaders, physicians, and entrepreneurs — in repairing the psychological foundations beneath their impressive lives. Annie is the founder and former CEO of Evergreen Counseling, a multimillion-dollar trauma-informed therapy center she built, scaled, and successfully exited. A regular contributor to Psychology Today, her expert commentary has appeared in Forbes, Business Insider, Inc., NBC, and The Information. She is currently writing her first book with W.W. Norton.
