Trauma is an emotional, physical, and psychological response to a distressing experience that exceeds one’s ability to cope. It can result from a single event or from ongoing experiences like abuse, neglect, systemic oppression, or chronic stress. Trauma is not defined by the event itself, but by how the individual experiences and processes it.

Trauma can impact the body, brain, and nervous system; affecting mood, behavior, relationships, and a sense of safety or trust in the world. After trauma, individuals can experience acute impacts (Adjustment Disorder, Acute Stress Disorder, or PTSD-Acute Presentation) or long-term impacts (PTSD, Complex-PTSD, Prolonged Grief Disorder). At Aviva, we recognize that trauma is complex and personal. We utilized trauma-informed care to help individuals learn to cope after trauma.

At Aviva, our trauma-informed care approach recognizes the impact of trauma on emotional, physical, and psychological safety. We begin by asking “What happened to you?”, rather than “What’s wrong with you?”. This person-first assessment with compassion and without judgment acknowledges that trauma impacts how individuals think, feel, relate, and cope. Using this lens, we aim to avoid re-traumatization while promoting healing and resilience.

At Aviva, trauma-informed care means creating a supportive, collaborative environment where clients feel seen, heard, and empowered. We offer both integrative and manualized treatments for trauma.

Manualized treatments include:

Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) - CPT is a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy specifically developed for individuals who live with PTSD. CPT is brief, usually completed in 10 -14 weekly sessions. CPT assists individuals in recognizing and challenging negative or unhelpful trauma-related thoughts thereby reducing the frequency and intensity of PTSD symptoms.


Written Exposure Therapy (WET) - WET is a brief, manualized treatment for trauma, shown to produce lasting symptom reduction. Clients are guided through writing assignments about the trauma over 5-sessions. This treatment is shown to be highly effective in follow-up studies, with a reduction in symptoms lasting 12-months post-treatment.

Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) - PE is a 15-week structured treatment for PTSD that aims to reduce avoidance behaviors and associated fear responses through systematic desensitization. It includes psychoeducation and breathing training and can include imaginal exposure and/or in vivo exposure.