If you’ve had a traumatic experience or have been diagnosed with PTSD, you might find yourself avoiding reminders of the experience, not sleeping or having nightmares, or reliving moments you wish you could just forget. These experiences have a way of getting locked into our nervous system and encoded with all the raw data from the moment the incident occurred. Trauma therapy is learning to remember with less pain so you can chose your responses rather than being held captive by flashbacks and body triggers.
Joshua Tree Counselors
Rachel Lohrman, LPC-S
Trauma Therapist, Licensed
Rachel Lohrman is a Licensed Professional Counselor and an AZBBHE approved clinical supervisor. She is the founder of Joshua Tree Counseling and a trauma therapist. She is passionate about helping adults heal from complex trauma and dissociative disorders. She specializes in the treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and offers Christian counseling when requested by clients. Rachel is also an AZBBHE approved Clinical Supervisor and currently supervises Natalie Bowman, LAC, Elena Flores, LMSW, Mary McGuire, LMSW, Lauren Marks, Intern, and Faith Holz, Intern Therapist.
How Rachel Can Help You
Are you struggling with a painful past? Is your trauma catching up to you in ways that are making life distressing, overwhelming, or unlivable? You may want to consider trauma therapy with a licensed therapist skilled in treating complex trauma, dissociation, and suicidality. Rachel believes that healing is possible and will walk alongside you on your journey to freedom, healing, and inner peace.
Whether this is the first time you’ve considered therapy or therapy has failed you in the past, Rachel will partner with you and walk alongside you on your journey – holding the when you can’t.
Rachel's Approach
She takes a holistic and integrative approach to healing, working with the mind, body, and emotions. You’ll find her to be real, relational, validating, and encouraging yet direct enough that therapy is challenging when it needs to be.
She uses the therapeutic relationship as the foundation for healing and draws from a variety of models to craft a counseling experience that best fits the needs, goals, and personalities of her clients.
Rachel believes that no one counseling model/approach is better than any others; they all have the potential to bring clients hope and healing. She is trained in EMDR, Trauma Model Therapy, Deep Brain Reorienting, and is IFS (Internal Family Systems) Informed. Her approach to therapy has been most influenced by Colin Ross, MD; Sandra Paulsen, PhD; Richard Swartz, PhD; and Francine Shapiro, PhD.
Trauma therapy is more like an archeological excavation than digging for treasure. Soft brushes, time and layers are needed, not a shovel, haste and brute force.
Client Focus
Individuals 25+
Fees
$130 per 55 minutes
Does not accept insurance
Will provide superbills
Specialty Areas
Trauma/Complex Trauma
PTSD/C-PTSD
Dissociative Disorders
Dissociative Identity Disorder
Attachment Wounding
Childhood Abuse – Emotional, Verbal, Physical, Sexual
Organized Sadistic Abuse/SRA
Cult Recovery/Spiritual Wounding
Borderline Personality Disorder
Suicidality
Approaches
Ego State Therapy (EST)
Clinical Hypnosis
Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)
Trauma Model Therapy (TMT)
Neuroaffective Embodied Self-System Therapy (NEST)
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)
Somatic Psychology
Attachment Theory
Enneagram Informed
Christian-Based
Credentials
MS, Professional Counseling
BA, Psychology
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AZ LPC -20943
OK LPC -11032
National Certified Counselor
AZ Approved Clinical Supervisor 52806
IFS Informed (2023)
Certified Personality Disorder Treatment Provider (C-PD)
Trauma Model Therapy Certified (TMT-C)
EMDR Trained (2018)
DBR Trained (2023)
Join Rachel's Waitlist
Please note: Rachel only works with adults age 25 and older. Please use the form below to reach out to Rachel to begin the process of trauma therapy. If you’re willing to take cancellation spots for awhile you will get in sooner.
Trauma & PTSD
EMDR Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a trauma therapy that helps connect negative memories stored in a raw, fragmentated state with positive or more adaptive bits of knowledge or memory. It’s a unique trauma therapy because it doesn’t require you to talk your experience to death or share intimate details. Processing your painful experiences using EMDR means you can make sense of what happened to you and finally consider it a memory rather than a traumatic experience.
Emotional Abuse
Emotional abuse is devastating and particularly because the wounds are visible like welts or bruises yet this type of abuse leaves us scarred nonetheless. Emotional abuse can occur from parents, other caregivers, partners, spouses, and adult children towards their parents or parents towards adult children. If you feel wounded in the context of a relationship with another, I want to share in your pain and help you make sense of the messages that feel true and guide you through the process of rewriting them if you choose.
Dissociation & DID
I am trained and experienced in the treatment of dissociative disorders including Dissociative Identity Disorder. Healing from DID takes time and commitment but it IS possible. Derealization, depersonalization, Borderline Personality Disorder, and even PTSD are on the dissociative continuum. Odds are, if you have experienced trauma, especially complex trauma, you have used dissociation as a skill to cope and survive. Now, as an adult, those same skills may have become a hinderance and you may be striving for more control. I can help you figure out where you are on the dissociative continuum and adjust down to a spot that feels more comfortable and gives you the best chance as living the life you want to live.
Christian Counseling
I am a Christian and offer counseling from a Christian perspective and worldview IF this is YOUR preference. As a licensed counselor, these beliefs and values are not something I am permitted to impose of you so you have to open the door.
I have found that many clients have been wounded by faith, Christians, or the Church and they would rather not integrate faith into counseling but rather find comfort that I know the Christian faith. Other times, clients seek me out specifically because they want counseling from a Biblical perspective and like for prayer, Scripture, and a Christian worldview woven into therapy. What’s important for you to know is that no matter where you find yourself on a faith journey, I’ll meet you where you’re at and provide professional, compassionate counseling in line with your preferences. If faith is of no importance to you, that’s okay too, I work with clients from all walks of life with a variety of belief systems.
Childhood Abuse
A common belief that develops from childhood abuse is that you don’t matter, that you’re worthless, and that you are the problem. This was likely learned before you even have narrative memory. It could be encoded in your body which means when you’re triggered you may not even know why.
But it’s not true, it just what you learned to believe in order to survive. You may have learned that your needs don’t matter. I want you to know that you DO matter. Trauma therapy is not about increasing your self-worth, it is often about dismantling your self-hatred.
Suicidal Ideation
No one likes to talk about having suicidal thoughts or ideas. The reality is that many people struggle with this in silence or – when they do talk about it – they are told they are attention-seeking. I see suicidal ideation as a cry of pain, one that tells me just how deeply you are wounded. My office is a safe space to explore what is underlying your thoughts about suicide. I have experience helping clients move from hopeless to stability and healing.
Anxiety
Anxiety is as common as it is unique to the individual. Anxiety is felt in our bodies and experienced as thoughts in our minds. Sometimes we know our triggers, often we do not. I can help you learn to sooth your nervous system so anxiety doesn’t control you life, relationships, and decisions.
On a More Personal Note
I am a Christian living out my life in response to God’s gift of salvation given through grace and His calling upon my life to help those who feel hopeless. I have horses and dogs. Henry is my soul dog and we love long walks and hikes on the weekends and meals on restaurant patios. I love to read and learn; I’m an Enneagram 5w4; Jane Eyre is my favorite novel; I love being an auntie (tRach) to my nieces and nephews; and I enjoy cozy spaces. Tucson has and will always be my home; I married my husband in 2004 and together we raised children whom we adopted from foster care.