We provide PTSD treatment in San Diego for adults struggling with the lasting effects of trauma. If you’re dealing with intrusive memories, emotional shutdown, hypervigilance, or the feeling that your mind and body are stuck in a moment you can’t escape, therapy can help.
Jan Rakoff, LCSW has spent over 30 years helping individuals work through trauma responses that disrupt daily life. Our approach is direct, practical, and paced to where you are.
How PTSD Shows Up in Daily Life
Post-traumatic stress doesn’t always look dramatic. For many people it shows up quietly, in patterns that feel confusing or hard to explain:
- Flashbacks or intrusive memories that surface without warning
- Avoiding people, places, or conversations tied to the trauma
- Feeling emotionally numb or detached from the people around you
- Constant alertness, like you’re always waiting for something to go wrong
- Sleep problems, nightmares, or waking up already tense
- Irritability or emotional reactions that feel out of proportion
- Difficulty concentrating or feeling present in your own life
- Persistent shame, guilt, or the belief that what happened was your fault
These are trauma responses, not personality flaws. They are patterns your nervous system developed to protect you. With the right treatment, they can change.
Types of Trauma We Work With
We work with adults across San Diego navigating trauma from various experiences:
Single-Incident Events Accidents, medical emergencies, sudden loss, or assault can overwhelm your system in ways that don’t resolve with time alone. If symptoms have persisted for weeks, months, or years after the event, treatment is the right next step.
Prolonged or Repeated Trauma Chronic stress or patterns of mistreatment over time create deep, lasting effects on how you relate to yourself and others. This often shows up as chronic shame, difficulty trusting, or feeling fundamentally unsafe even when the external situation has changed.
Relationship and Family Trauma Betrayal, emotional abuse, or invalidation within close relationships leaves significant marks. We help you identify how those experiences are still shaping your current responses and build new patterns that feel more stable.
Our Approach to PTSD Treatment
Trauma affects your thoughts, emotions, body, and behavior. We use proven, research-backed methods and tailor the combination to your specific symptoms and history.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) PTSD often leaves behind distorted beliefs about yourself, other people, and your safety in the world. CBT identifies those thought patterns and replaces them with thinking that is more accurate and stabilizing. You learn to evaluate what your mind is telling you instead of automatically believing it.
Exposure Therapy Avoidance is one of the main things that keeps PTSD going. Through gradual, controlled exposure to trauma-related triggers, your nervous system learns to separate the reminder from the original threat. This reduces the intensity of reactions over time and gives you more freedom in daily life.
Mindfulness-Based Techniques Trauma pulls you out of the present and into memories, fears, or emotional flooding. Mindfulness builds your capacity to stay grounded, tolerate uncomfortable sensations without being overwhelmed, and reduce the intensity of intrusive thinking.
Somatic Approaches: Trauma is stored in the body, not just the mind. Breathing techniques, progressive muscle relaxation, and body awareness exercises directly address the physical symptoms of PTSD and help regulate your nervous system between sessions.
Psychodynamic Exploration For some clients, understanding how past experiences shaped current responses is an important part of healing. We explore those connections when it’s useful, helping you make sense of your patterns without staying stuck in them.
Tools You’ll Use Between Sessions
We give you concrete tools to use when symptoms surface in real life:
- Grounding techniques for flashbacks and dissociation
- Breathing exercises to calm your nervous system quickly
- Cognitive tools to interrupt shame-based or catastrophic thinking
- Sleep strategies designed for trauma-related insomnia
- Boundary-setting approaches for relationships affected by trauma
What to Expect
Your First Session We focus on what you’re experiencing now, your symptoms, your triggers, and how PTSD is affecting your work, relationships, and daily functioning. You won’t be pushed to recount your trauma before you’re ready. We build a treatment plan together with realistic goals and a pace that respects where you are.
Timeline Many clients notice early improvements in sleep and daily reactivity within the first few weeks. Deeper symptom reduction develops over several months. We adjust the plan based on your progress, not a fixed schedule.
Session Format We offer in-person sessions at our San Diego office and secure online therapy through HIPAA-compliant video platforms. Online sessions work well for clients whose symptoms make leaving the house difficult or who need scheduling flexibility.
Why Choose Our PTSD Treatment in San Diego
30 Years of Clinical Experience Jan Rakoff, LCSW has spent over three decades working with individuals navigating trauma, grief, anxiety, and relationship challenges. She brings professional training alongside the lived perspective that comes from decades of real-world practice.
Direct and Warm Without Enabling Avoidance We don’t push you faster than you’re ready. But we also won’t let avoidance patterns go unchallenged. Our approach is honest and supportive, focused on real progress rather than just comfort.
Flexible and Confidential Whether you prefer in-person sessions near San Diego’s 56 corridor, convenient to Sorrento Valley, Rancho Bernardo, and Del Mar, or secure online sessions from home, we work around what fits your life.
Take the First Step
PTSD treatment in San Diego can help you move from surviving day to day to actually living, with fewer triggers running the show and a steadier sense of safety in your own body.
Schedule a consultation today to begin your PTSD treatment.
Frequently Asked Questions About PTSD Treatment in San Diego
How do I know if what I’m experiencing is PTSD?
PTSD involves persistent symptoms, including flashbacks, avoidance, emotional numbness, and hypervigilance, that developed following a traumatic experience and continue to interfere with daily life. A clinical assessment will clarify what you’re dealing with and what treatment fits best.
Do I have to talk about what happened in detail?
No. We don’t require a full retelling of your trauma, especially early in treatment. We begin by building stability and understanding your current symptoms. Any deeper trauma work is paced and done collaboratively.
How long does PTSD treatment take?
It varies. Some clients notice meaningful change within 8 to 12 weeks. Others need several months to work through deeper patterns. We evaluate regularly and adjust based on what you’re experiencing.
Can PTSD be treated if the trauma happened years ago?
Yes. The length of time since the trauma doesn’t determine how treatable it is. Many clients seeking PTSD treatment in San Diego are working through experiences from years or decades earlier.
Is online PTSD treatment as effective as in-person?
Research shows online therapy achieves similar outcomes to in-person care for most clients. We offer both and will help you choose the format that works best for your situation.
What if I’ve tried therapy before and it didn’t help?
Different therapists use different methods. If a previous approach wasn’t the right fit, that doesn’t mean treatment can’t work. We can talk through what happened before and build a plan based on what your specific symptoms actually need.
