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Cathy Alexander

LCSW, 20 years of experience
Solution oriented
Authentic
Empowering
VirtualAvailable

My primary tool for helping clients with trauma is ImTT or Image Transformation Therapy. ImTT works using imagery and the breath to release triggers that are related to past trauma. Releasing triggers allows you to make choices based on what's happening now not what you body has decided is a threat because of the past. Mindfulness and somatic practices as well as self-care tools are valuable to support the work. They help clients heal and reset their nervous system from the inside out. This helps you choose to be present in the world. It does so in a safe and gentle way. The ability to calm an activated nervous system is one of the most valuable tools you can use for good mental health. If this speaks to you reach out and schedule a time to meet. I would love to work with you.

Get to know me

In our first session together, here's what you can expect

We’ll start with brief introductions, then look at the most pressing challenge you’re facing. You may just need to talk things out to start. Sometimes beginning with letting it all out can be a great pressure release. Or, we can jump right in to whatever brings you here. We'll identify tools you use now and ways to maximize their effectiveness. We'll also talk about new ways to cope and function through the healing process.

The biggest strengths that I bring into our sessions

Symptoms of ADHD and trauma history can look a lot alike. There are many similarities in how to maximize your functioning with either or a combination of both. I’ve worked extensively and successfully with both using the above mentioned therapeutic tools, as well as coaching and alternative modalities (meditation, mindfulness and self-care). We will work together to ensure what will work best for you. Schedule an initial session and discover how we can work to meet your needs.

The clients I'm best positioned to serve

Most of my clients are women in their 40’s and better who want to transform their fear and increase their capacity for more. More love, more joy, more peace, more pleasure. I also work with professional women with ADHD. It’s not uncommon to have the symptoms of ADHD with a history of trauma. There are a lot of similarities. The tools I work with are extremely effective for ADHD symptoms with trauma history. Fight, flight and freeze or fawn are reactions that occur when a person feels they are in danger. These reactions are automatic and repeated when events occur that feel similar to past traumatic events but may not pose actual danger. Most often clients are unaware that they are reacting. Typically, awareness is limited to feelings of anxiety or depression and not knowing what needs to happen to relieve it. I help women navigate and change their reactions and their behavior to be in alignment with their values and goals. Understanding clearly what’s happening, knowing your strengths and best ways to use them, learning and developing more are all things we’ll address. We’ll go at your pace so you feel safe making the progress you want to make in your time.

SpecialtiesTop specialties
Trauma and PTSD
Other specialties
ADHD
Anxiety
I identify as
White
Woman
Serves ages
Adults (18 to 64)
Elders (65 and above)
Licensed in
California
Accepts
Aetna
Location
Virtual
My treatment methods

Trauma Informed Care

ImTT stands for Image Transformation Therapy. It is a method for releasing traumatic memories from the body to reduce triggering. It is a gentle method that does not require re-experiencing the original event. I've been working with it successfully for over 4 years. Clients are able to be present and respond to their current experience rather than react from a place of fear their brain and body remember and is no longer necessary to stay safe. Clients develop interpersonal skills that allow them to experience and develop healthy relationships.

Strength-Based

Coming to life from your strengths is incredibly empowering. You’ve come this far some how. What has brought you this far in your life? We will explore just what those things you've learned and used over the years. When you can name the things you’ve used to achieve the level of success you have they become easier to access. Recognizing you aren’t broken and do have strengths you can build on can be very empowering.

Mindfulness-Based Therapy

It’s helpful to stay grounded to make choices that are in alignment with our beliefs and values. Traumatic experiences can sometimes teach us to check out and not be present. Dissociation is a tool that might have helped us feel safer and manage threatening events we’ve been exposed. It can be useful even now. Getting to choose our state of being at a given time can help us to keep in that alignment of who we are and want to be. Mindfulness practices can build our capacity to stay in the moment where we can meet life fully.

, 28 ratings

7 ratings with written reviews

January 9, 2026

A truly knowledgeable, supportive, and compassionate therapist who offers so many tools, strategies and techniques for managing complex trauma, depression and anxiety, while, also holding the space, allowing me to discover my own strengths to support my healing. I personally, feel so grateful for our sessions and feel very understood and held in a safe place with Cathy!

Verified client, age 45-54
Review shared after session 97 with Cathy

June 30, 2025

Therapist Cathy Alexander has a suttle yet poignant therapeutic approach towards healing trauma. She has calm focus and support techniques that allow the client to "capture and release" their physical and emotional traumas held deep inside their bodies. My traumatic pain has been endured consciously and unconsciously since childhood. It is such a relief to me to have a therapist that can initiate, sustain and support this kind of therapeutic work with her clients.

Verified client, age 65+
Review shared after session 5 with Cathy

June 4, 2025

My husband has anxiety and she is an older mature woman with life experiences. I will follow her suggestions.

Verified client, age 65+
Review shared after session 1 with Cathy