Relief for the strong. Healing for what your body still holds.
Trauma and EMDR therapy in Las Vegas and across Nevada for high-achieving adults who survived sexual abuse, assault, high-control, religious, or shame-based homes.
You learned to stay quiet, stay small, and stay strong. Now your nervous system is exhausted. You don’t have to carry this alone anymore.
If you grew up in chaos, control, or silence, it makes sense that your body still feels unsafe.
Trust Wounds That Never Healed
• Betrayal trauma that rewired your nervous system
• Church hurt, spiritual abuse, purity culture, or harmful religious teachings you’re still trying to untangle
• Relationships where love meant silence, control, or performing
• Shame so deep it shapes every connection
• Feeling like “people don’t want me around”
When Your Mind Won’t Turn Off
• Thought loops that never shut off
• Anxiety that feels like a second heartbeat
• Feeling “broken,” “too much,” or “never enough”
• Fear that something is wrong with you
Survival Patterns You Learned Young
• People-pleasing and fawning to stay safe
• Avoiding conflict or emotions because they were dangerous growing up
• Following strict religious rules out of fear, not choice
• Hyper-independence: “I can’t rely on anyone but myself”
• Taking responsibility for everyone else’s feelings
• Feeling like “if I don’t do it, it doesn’t get done”
Deep Fears You Don’t Say Out Loud
• Being abandoned, rejected, or forgotten
• Letting people see the “real you”
• Worry that questioning your beliefs makes you “bad,” “broken,” or “wrong”
• Passing down the same pain you survived
• Fear that every milestone your child reaches reopens old wounds
• Believing “healing is possible for others, but not for me”
Worn-Out Coping That Used to Work
• Emotional numbness or shutdown
• Perfectionism as survival mode
• Burnout so deep even rest doesn’t fix it
• Substances, scrolling, or checking out to escape the pressure
• Feeling “I should be feeling, but I don’t”
• Feeling “I don't know who that person is who came out of me”
You are not broken. You adapted.
You didn’t end up this way by accident. Trauma may have shaped you, but it doesn’t have to define you.
When you grow up in a childhood home where love, safety, identity, or faith were controlled, your body learns to survive, not to rest. This is what what long-term trauma from high-control, religious, or chaotic homes feels like.
Clients often tell me things like:
“I feel like I’m always bracing for something.”
“I never learned how to feel safe.”
“I don’t know who I am when I’m not the strong one.”
And when you’ve spent decades fawning, freezing, or disappearing to stay safe,
of course you feel exhausted.
Of course you feel shut down.
Of course your nervous system feels stuck in survival mode.
But it doesn’t have to stay this way.
You don’t need to be perfect.
You don’t need a plan.
You don’t need to “fix yourself.”
You’re not broken: your body adapted.
You just have to show up as you are: messy, human, and honest.
This is where EMDR and nervous-system-based trauma therapy help you reconnect to the parts of you that were silenced, shamed, or controlled — especially if you grew up in a high-control, religious, or chaotic home.
Healing begins when you stop trying to earn your worth…
and start remembering it was never lost.
How EMDR Helps You Heal
What Your Body Still Holds
A trauma therapy that works gently with your nervous
system - not against it. EMDR helps your nervous system soften, release the fear it’s been holding, and recognize: “I’m safe now.”
Calm the alarms your body has been carrying
Trauma lives in your body, especially when you’ve spent years scanning for danger or bracing for the next thing to go wrong.
EMDR helps your nervous system stop overprotecting you so you can feel grounded again.
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“I feel lighter, like something unhooked.”
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“I can finally breathe all the way down into my stomach.”
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“My body believes it’s actually over.”
These aren’t comforting thoughts, they’re the real physical shifts people feel when healing is actually happening.
Release the stuck places, safely
You don’t have to re-tell your story or relive anything.
We move at your nervous system’s pace: slow, steady, regulated.
From the last 12 months (Oct 2024–Oct 2025) in my EMDR practice in Las Vegas, the most common emotional shifts were peace, relief, calm, gratitude, and lightness.
Build a life that feels like yours
More ease in your body. More clarity in your mind. More presence in your life.
EMDR helps your mind and body finally agree: “I’m safe now.”
Clients describe this stage as:
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“I can trust myself.”
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“I don’t need to hold it anymore.”
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“I’m finally enough.”
Meet Rachel Hansen, LCSW
I’m a trauma therapist in Las Vegas who works with high-achieving adults carrying the weight of childhood trauma, sexual abuse, and growing up in high-control, shame-based homes. I specialize in EMDR therapy and nervous-system-based trauma treatment for adults from high-control, religious, or chaotic backgrounds.
My work is gentle, steady, and rooted in the nervous system, helping your body finally feel safe in ways it never had the chance to before.
For over a decade, I’ve helped people heal the parts of themselves they thought were too much, too broken, or too far gone.
You don’t have to be ready to believe in healing yet.
I’ll hold that hope for you until you can.
I offer in-person therapy in Las Vegas and virtual trauma therapy for clients across Nevada, New Jersey, and Colorado.
