Trauma can leave you anxious, on guard, disconnected, or unsure whether you can trust your body. This may follow a single event, repeated experiences, or an ongoing situation such as cancer treatment, chronic illness, pain, or difficult medical care.
I’m Marissa Gilbert, LCSW, MS, an EMDRIA Certified Therapist and cancer survivor. I offer trauma and EMDR therapy for adults in Austin and Lakeway, with online care in Texas and Virginia. My work includes PTSD, complex or developmental trauma, medical trauma, and the uncertainty that can continue through treatment and survivorship.
We start with what is affecting you now. Together we choose support that fits your current needs, check how it is landing, and leave time to close the session. You do not have to tell every detail of your history or push into a memory before you are ready. Learn about EMDR therapy or read the frequently asked questions.
You may dread the next scan, feel anxious before an appointment, or find yourself bracing for another symptom. Even after treatment ends, it can be hard to feel at ease in your body. You don’t have to call it medical trauma to ask for support.
A diagnosis, surgery, hospital stay, cancer treatment, or an upcoming scan may affect your sense of safety and agency, even when care is needed and helpful. We can account for your treatment schedule, energy, and the uncertainty you are living with.
We can pause, reduce the intensity, or return to grounding. We pay attention to whether you can stay oriented and make choices, and we protect time to finish the session. Trauma processing is not something you have to force.
Yes. Medical experiences can bring earlier trauma patterns back into focus, especially when your body, safety, or sense of control feels uncertain. Therapy can make space for both the current medical stress and the older experiences it may touch.
Both can affect attention, relationships, body trust, and daily functioning. We can work with that overlap while staying focused on what feels useful and manageable now.
Trauma can affect how you feel in your body, relate to others, and move through daily life. We start with what is hardest now and what feels manageable. You don’t have to tell the whole story or push through a memory before you’re ready.
I draw from EMDR, parts work, and body-based practices. We choose what fits your goals, health, energy, and readiness that day, with room to pause, check in, and change course.
We’ll check what feels useful, what remains hard, and whether the approach fits you. Preparation and steady support matter too; there is no required pace or promised result.
Start Here with a sentence or two about what brings you here. You’ll hear from me by the next business day. We’ll talk about fit, availability, and next steps.
Marissa outlines how EMDR can be an effective modality to treat common symptoms people experience surrounding medical trauma.