What Trauma Does to the Brain: How Trauma Changes the Nervous System
What Trauma Does to the Brain
Trauma affects several brain systems involved in threat detection, memory, emotional regulation, attention, and the stress response.
Research has found differences in the activity and functioning of brain regions including the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex following trauma. These systems help the brain detect potential threats, organize memories, regulate emotions, and determine how to respond to what is happening around us.
When these systems remain affected by traumatic experiences, the effects can show up in everyday life as symptoms such as:
anxiety or panic
hypervigilance or feeling constantly on edge
intrusive memories or flashbacks
difficulty concentrating
sleep disturbance or nightmares
emotional numbness or shutdown
irritability or strong emotional reactions
difficulty relaxing
physical reactions that seem to happen automatically
These symptoms can be confusing, particularly when the traumatic experience happened months or years ago.
Understanding what trauma does to the brain and nervous system can help explain why these reactions occur, why they can feel so automatic, and why they may continue long after the original experience has ended.
The Brain’s Threat Detection System
The brain is constantly taking in information from the environment and deciding what deserves attention.
When something threatening or overwhelming happens, the brain and nervous system rapidly shift resources toward survival. Heart rate may increase, muscles tense, attention narrows, and the body prepares to fight, flee, freeze, or otherwise respond to the situation.
These reactions are automatic. You do not have to consciously decide to activate them.
Normally, once the threat has passed, the stress response settles and the experience becomes part of the past.
After trauma, however, the brain's threat-detection system can become more sensitive to reminders associated with what happened. A sound, smell, facial expression, conflict, physical sensation, location, or other cue may trigger a strong reaction before you have had time to consciously understand why.
This can help explain why you might suddenly experience anxiety, panic, a racing heart, muscle tension, irritability, hypervigilance, emotional shutdown, or an urge to escape or avoid something when the intensity of the reaction does not seem to match the present situation.
Several areas of the brain are involved in this process. Three that are frequently discussed in trauma research are the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex.
Each plays a different role in how the brain detects threats, processes memories, and regulates emotional responses.
Three Brain Regions Involved in Trauma Responses
When trauma affects the brain, several systems involved in detecting threats, processing memories, and regulating emotions can begin functioning differently.
Three brain regions are especially important for understanding why trauma symptoms can persist: the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex.
The Amygdala: The Brain’s Alarm System
The amygdala helps detect emotionally important information, including potential threats, and plays an important role in activating the body's stress response.
After trauma, the amygdala may become more reactive to reminders associated with danger. This can cause the alarm system to activate quickly, sometimes before you consciously recognize what triggered the reaction.
This may show up as:
anxiety or panic
hypervigilance
exaggerated startle responses
irritability
physical tension
difficulty relaxing
This helps explain why anxiety after trauma can feel so automatic. The reaction can begin before you have had time to think through what is happening.
Learn more about anxiety and trauma →
The Hippocampus: Memory and Context
The hippocampus plays an important role in forming and organizing memories and providing context for experiences.
Trauma and prolonged stress can affect how these memory processes function. As a result, reminders connected to a traumatic experience may trigger vivid memories, emotions, body sensations, or other reactions that feel immediate and intense.
This may help explain symptoms such as:
intrusive memories
flashbacks
strong reactions to reminders
difficulty recalling parts of an experience clearly
feeling emotionally pulled back into something that happened in the past
The hippocampus helps provide memories with context, including where and when something occurred. When trauma-related memory processing is disrupted, reminders in the present can activate powerful responses connected to earlier experiences.
Learn more about PTSD and trauma →
The Prefrontal Cortex: Regulation, Attention, and Decision-Making
The prefrontal cortex is involved in attention, planning, decision-making, impulse control, and regulating emotional responses.
During intense stress, these higher-level functions can become less available as the brain directs resources toward responding to a perceived threat.
For someone experiencing ongoing trauma-related stress, this can contribute to:
difficulty concentrating
trouble organizing or making decisions
feeling mentally overwhelmed
difficulty regulating strong emotions
impulsive reactions
difficulty shifting attention away from potential threats
This can help explain why someone who normally functions very well may have trouble thinking clearly, concentrating at work, or regulating emotions when trauma-related responses are activated.
Learn more about emotional dysregulation →
Understanding Is the First Step. Lasting Change Is the Next.
Understanding how trauma affects the brain and nervous system can help make sense of symptoms that may have felt confusing or difficult to control.
You may begin to understand why anxiety seems to come out of nowhere, why certain situations trigger strong reactions, why sleep has become difficult, or why you continue responding to experiences that happened years ago.
That understanding can be powerful.
For many people, however, understanding why the symptoms are happening does not necessarily make the symptoms stop.
You may understand where a reaction comes from and still experience it. You may recognize a trigger and still feel your heart race. You may understand why you avoid certain situations and still feel unable to approach them differently.
This is where trauma-focused treatment can be helpful.
Rather than focusing only on managing symptoms, trauma-focused therapies such as EMDR Therapy are designed to address the distressing experiences, memories, beliefs, emotions, and body responses that continue contributing to symptoms in the present.
For individuals who want a more concentrated treatment format, EMDR Intensive Therapy provides focused treatment over several consecutive days within one week, with time for assessment, preparation, trauma processing, stabilization, and integration.
Learn More About EMDR Intensive Therapy →
Schedule an Intensive Therapy Consultation →
Trauma and the Nervous System
Trauma affects more than thoughts and memories. It can also influence the autonomic nervous system, which helps regulate automatic functions such as heart rate, breathing, digestion, and the body's response to stress.
When the nervous system becomes highly responsive following trauma, symptoms may feel physical and automatic rather than something you can simply think your way out of.
You may notice:
a racing heart or rapid breathing
muscle tension
feeling restless or unable to relax
being easily startled
difficulty sleeping
feeling emotionally overwhelmed
shutting down or feeling disconnected
feeling exhausted after periods of prolonged stress
These responses can occur quickly and sometimes without an obvious trigger.
The nervous system is responding to information from both inside and outside the body. A sensation, memory, sound, interaction, or other reminder associated with a past experience may activate a stress response before you consciously recognize the connection.
This helps explain why trauma symptoms can feel so immediate and difficult to control through willpower alone.
These nervous system responses can also contribute to chronic stress symptoms and difficulty returning to a more regulated state after something upsetting occurs.
Learn More About the Stress Response →
Why Trauma Disrupts Sleep
Sleep problems are common after trauma and may continue long after the original experience.
You may feel exhausted during the day and still find yourself unable to settle at night. Others fall asleep easily and wake repeatedly, experience nightmares, or wake much earlier than intended.
Trauma-related sleep difficulties may include:
difficulty falling asleep
frequent nighttime waking
nightmares or distressing dreams
light or restless sleep
waking earlier than intended
racing thoughts at night
feeling exhausted despite spending enough time in bed
Sleep and the stress response are closely connected. When trauma-related arousal remains elevated, the brain and body may have more difficulty shifting into the physiological state needed for restful sleep.
Nightmares, intrusive thoughts, heightened sensitivity to sounds, physical tension, and increased arousal can also interfere with falling asleep or staying asleep.
Sleep disruption can then make other symptoms more difficult to manage. Poor sleep can affect concentration, emotional regulation, mood, memory, and the ability to cope with stress, creating a cycle in which trauma symptoms interfere with sleep and inadequate sleep makes daytime functioning more difficult.
Sleep disturbance is also a common symptom of PTSD, although not everyone experiencing sleep problems after trauma has PTSD.
Learn more about insomnia after trauma and why PTSD disrupts sleep →
Why Trauma Creates Avoidance
Avoidance is a common response to trauma.
When something has been associated with distress, the natural response may be to stay away from anything that brings those feelings or memories back.
Avoidance can be obvious, such as avoiding a particular place, person, or conversation. It can also be much less noticeable.
It may look like:
staying constantly busy
avoiding certain places, people, or conversations
withdrawing from relationships
pushing away thoughts or memories
avoiding situations that trigger anxiety
using work, screens, substances, or other distractions to avoid uncomfortable emotions
feeling emotionally numb or disconnected
In the short term, avoidance can reduce distress. If something makes you anxious and you avoid it, you may feel better almost immediately.
That relief can reinforce the avoidance, making it more likely that you will avoid the same situation again.
Over time, the pattern can begin to interfere with everyday life. Relationships may become more difficult, activities may become increasingly limited, and anxiety may begin influencing more decisions.
This is one reason avoidance can become self-reinforcing: the more effectively avoidance reduces distress in the short term, the harder it can become to approach what is being avoided later.
Trauma treatment can help identify what is driving the avoidance and address the experiences and responses connected to it, rather than focusing only on forcing yourself to stop avoiding.
If you find yourself withdrawing from people, places, situations, or experiences connected to distress, read: When Avoidance Becomes the Problem →
When Trauma Affects Work and Daily Functioning
Trauma symptoms can affect more than emotions. They can also interfere with concentration, memory, decision-making, relationships, and the ability to manage everyday responsibilities.
This can be especially confusing for people who are accustomed to functioning at a high level.
You may find yourself wondering:
Why can't I concentrate like I used to?
Why am I forgetting things?
Why does making a simple decision feel overwhelming?
Why am I making mistakes I normally wouldn't make?
Why am I exhausted even when I haven't done that much?
Why am I becoming irritated or overwhelmed so easily?
Why am I struggling to keep up when I used to handle so much?
These difficulties can make someone feel as though they have suddenly become less capable.
Trauma-related stress can place significant demands on attention, working memory, emotional regulation, and executive functioning. When a large amount of mental and physical energy is being directed toward managing stress responses, fewer resources may be available for concentrating, organizing information, solving problems, and shifting between tasks.
Sleep disruption can make these difficulties even more noticeable.
The result may be reduced productivity, difficulty completing tasks, increased mistakes, trouble making decisions, conflict with coworkers or family members, or feeling mentally and physically depleted by the end of the day.
Understanding that trauma can affect functioning helps explain why trying harder is not always enough to resolve the problem. When trauma-related symptoms are contributing to these difficulties, addressing the underlying trauma may be an important part of recovery.
If trauma is affecting your ability to concentrate, stay organized, or function at work, read: When Trauma Goes to Work →
When Trauma Symptoms Look Like Depression
Trauma and depression can share several symptoms, which can sometimes make it difficult to understand what is contributing to how you feel.
Both may involve:
low mood
loss of interest or motivation
fatigue
sleep difficulties
difficulty concentrating
withdrawal from relationships
feelings of hopelessness
difficulty experiencing positive emotions
For some people, depression occurs independently of trauma. For others, depressive symptoms may develop alongside PTSD or other trauma-related difficulties. And some people experience both.
Research has found substantial overlap between depression and trauma-related disorders such as PTSD and Complex PTSD.
For example, a 2022 international study examined 410 adults experiencing clinically significant depressive symptoms. Researchers found that 62.7% also met criteria on a standardized measure for either ICD-11 PTSD or Complex PTSD (Fung et al., 2022).
Other research has found similar overlap. In a primary-care study, 36% of patients with depression screened positive for PTSD (Campbell et al., 2007). Looking at the relationship from the other direction, a meta-analysis of 57 studies involving 6,670 participants found that approximately 52% of people with current PTSD also had major depressive disorder (Rytwinski et al., 2013).
Research on Complex PTSD has also found substantial mental health comorbidity, including a strong association with symptoms of depression (Karatzias et al., 2019).
These findings do not mean that everyone experiencing depression has unresolved trauma or PTSD. They do show that depression and trauma-related disorders frequently overlap, which is one reason understanding your history and the full range of symptoms you are experiencing matters.
For some people who have struggled with depression for years, this can provide another possibility to explore: depression may be part of the picture, while unresolved traumatic experiences may also be contributing to the symptoms.
Looking at what else is happening alongside the depression symptoms can provide important information.
For example, someone may also be experiencing:
intrusive memories or nightmares
avoidance of reminders of past experiences
hypervigilance or feeling constantly on edge
strong reactions to particular triggers
emotional numbness or disconnection
anxiety or panic
persistent negative beliefs connected to traumatic experiences
When trauma-related symptoms are present, treating depression alone may not address everything contributing to the person's difficulties.
This is why a thorough assessment matters. The goal is not simply to decide whether symptoms are “depression or trauma,” but to understand what is contributing to the symptoms and which treatment approach is most appropriate.
If you've been treating depression and still feel that something is unresolved, read: Complex Trauma vs. Depression →
Can the Brain Heal After Trauma?
Yes. The brain and nervous system are capable of change.
This capacity is known as neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to change and reorganize in response to learning and experience.
Just as traumatic experiences can influence patterns of threat detection, memory, emotional regulation, and stress responding, new experiences and effective treatment can support new learning and changes in how the brain responds.
Trauma recovery does not require forgetting what happened.
Instead, treatment can help reduce the intensity of the emotional, cognitive, and physical responses connected to traumatic experiences so that memories become less disruptive in everyday life.
Over time, this may look like:
experiencing fewer or less intense trauma-related triggers
feeling less anxious or reactive
having fewer intrusive memories or nightmares
being able to think about what happened with less distress
responding differently in situations that previously triggered strong reactions
improving sleep, concentration, and emotional regulation
returning to relationships, activities, or experiences that had been avoided
This is one of the reasons trauma-focused treatment can be different from simply learning to manage symptoms.
The goal is not to erase the memory. The goal is for what happened in the past to have less power over how you feel, respond, and live in the present.
Trauma-focused therapies such as EMDR Therapy are designed to help process distressing experiences and the thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and body sensations associated with them.
For individuals who are appropriate for a concentrated treatment format, EMDR Intensive Therapy uses the same EMDR treatment approach, with treatment concentrated into several consecutive days within one week.
Learn More About EMDR Therapy →
Learn More About EMDR Intensive Therapy →
How EMDR Therapy Helps Process Trauma
EMDR Therapy, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a structured psychotherapy approach designed to help process traumatic and distressing experiences that continue to contribute to symptoms in the present.
During EMDR Therapy, you briefly focus on aspects of a distressing memory while engaging in bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements, alternating sounds, or tactile stimulation.
As processing occurs, different aspects of the experience may emerge, including thoughts, emotions, images, beliefs, memories, and body sensations. The therapist guides the process while monitoring your level of distress and helping you remain engaged in the work.
Over time, the memory can become less emotionally and physically activating. You still remember what happened, but the experience may no longer trigger the same intensity of anxiety, fear, shame, physical reactions, or other symptoms.
This is sometimes described as adaptive information processing. Rather than the experience continuing to influence present-day reactions in the same way, new information and associations can become connected with the memory.
For example, a person may move from:
“It was my fault” to “I did the best I could.”
“I am powerless” to “I have choices now.”
“Something terrible is going to happen” to “I can handle what happens.”
The goal is not to change the facts of what happened or convince yourself to think positively. The goal is to help process the experience so that the memory and the thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and body sensations associated with it become less disruptive in your life.
For people who have multiple experiences to address or who prefer a more concentrated treatment format, EMDR Intensive Therapy uses the same EMDR treatment approach, with treatment concentrated into several consecutive days within one week.
Learn More About EMDR Therapy →
Learn More About EMDR Intensive Therapy →
How EMDR Intensive Therapy Works
EMDR Intensive Therapy uses the same EMDR treatment approach, with treatment concentrated into several consecutive days within one week.
Instead of beginning the work, stopping when the appointment ends, and returning the following week, an intensive provides focused time for assessment, preparation, trauma processing, stabilization, and integration.
This can be especially helpful when there are multiple experiences, memories, or patterns contributing to current symptoms.
For example, someone seeking treatment for anxiety or panic may discover that their symptoms are connected to several experiences rather than one specific event. Someone with complex trauma may have experiences from different periods of life that continue to influence how they think, feel, respond, or relate to others.
The intensive format provides dedicated treatment time to identify and address these experiences when clinically appropriate, with treatment continuing across consecutive days rather than being divided into weekly appointments.
Each treatment day includes structured therapy blocks, breaks, grounding, nervous system regulation, and integration time, allowing the work to progress at a pace that supports your nervous system and individual needs.
The number of treatment days is individualized based on your history, symptoms, treatment goals, readiness, and the number and complexity of experiences being addressed.
Most intensives in my practice are approximately 3 to 6 consecutive days, with 4 to 5 days being typical.
Learn More About EMDR Intensive Therapy →
What to Expect During EMDR Intensive Therapy →
How Intensive Therapy Supports Continued Processing
One potential advantage of EMDR Intensive Therapy is the ability to continue treatment across consecutive days rather than waiting a week between appointments.
During trauma-focused therapy, distressing memories can become activated as they are brought into treatment. New information, emotions, perspectives, and associations may emerge as processing continues.
Research on memory reconsolidation suggests that when an existing memory is reactivated, aspects of that memory may become temporarily open to modification before being stored again.
This does not mean that the original memory is erased or rewritten. Instead, new learning may become associated with the memory, changing how strongly it affects emotions, beliefs, body responses, and behavior in the present.
EMDR Intensive Therapy provides extended treatment time for this work to continue across several consecutive days. Rather than repeatedly beginning and ending treatment with a week between appointments, the intensive format allows greater continuity in the therapeutic process.
For someone working through multiple related experiences, this can provide time to follow connections as they emerge and continue processing clinically relevant memories, beliefs, emotions, and body responses.
The exact mechanisms through which EMDR Therapy produces change are still being studied. Memory reconsolidation is one area of research that may help explain how new learning can alter the emotional impact of previously distressing experiences.
Learn More About Memory Reconsolidation and EMDR Intensive Therapy →
Why Some People Choose EMDR Intensives
People choose EMDR Intensive Therapy for different reasons.
Some have already spent months or years in therapy and understand their experiences well, yet continue to struggle with symptoms such as anxiety, panic, intrusive memories, emotional triggers, sleep problems, or patterns that have not fully resolved.
Others have multiple experiences they want to address and prefer setting aside dedicated time for treatment rather than spreading the work across weekly appointments.
EMDR Intensive Therapy may also appeal to people who:
want focused time to work on trauma-related symptoms
have multiple experiences or treatment targets to address
have tried weekly therapy and still feel that something remains unresolved
have demanding work or family schedules that make weekly appointments difficult
live in rural or remote areas where specialized trauma treatment may be difficult to access
are traveling to receive specialized EMDR treatment
prefer to dedicate several consecutive days to treatment within one week
For some people, weekly EMDR Therapy is the better fit. Others may benefit from additional preparation, stabilization, or ongoing therapeutic support before beginning intensive trauma processing.
The decision is based on your history, current symptoms, treatment goals, readiness, available supports, and individual needs.
A consultation and clinical assessment can help determine whether EMDR Intensive Therapy is an appropriate treatment format for you.
Learn More About EMDR Intensive Therapy →
Schedule an Intensive Therapy Consultation →
Recovery Is Possible
Trauma can affect many areas of life, including sleep, relationships, work, concentration, emotional regulation, and physical well-being.
When symptoms have continued for months or years, it can be difficult to imagine feeling differently. You may have already tried therapy, learned coping strategies, changed parts of your life, or developed a strong understanding of why you respond the way you do, while still experiencing anxiety, panic, sleep disruption, intrusive memories, avoidance, emotional overwhelm, or other symptoms.
These symptoms do not necessarily have to remain at the same intensity indefinitely.
The brain continues to learn and change throughout life. Effective trauma treatment can help process experiences that continue contributing to symptoms and support new patterns of emotional, cognitive, and physiological responding.
Recovery may look different for each person. It can include:
fewer or less intense triggers
reduced anxiety or panic
improved sleep
fewer intrusive memories or nightmares
greater emotional regulation
improved concentration and daily functioning
less avoidance
feeling more engaged in relationships and activities
being able to remember what happened with less emotional and physical distress
The goal of trauma treatment is not to erase what happened. It is to help reduce the extent to which past experiences continue interfering with your life today.
For some people, EMDR Intensive Therapy provides a focused way to work on these experiences over several consecutive days within one week.
Learn More About EMDR Intensive Therapy →
Schedule an Intensive Therapy Consultation →
Frequently Asked Questions
How does trauma affect the brain?
Trauma can affect brain systems involved in threat detection, memory, attention, emotional regulation, and the stress response.
Research has identified changes in the functioning of brain regions including the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex following trauma. These changes can help explain why someone may experience symptoms such as anxiety, panic, hypervigilance, intrusive memories, difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbance, or strong emotional and physical reactions.
Can the brain recover from trauma?
Yes. The brain remains capable of learning and change throughout life through neuroplasticity.
Trauma-focused treatment, including EMDR Therapy, can help process distressing experiences and reduce the emotional, cognitive, and physical responses associated with them.
Recovery does not mean forgetting what happened. It means that memories and reminders can become less disruptive and have less influence over how you feel, respond, and function in everyday life.
Why do trauma symptoms appear years later?
Trauma symptoms do not always appear immediately after an experience.
For some people, symptoms become more noticeable months or years later. New stress, loss, relationship changes, major life transitions, or experiences that resemble something from the past can activate memories and responses associated with earlier experiences.
This may help explain why anxiety, panic, nightmares, intrusive memories, avoidance, or other symptoms can emerge or intensify long after the original experience occurred.
Why does trauma affect sleep?
Some people experience difficulty falling asleep, repeated waking, nightmares, racing thoughts, physical tension, or feeling exhausted while still unable to sleep.
Trauma can affect brain and nervous system processes involved in arousal and the stress response, making it more difficult to settle into and maintain restful sleep.
Sleep disruption can also affect concentration, mood, emotional regulation, memory, and the ability to cope with stress, which can make other trauma-related symptoms more difficult to manage.
Learn more about trauma and sleep →
About Dr. Yvette Curtis
Dr. Yvette Curtis, PsyD, LPC, MAC, is a Doctor of Psychology, licensed professional counselor, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, and Master Addiction Counselor with more than 15 years of clinical experience treating trauma and trauma-related concerns.
She has provided EMDR Therapy since 2011 and specializes in EMDR Intensive Therapy for PTSD, complex trauma, anxiety, and other trauma-related concerns.
Dr. Curtis has extensive experience working with military personnel, veterans, Alaska Native and Indigenous populations, first responders, and individuals with complex trauma histories.
EMDR Intensive Therapy is available in person in Fairbanks and via telehealth throughout Alaska.
Schedule an Intensive Therapy Consultation
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References
Campbell, D. G., Felker, B. L., Liu, C.-F., Yano, E. M., Kirchner, J. E., Chan, D., Rubenstein, L. V., & Chaney, E. F. (2007). Prevalence of depression–PTSD comorbidity: Implications for clinical practice guidelines and primary care-based interventions. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 22(6), 711–718.
Fung, H. W., Chien, W. T., Lam, S. K. K., & Ross, C. A. (2022). Investigating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD among people with self-reported depressive symptoms. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 953001.
Karatzias, T., Hyland, P., Bradley, A., Cloitre, M., Roberts, N. P., Bisson, J. I., & Shevlin, M. (2019). Risk factors and comorbidity of ICD-11 PTSD and complex PTSD: Findings from a trauma-exposed population based sample of adults in the United Kingdom. Depression and Anxiety, 36(9), 887–894.
LeDoux, J. E. (2000). Emotion circuits in the brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 23, 155–184.
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Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. W. W. Norton & Company.
Rytwinski, N. K., Scur, M. D., Feeny, N. C., & Youngstrom, E. A. (2013). The co-occurrence of major depressive disorder among individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder: A meta-analysis. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 26(3), 299–309.
Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy: Basic principles, protocols, and procedures (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
Siegel, D. J. (2012). The developing mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.
Photo by Robina Weermeijer (brain photo)
Photo by Dr. Yvette Curtis (brain illustration)
Disclaimer
This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute psychotherapy, diagnosis, or treatment. Reading this content does not create a therapeutic relationship with Dr. Yvette Curtis or Trauma Recovery Institute.
Dr. Yvette Curtis provides psychotherapy services to individuals located in Alaska. Individuals outside Alaska may participate in destination intensive therapy when legally and clinically appropriate. If you are experiencing thoughts of suicide or self-harm, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or seek emergency medical assistance.
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