Couples Therapy for Trauma in Las Vegas
When the past walks into the room, your relationship feels it.
Many couples do not realize they are reenacting trauma. They think they are arguing about dishes, tone, or timing. But right before my eyes, something else happens. One partner goes into fight. The other into flight. Sometimes it is fix. Sometimes freeze. Sometimes the fawn response.
Fawn trauma response is the survival response of appeasing. It looks like over explaining, people pleasing, agreeing quickly, or minimizing your own needs to keep the peace. It is not manipulation. It is the nervous system trying to stay safe by preventing conflict.
In those moments, no one is choosing badly. Their nervous systems are choosing for them.
This is where couples trauma therapy begins.
The past is not the past
Trauma does not stay in memory. It lives in the body. In intimate relationships, it shows up fast and loud. A look feels like danger. Silence feels like abandonment. A raised voice feels like threat.
Suddenly the room is no longer about now. It is about then.
Mary Jo Barrett’s work on trauma and relationships captures this clearly: trauma is interpersonal, and it gets activated interpersonally. Couples do not just talk about trauma. They relive it together, in real time, without meaning to.
What trauma looks like in a couples trauma therapy session
I often say to couples, “Pause. Do you feel that shift?”
One second ago you were talking. Now your body is bracing. Your chest tightens. Your breath changes. Your tone sharpens or disappears.
That is not a communication problem. That is a trauma response.
We slow it down. We establish safety. We name what is happening in the room. We create collaboration instead of opposition. We make the pattern visible so neither partner has to carry it alone.
No blame.
Couples trauma therapy sessions are paced carefully. No one is forced to disclose trauma details. We do not retraumatize. Emotional and physiological safety for both partners is actively monitored and protected.
Trauma informed couples therapy is not about fixing faster
This work is not about better scripts or calmer debates. Those can help later. When trauma is active, skills alone are not enough.
First, we build safety, transparency, and trust.
We identify relationship trauma patterns, map triggers as they happen, and connect present-day reactions to earlier coping strategies that once made sense. Fight, flight, freeze, fix, and the fawn response are honored as survival responses, not character flaws.
As awareness grows, couples develop agency. They learn to catch early warning signals, interrupt escalation in real time, and co create new ways of staying connected.
The goal is not perfection. The goal is awareness and choice.
Why couples get stuck
When trauma is active, partners stop seeing each other as allies. Each person feels alone, misunderstood, or under threat. Even loving couples can become adversarial in seconds.
Without a trauma lens, couples blame character.
With a trauma lens, couples understand pattern.
That shift changes everything.
How my couples therapy for trauma works
My approach is experiential, relational, and deeply practical. We do not just talk about what happened last week. We track what is happening right now between you and me, and between you and each other.
We work in the here and now. Because that is where trauma lives. And that is where healing happens.
This work stays focused on understanding patterns rather than assigning blame or taking sides. The emphasis is on helping both partners feel safer, more present, and more connected.
Couples trauma therapy is for couples who say
“Why do we keep ending up in the same fight?”
“I know I overreact, but I cannot stop.”
“When they shut down, I panic.”
“I feel like I disappear in this relationship.”
“We love each other, but something keeps hijacking us.”
If that resonates, you are not broken. Your nervous systems learned how to survive. Therapy helps them learn how to stay connected.
Couples often report fewer explosive escalations, quicker repair after conflict, and a growing ability to remain emotionally connected even when things get hard.
Couples trauma therapy in Las Vegas
If you are looking for trauma informed couples therapy in Las Vegas that works with the body, the moment, and the relationship itself, you are in the right place.
You do not need to relive the past alone. And you do not need to keep fighting it in the present.
Schedule a consultation to see if couples trauma therapy is the right next step for you.
What to expect in the first sessions
We slow things down rather than escalate them
Safety and trust are established before deep trauma work
Patterns are named without blame
Escalation is actively interrupted in real time
Both partners are supported equally
No one is forced to disclose more than their system can tolerate
Let’s get started.
Contact Avi Anderson to schedule a couples trauma therapy session today