Julie supports adults healing from developmental trauma, medical trauma, and complex trauma and PTSD. Her trauma therapy integrates EMDR, somatic work, and attachment-focused parts work to help clients reprocess painful experiences, build nervous system safety, and restore agency. Julie offers paced, relational care for clients experiencing freeze, dissociation, hypervigilance, and other trauma-related responses.

Julie Sliga, LPC is a trauma-informed therapist in Portland, Oregon offering evidence-based, mind-body therapy for chronic pain, chronic illness, trauma, anxiety, and work stress and burnout. Her approach integrates EMDR, Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), CBT, and somatic and polyvagal-informed practices. Julie also incorporates attachment-focused therapy and parts work rooted in relational neuroscience and attachment-based care. She provides in-person sessions on Fridays and telehealth across Oregon. Julie provides trauma-informed career counseling through a trauma-informed lens, supporting clients facing burnout, work stress, neurodivergence, and complex relationships with productivity and identity. Julie is in-network with PacificSource and CareOregon (OHP/Medicaid), and offers a limited number of sliding-scale therapy sessions based on availability.

 Therapy for Trauma & PTSD

You’ve Adapted in Ways That Kept You Safe

Therapy That Helps You Regulate & Reconnect

Safety wasn’t always an option. But we can practice it now.

Trauma doesn’t just live in memory—it lives in the body, in the patterns we repeat, and in the parts of ourselves we had to leave behind to stay safe.

It can look like hyper-independence. Disconnection. People-pleasing. Shame. Rage. Numbness. Exhaustion. Chronic pain. Unexplained health symptoms. A constant hum of “something’s wrong” without knowing what.

Sometimes trauma comes from something identifiable. Other times, it comes from what wasn’t there: protection, attunement, safety, love. What we often call "complex trauma" is the slow ache of unmet needs, boundaryless caregiving, emotional neglect, or growing up with a parent who couldn’t see you clearly.

In therapy, we start with noticing. Slowing down. Listening to the parts of you that had to adapt in order to survive. And then, gently, we begin to offer those parts something new: safety, softness, curiosity, choice.

We’ll build safety slowly by returning again and again to small moments of connection, self-understanding, and ease. Sometimes it’s in the tiny shifts—the breath that lands, the boundary that holds, the moment of softness—that something new begins to grow.

You don’t have to go back and relive everything to move forward. But we can let your body know you’re listening now. And things can be different.

What I’ve Learned From Listening

I’ve learned that trauma doesn’t always announce itself. It can live quietly—in the way someone flinches at kindness, avoids rest, or feels like they have to do everything alone.

It can live in the body, in symptoms no one could explain. And it often lives in the places where needs went unmet, not just in what went wrong.

I’ve learned that you don’t have to go back and relive everything to move forward. You don’t have to tell the story perfectly—or even remember all of it. Sometimes, just showing up with curiosity is enough to start.

And if and when someone wants to go deeper, we can. That might mean processing memories through EMDR, exploring the shape of old stories through narrative therapy, or gently untangling protective patterns.

You set the course—and I’ll respect your boundaries every step of the way.

Start Therapy for Trauma

Begin the Inquiry Process.

We Often Talk About:

Attachment • Anxiety • Body-Based Memory • Boundaries • Caretaking Patterns • Chronic Pain • Complex Trauma • Dissociation • Emotional Neglect • Family Systems • Fawn Response • Flashbacks • Freeze • Grief • Hypervigilance • Identity • Inner Child Work • Intrusive Thoughts • Narcissistic Parents • Nervous System Regulation • Parentification • Perfectionism • PTSD • Reparenting • Resilience • Safety • Self-Compassion • Self-Protection • Somatic Awareness • Survival Strategies • Triggers • Trust • Unmet Needs • Voice & Visibility

My Philosophy of Care

In trauma work, we don’t rush. We build safety from the inside out—with respect for your pace, your body, and your story. I believe healing happens in relationship—with yourself, your nervous system, and a therapist who can meet you with steadiness and compassion.