Trauma and PTSD therapy in Atlanta, at a pace you set
You will not be asked to recount the worst thing that happened to you in week one. Trauma work that moves too fast is not brave, it is careless.
Dr. Aaron J. Kimble · PhD · MA · MBA · LPC · NCC · Georgia #LPC014380
In person in Midtown Atlanta, or by secure video in GA, FL, VT, SC and NY.
Eight years in practiceMore than 5,000 direct client hours with individuals, couples and families.
Treating what happened as history, not as a character flaw
People often arrive apologizing for their own reactions. They describe jumping at a sound, going blank in an argument, or feeling nothing at a moment that should have moved them, and they present it as evidence that something is wrong with them as a person.
It is almost never a character problem. It is a nervous system that learned something under pressure and has not been told the pressure ended. That distinction matters, because you cannot reason your way out of a character flaw, but you can absolutely work with a learned response.
The first thing we establish is pacing. There is a persistent idea that trauma therapy means describing the event in detail as soon as possible, and that getting through it quickly is a sign of courage. In practice, going too fast tends to confirm the nervous system's original conclusion that the world is not safe. So we build the ability to tolerate the material before we go near the material. Sometimes that stage is most of the work.
I draw on somatic approaches, because the body holds a great deal of this, and on Internal Family Systems, which is particularly useful when the response formed young and now operates on its own. Psychodynamic work has a place when the pattern reaches back further than any single event. I have particular experience with athletes, military veterans and first responders, populations where the culture around admitting difficulty is its own obstacle.
You might be here because
- Something happened and you have never described it out loud to anyone.
- You react to ordinary things in ways that embarrass you afterward.
- You go blank or numb in moments that clearly warrant a feeling.
- Sleep is either impossible or full of things you would rather not see.
- You are constantly scanning rooms and cannot switch it off.
- Your job has exposed you to things you were expected to absorb without comment.
- It happened a long time ago and you assumed it was dealt with.
- You have been told you are overreacting often enough that you now assume you are.
- Your body reacts before you have decided anything.
- You want to work on it and you are afraid of what starting will unleash.
What we work on together
Single-incident trauma
One event, clear in memory, still shaping how you move through the world. Paced, structured work that does not require you to relive it to resolve it.
Developmental and complex trauma
Where it was not one event but a childhood of them. Internal Family Systems is especially useful when the response formed before you had words for it.
Occupational exposure
Military veterans, first responders, and anyone whose job involved repeatedly absorbing other people's worst days as a professional requirement.
Athletes and performance environments
Injury, career-ending moments, and the specific problem of coming from a culture where admitting difficulty is treated as weakness.
The body's part in it
Startle, freeze, shutdown and the physical residue. Somatic work, because you cannot talk a nervous system out of something it learned physically.
Trauma inside relationships
How old material arrives in current relationships behaving as though it is happening now, and what changes when both partners can see the mechanism.
Going slowly is not a lack of progress. For a nervous system that learned the world moves too fast, going slowly is the intervention.Dr. Aaron J. Kimble
How it works
A $25 consultation
Fifteen minutes, and you do not have to say what happened. You can book this having told me almost nothing, and that is a perfectly normal way to start.
Stability before excavation
We build tolerance and resourcing first. Nothing gets opened before you have somewhere to put it, and you hold the brakes throughout.
In person or by video
The Midtown Atlanta office on Peachtree, or secure video. Some clients find their own space steadier for this work.
What you can expect from me
- You will never be pushed to disclose something before you are ready. That is not a courtesy, it is the method.
- You control the pace and can stop any line of conversation without explaining why.
- Plain language about what we are doing and why, so nothing feels like something being done to you.
- Honesty about scope. If you need a level of care I do not provide, I will say so and help you find it.
Fees & Insurance
$185 / individual · $220 / couples
Initial consultation $25. In network with Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, CareSource, Cigna, Optum, and UnitedHealthcare. Sliding scale available.