Isabel Garcia Ospina

Trauma changes the way we relate to ourselves. Sometimes it’s a single, overwhelming event. Sometimes it’s the quieter, cumulative experiences — emotional neglect, chronic stress, immigration, cultural displacement, attachment ruptures — that teach our nervous system to stay on guard. Over time, survival strategies become identity. Hyper-independence looks like strength. Perfectionism looks like success. Emotional shutdown looks like composure. But underneath those adaptations are parts of you that once had to carry too much alone. My work begins from a simple but powerful belief: your system makes sense. Through a trauma-informed and non-pathologizing lens, I view anxiety, self-criticism, people-pleasing, numbing, or reactivity not as dysfunction — but as protective responses. In Internal Family Systems (IFS), we understand that when something overwhelming happens, our system reorganizes to survive it. Protective parts step in. Vulnerable parts get pushed into the background. And life continues — often successfully — but internally fragmented. Healing is not about eliminating those protectors. It’s about helping them feel safe enough to soften. I am a multilingual, board-certified art psychotherapist trained in IFS, EMDR, and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. My approach integrates creative arts therapy, mindfulness, nervous system regulation, and evidence-based trauma treatment. But modalities are not the heart of this work. Relationship is. In our sessions, we move at the speed of safety. We build stabilization first — helping your body settle, helping your system trust the room. Then, when your protectors are ready, we gently begin to listen to the parts of you that carry the original wounds. We unburden shame. We restore dignity. We strengthen what IFS calls Self-energy — the calm, courageous, compassionate core within you that trauma never destroyed, only obscured. I am especially drawn to clients who are ready to go deeper. Individuals who sense that their coping strategies, though brilliant, are no longer enough. Clients who are curious about their patterns rather than eager to label them. People who want integration, not just symptom reduction. This is courageous work. It asks you to turn toward what you once had to turn away from. It asks your system to trust that it no longer has to survive alone. Accessibility matters deeply to me. I work exclusively with out-of-network insurance and provide courtesy billing, submitting claims on your behalf so you can access your out-of-network benefits with less administrative stress. I also hold a limited number of reduced-fee spaces so that financial barriers do not prevent access to long-term trauma-informed care. My commitment is to create a culturally sensitive, deeply respectful space where every part of you is welcome — especially the ones shaped by trauma. You are not broken. Your system adapted. If something in you is ready to move from surviving to living with more coherence and compassion, I would be honored to walk alongside you.