Confidential | Trauma-Informed | Virtual StatewideSupport for Loved Ones of Trauma Survivors
Collaborative therapeutic support for children, family, partners, and friends affected by secondary traumatic stress.
Supporting someone through trauma changes you, too
When someone you love has experienced sexual violence, domestic abuse, or stalking, their pain doesn't stay contained. You carry it with you: the fear, the helplessness, the constant vigilance. You might feel exhausted trying to say the right thing, do the right thing, or just be enough.
This page is about your well-being. Not about fixing them or doing therapy on their behalf. It's about acknowledging that loving a survivor is hard, and that you deserve support too.
You're carrying a lotWhen you're supporting a survivor, it can look like:
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Feeling constantly on alert for their moods or triggers
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Carrying fear, anger, or grief you don't know where to put
Suppressing your own needs to "stay strong" for them
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Walking on eggshells to avoid making things worse
Replaying what happened and wishing you could have prevented it
Struggling with resentment, guilt, or burnout
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Feeling isolated because others don't understand
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Questioning your role, your boundaries, or your responsibility
What therapy for loved ones of survivors focuses on
Secondary trauma—also called vicarious trauma—happens when you're affected by someone else's traumatic experience. You might not have been there when it happened, but you feel the weight of it.
Therapy for loved ones is a confidential space for you to process your own experience. It's not about reporting back to the survivor or learning how to "handle" them better. It's about understanding what's happening in your body and mind, and developing tools to take care of yourself while still being present for the person you love.
Your sessions are private. What you say in therapy stays in therapy.
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This support may be helpful if you are:A co-parent navigating trauma-related stress
A loved one supporting someone in active recovery
Someone experiencing secondary trauma, burnout, or emotional fatigue
A partner or spouse of a survivor
A parent or caregiver
A close friend or chosen family member
How we work with you
Healing
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you” - Maya Angelou
We specialize in the trauma most providers aren't trained to treat. We offer trauma-specific individual, relational, and communal healing practices tailored to promote whole person healing rather than applying generalist approaches.
Connecting
“Healing happens in community, never in isolation” - Bell Hooks
We become your healing partners, growing and walking alongside you. We foster meaningful connections through shared communal healing practices interwoven within our survivor-centered retreats, workshops, and therapeutic group offerings.
Growing
"To untangle the present, we must first understand how the threads were first woven.”
We empower your recovery with deep trauma-specific insight and exclusive access our honey hive, where survivors can access knowledge provided by experts within the field of power based personal violence.
Blooming
"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." - Maya Angelou
We understand that even in the blooming era of healing, there still may be moments where you need additional support. This is why we offer individual drop-in maintenance sessions and continued access to all of our therapeutic offerings.
Therapy is tailored to your needs and may draw from:
Trauma-informed talk therapy / Somatic-based approaches / Internal Family Systems (IFS) / DBT-informed skills for emotional regulation / Psychodynamic and relational work / Psychoeducation around trauma, boundaries, and nervous system responses
MEET THE TeamWe've built our practice around supporting survivors
Our licensed providers have dedicated their careers to supporting survivors of sexual violence, domestic abuse, stalking, and complex trauma. We're not generalists trying to do everything. This is what we do, and we do it well.
At Honey & Twine Counseling, our team is led by survivors and trained specialists who know that healing from trauma requires more than textbook knowledge. It requires lived understanding, deep compassion, and specialized expertise.
Whether you're looking for EMDR, somatic therapy, DBT, or trauma-informed expressive arts psychotherapy, our team brings evidence-based approaches tailored to your needs. We work with individuals, families, children, and adolescents across California.
Getting started is easy
Step 1: Fill Out Our Confidential Inquiry Form
Click the request an appointment button to show our initial intake appointment availability and pre-screener form; this brief form should take clients roughly 5-10 minutes to complete. Once submitted, clients should expect to receive an email, text, and/or call back response (based on indicated preferred contact method) within 24 to 48 hours from one of our clinical intake team members.
Step 2: Meet With Our Intake Coordinator
Before your intake appointment, we'll send you a clear billing breakdown so there are no surprises. You'll fill out intake forms online (just a few clicks), then show up and start. Most clients begin within the same week.
It is important to note that all initial intake appointments will be held virtually by our clinical intake coordinator unless otherwise specified by one of our staff. In-person appointment requests can be scheduled to take place within our Long Beach office after the initial intake appointment is completed.
Step 3: Get Matched With Your Provider
Based on your needs, preferences, insurance, and schedule, we'll match you with the right clinician & service offerings from our team. We have clinicians with different specialties, approaches, and identities because the right fit matters.
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Yes. Secondary trauma is real. You don't have to have experienced the violence directly to be affected by it. Your pain and exhaustion are valid, and you deserve support.
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No, unless you want it to. Your sessions are confidential and focused on you. If you're interested in couples or family therapy down the line, we can talk about that, but individual therapy for loved ones is about your well-being, not theirs.
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Yes. You can benefit from therapy even if the survivor isn't ready for it yet. Taking care of yourself doesn't depend on their choices.
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It depends on what you need. Some people come for a few months to process a specific situation. Others stay longer to work through ongoing stress or relationship dynamics. There's no timeline.
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Yes. We accept Aetna, Cigna, Blue Shield of California, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and UnitedHealthcare/Optum. We also work with out-of-network benefits through Thrizer.
COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT Survivor supportFrequently Asked Questions
Your well-being matters, too
You don't have to do this alone. Taking care of yourself isn't selfish. It's necessary. And it might be the most important thing you can do, both for yourself and for the person you're supporting.