Trauma & PTSD Treatment

Somatic Therapy, EMDR, Internal Family Systems, EMDR Certification

Therapy and counseling is a courageous decision that you have made to tap back into your innate goodness and your inherent wisdom. It is a commitment to embarking on a journey of integrated change and true healing.

I specialize in trauma treatment, and my goal is to guide and support you in facing your fears, to offer a space for you to bring all of who you are and to support the embodiment of your unique transformation. If we can learn to look at every exchange in this life as our pathway to overcome, learn, rise, and expand, it becomes much easier to accept and rest in the knowing that we are on our way to transcending a way of previously being.

EMDR, IFS, and Somatic Experiencing are utilized in my work as a trauma therapist as a means to restore a sense of calm and centered connection within the brain and body. You already have a wellspring of healing energy within you; one of my main goals is to help you reconnect with it. I believe that with support, guided exercises, skill teaching, facing hard truths, and with compassionate practice, we can stretch the borders of our current consciousness and land deeper in the seat of our higher self.

Whatever your unique story, I am passionate and motivated to help you unlock your full potential, and I offer a sacred space for you to move past your shame and rebuild trust with your inherent healing intelligence. I am honored to guide and support you on your recovery journey.

Cristina Smugala Licensed Professional Counselor, MA, LPC

Owner of Restoring Clarity Counseling Cristina Smugala

With Restoring Clarity Counseling:

  • You can tell your story free of shame. Your story is valid and deserves to be heard.
  • Develop an understanding of how your life experiences have shaped your way of functioning in the world.
  • Get a grasp on how trauma has informed your self-worth, your default mode network, and how you relate to others.
  • Learn to feel secure in your relationships and with trusting yourself.
  • Practice responding to yourself with compassion and to others with boundaries.
  • Tap into the resilient core part of you that wants the very best for you.
  • Learn about your underlying fears, cope with them, and face them.
  • Trust your own voice again, without trauma interceding around every corner.
CONTACT CRISTINA TODAY
Cristina Smugala

Together, we can work to:

  • Unveil the resilience within you.
  • Utilize specialized trauma treatment methods to confront the source of your pain and anxiety.
  • Promote healing of the trauma that has gone unresolved for so long now.
  • Help you understand the way you function in your world and in relationships.
  • Locate the courageous part of you that remains untouched by the trauma.
  • Encourage you to tackle the sources of your shame and judgment.
  • Help you feel confident and sound in who you are and all of the gifts you bring to the table.
  • Help you no longer question your self-worth and self-identity.
BEGIN YOUR HEALING JOURNEY

Education, Professional Trainings, and Affiliations

  • Licensed Professional Counselor
  • EMDRIA Approved Consultant
  • Certified Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Clinician
  • MDMA Assisted Psychotherapy: Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
  • Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy: Psychedelic Research and Training Institute
  • Advanced Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy Certification Program: ATMA
  • Somatic Experiencing
  • Internal Family Systems Therapy Trained Clinician
  • Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Model Trained Clinician
  • Trauma Informed Care Trained Trainer and Clinician
  • The Neurophysiology of Addiction and Brain Based Relapse Prevention
  • Culturally Informed Substance Abuse Counseling
  • EMDR Treatment of Addictive and Compulsive Behaviors
  • Summit for Clinical Excellence: Insight and Innovations in Eating Disorder Treatment
  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced Trainings
  • Clinical Core Competency for Trauma, Grief, and Loss Trained Clinician
  • American Counseling Association
  • International Association of Trauma Professionals
  • Emotion Focused Couples Counseling
  • EMDR and Somatic Experiencing an Integrative Approach
  • Healing Attachment Wounds with EMDR Therapy
  • Family Education Facilitator McCallum Place Eating Disorders Treatment Center
  • Therapy St. Louis

I cultivated my professional clinical experience providing services at the following exceptional treatment facilities in the St. Louis Therapy Community:

McCallum Place
​Queen of Peace Center
Center for Life Solutions
Washington University School of Medicine