- 5x Newsweek Best Treatment Center
Trauma-informed care is the clinical framework that shapes how Asana Recovery delivers all outpatient treatment — recognizing the profound impact of trauma on substance use disorders, mental health conditions, and recovery itself. Rather than treating trauma as a separate program, our entire approach to Outpatient (OP), Intensive Outpatient (IOP), Partial Hospitalization (PHP), and Virtual IOP for California Residents is grounded in the principles of safety, trustworthiness, collaboration, empowerment, and cultural humility. Clinical leadership is provided by Sheida Shavalian, LMFT, our Clinical Director and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with over a decade of clinical experience and USC-trained advanced specialization in psychoanalytic, psychodynamic, and cognitive behavioral therapies — including extensive work with clients processing trauma histories.
For clients with PTSD, complex trauma, childhood trauma, adult-onset trauma, or trauma co-occurring with substance use, our outpatient programs integrate evidence-based trauma therapies including EMDR, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for trauma, comprehensive Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) delivered through all four core skill modules, Seeking Safety, somatic approaches, group support, and family or couples therapy when relevant. Named one of Newsweek’s Best Addiction Treatment Centers in California for four consecutive years (2022-2025). When clients require residential trauma treatment or hospitalization, Asana Recovery coordinates placement through trusted partner facilities.
Trauma often plays a significant role in the development of substance use disorders. Research from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) consistently shows that many clients arriving for addiction treatment have trauma histories — including childhood trauma, intimate partner violence, sexual abuse, combat-related trauma, and exposure to community or family violence. Many clients turn to substances as a way to cope with the emotional pain, intrusive memories, hypervigilance, and emotional dysregulation that unresolved trauma produces.
At its core, trauma-informed care shifts the focus from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” This fundamental change in perspective allows for a more compassionate and effective treatment process. It integrates practices that promote safety, trust, and empowerment, providing clients with the support they need to heal from traumatic experiences. This framework is widely used in addiction and mental health treatment to address both substance use disorders and underlying trauma — recognizing that these conditions are deeply interconnected.
At Asana Recovery, trauma-informed care integrates several evidence-based therapeutic approaches to support healing and recovery, including:
In immediate crisis or experiencing thoughts of suicide or self-harm?
Call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) — available 24/7, free, confidential.
Call 911 if there is an immediate medical emergency or risk of harm.
Trauma-informed care follows six core principles established by the SAMHSA framework. At Asana Recovery, these principles shape how we deliver every aspect of outpatient treatment:
Call for Help Today:
If you are struggling with drugs or alcohol right now, that addiction is life-threatening. Detox helps you get clean and safe. You can do this two ways: a social approach, where you quit and move through withdrawal, or a medication assisted treatment program. Our team coordinates medically supervised detox through trusted partner facilities. We pick the right approach based on the substance, how much you use, and your health. Detox happens at a partner facility, where you are monitored and cared for as you move through withdrawal safely. Then you move straight into our outpatient programs.
In addition, if you’re addicted to a benzodiazepine, you may be asked to go onto a tapering schedule. This can significantly extend the detox period, because you will sometimes spend several weeks on detox instead of the standard 7-14 days.
Some clients need a higher level of care before outpatient treatment. For them, our team coordinates residential placement through trusted partners in Orange County. These programs offer small, structured settings with personalized care. They treat addiction and mental health together, using proven therapies plus holistic healing. Once residential care is done, clients move smoothly into our outpatient programs. There, our team uses CBT, DBT, group therapy, and family therapy. We add holistic options like art therapy, yoga, and mindfulness. Our whole-person approach helps you build recovery skills while getting close support from our team.
Research shows that about half of people with substance use disorders also have a mental health condition. This high overlap calls for an integrated approach, since each condition affects the other. When mental health goes untreated, substance abuse often gets worse. And substance use can worsen mental health. Many people start using to self-medicate depression, anxiety, or trauma. Yet studies show only 8.3 percent of adults with both conditions get integrated care. The best approach is to treat both at once, with the same clinical team. This leads to better outcomes, fewer relapses, and stronger long-term recovery.
Taking care of your physical health and nutrition during treatment is key to recovery. Poor nutrition and health problems can lead people to drop out and raise relapse risk. Better physical health does the opposite. It boosts motivation and quality of life during treatment.
Substance use often leads to poor nutrition, damaged organs, weak immunity, and bad eating habits. These problems harm both body and mind. They affect vital organs and the nervous system. Different substances do different damage. Opioids affect digestion. Stimulants reduce appetite. Alcohol can cause severe nutrient loss.
Treatment at Asana Recovery includes a nutrition check, balanced meals, and health monitoring. This supports healing and helps you stay in recovery for the long term.
Taking care of your physical health and nutrition during treatment is key to recovery. Poor nutrition and health problems can lead people to drop out and raise relapse risk. Better physical health does the opposite. It boosts motivation and quality of life during treatment.
Substance use often leads to poor nutrition, damaged organs, weak immunity, and bad eating habits. These problems harm both body and mind. They affect vital organs and the nervous system. Different substances do different damage. Opioids affect digestion. Stimulants reduce appetite. Alcohol can cause severe nutrient loss.
Treatment at Asana Recovery includes a nutrition check, balanced meals, and health monitoring. This supports healing and helps you stay in recovery for the long term.
A mental health condition usually means you need long-term care to stay in recovery. We believe you should always have someone to talk to when things get hard. You will have bad days. You may be more open to relapse. So you need ongoing mental health care and counseling. We help with all of this, including support groups in your area. Every part of dual diagnosis treatment must fit your specific needs, both when you start and as you progress. We take that seriously.
A Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) is an intensive outpatient option. It bridges the gap between inpatient and standard outpatient care. PHP usually runs 5 to 7 days a week, with sessions of 4 to 6 hours a day. That is at least 20 hours of treatment each week. During PHP, you get individual therapy, group therapy, medication management, and psychiatric care, while going home each evening. This lets you keep up with daily life while you get strong support. PHP fits people who finished inpatient care, need more than standard outpatient, or have a stable home but need intensive care.
Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) is a structured treatment option. It bridges the gap between inpatient and standard outpatient care. IOP usually offers 9 to 19 hours of treatment a week. It lets you keep up with work, school, or family. You get care through several methods, including individual counseling, group therapy, family therapy, and education sessions. IOP treats substance use, mental health, or both, for people who do not need 24-hour care or medical detox.
Start your recovery journey with us at Asana Recovery, where we prioritize your well-being and provide a welcoming environment for you to heal.
By submitting this form, I agree to Asana Recovery's Privacy Policy and consent to receive calls, texts, and emails about insurance benefits, treatment options, admissions, and related services. I authorize Asana Recovery to use and disclose my PHI for these communications, including by text and email, and understand these methods may not be fully secure. Msg/data rates may apply. Msg frequency may vary. Consent is not required for treatment. Reply STOP to opt out.
Trauma and substance use disorders are deeply linked, forming a cycle that can be difficult to break without integrated treatment. Research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and SAMHSA consistently shows that clients arriving for addiction treatment have substantially higher rates of trauma histories than the general population. For many clients, substances become a way to self-medicate the emotional pain, intrusive memories, hypervigilance, sleep disturbances, and emotional dysregulation produced by unresolved trauma.
Childhood trauma plays a particularly significant role in shaping future addiction risk. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) — such as physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, neglect, household substance use, or exposure to violence — can disrupt brain development and emotional regulation systems. The landmark CDC-Kaiser ACE Study found a dose-response relationship between ACE exposure and adult health outcomes including substance use disorders. Without addressing the root causes of trauma, many clients find themselves caught in cycles of addiction that traditional symptom-focused treatment approaches may struggle to resolve.
Trauma takes many forms. Trauma-informed care at Asana Recovery addresses the full range of trauma experiences clients bring to treatment:
Not all trauma reaches the diagnostic threshold for PTSD — but trauma that doesn’t meet PTSD criteria can still profoundly impact mental health, substance use, and quality of life. Trauma-informed care at Asana Recovery is designed to support clients regardless of whether they have a formal PTSD diagnosis.
Understanding how trauma affects the brain and body is foundational to effective trauma-informed care.
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis — which regulates stress hormone response — can become dysregulated in clients who have experienced trauma. This dysregulation produces heightened stress responses, making clients more susceptible to anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, and other mental health symptoms.
Trauma can cause the autonomic nervous system (ANS) to remain in states of hyperarousal (fight/flight) or dissociation (freeze/shutdown). This impacts clients’ ability to engage with their environment, manage emotions, or feel safe. These responses can manifest as hypervigilance, emotional numbing, dissociation, difficulty forming relationships, sleep disturbances, and chronic physical symptoms.
Trauma impacts memory formation and retrieval, particularly traumatic memories that may be fragmented, intrusive, or somatically stored. Evidence-based trauma therapies like EMDR are specifically designed to support adaptive processing of traumatic memories.
Our licensed clinicians integrate multiple evidence-based trauma therapies into outpatient treatment:
The relationship between trauma and substance use is well-documented. Research from the VA National Center for PTSD and SAMHSA consistently shows that clients with PTSD have substantially higher rates of co-occurring substance use disorders compared to the general population — and traditional addiction treatment that ignores trauma history typically produces incomplete recovery.
Many clients develop substance use problems while attempting to self-medicate symptoms of trauma — intrusive memories, hypervigilance, sleep disturbances, emotional numbing, or emotional dysregulation. Substances may provide temporary relief but ultimately worsen both trauma symptoms and the conditions driving them.
Asana Recovery’s integrated dual diagnosis treatment addresses both trauma and substance use simultaneously through the same clinical team, in the same treatment plan. This integrated approach produces significantly better outcomes than treating these conditions separately.
Seeking Safety is an evidence-based, present-focused therapy specifically designed for clients with co-occurring PTSD and substance use disorders. It emphasizes safety as the foundation of trauma recovery — and is one of the most research-supported trauma + substance use treatments available. At Asana Recovery, Seeking Safety is integrated into our outpatient programs for clients with trauma + substance use co-occurring conditions.
Seeking Safety emphasizes teaching clients concrete coping skills to manage trauma symptoms and substance use urges. Our licensed clinicians work with clients to develop personalized skill sets — including grounding techniques, distress tolerance practices, communication skills, and strategies for managing trauma triggers without resorting to substances.
Seeking Safety focuses on building present-moment coping rather than detailed trauma narrative work. This makes it especially valuable for clients who are still in early recovery, where trauma processing may not yet be clinically appropriate. Clients build resilience and coping capacity FIRST, then move into deeper trauma processing (using EMDR, CPT, or TF-CBT) when clinically ready.
A core principle of Seeking Safety — and trauma-informed care broadly — is the commitment to minimizing re-traumatization. Our clinical staff is trained to recognize potential triggers, respond sensitively, and ensure that group and individual settings don’t inadvertently exacerbate past traumas. Clients are never required to share specific trauma content before they are clinically ready.
Alongside evidence-based trauma therapies, Asana Recovery integrates complementary mindfulness and grounding practices that support nervous system regulation:
These complementary practices enhance — never replace — our evidence-based clinical trauma therapies.
Clients with trauma histories often struggle to regulate emotions effectively — and may have used substances as their primary coping mechanism. Trauma-informed care provides evidence-based tools to recognize and regulate emotional responses without substances, supporting both sobriety and overall mental health.
The integration of trauma-informed principles into addiction treatment significantly reduces relapse risk because it addresses the trauma drivers of substance use rather than just symptom management. When clients have skills to manage trauma symptoms and emotional dysregulation, they have alternatives to substance use.
Trauma can severely impact a client’s ability to form and maintain healthy relationships. Trauma-informed care fosters trust and safety within therapeutic settings, helping clients build relational skills that translate to relationships with partners, family, friends, and colleagues. Our family therapy and couples therapy services support this relational dimension.
Trauma-informed care emphasizes replacing maladaptive coping (including substance use) with constructive strategies — mindfulness practices, distress tolerance skills from comprehensive DBT, grounding techniques, healthy physical activity, and meaningful connection with others.
Our Clinical Director Sheida Shavalian is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with over a decade of clinical experience in mental health and substance use treatment. Her USC-trained specialization in psychoanalytic, psychodynamic, and cognitive behavioral therapies is particularly valuable for trauma work — psychodynamic approaches help clients understand how early relationships and attachment patterns shape trauma response, while CBT-based approaches provide concrete tools for symptom management. Sheida provides clinical leadership for all trauma-informed care across Asana’s outpatient programs.
Each client receives a thorough biopsychosocial assessment that considers trauma history, substance use patterns, mental health conditions, and personal circumstances. Trauma history is treated as essential clinical information — not as an afterthought — and treatment plans are built to address trauma alongside substance use and mental health conditions.
Continuity matters in trauma work. At Asana Recovery, clients work with the same licensed clinician throughout individual counseling — building the therapeutic trust and safety that trauma processing requires. Trauma-informed care is incompatible with rotating therapists who require clients to retell their histories repeatedly.
Trauma-informed care isn’t delivered in isolation. Your individual therapy, group therapy, psychiatric medication management (overseen by Medical Director Dr. Joseph DeSanto, M.D.), family or couples therapy, and specialty case management programs (Career Development, Academic Pathways) all operate within trauma-informed principles. Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) options — including Suboxone (buprenorphine/naloxone) and Vivitrol (naltrexone) — are available for clients with opioid or alcohol use disorders alongside trauma.
Trauma-informed care is delivered across all four levels of our outpatient programming:
For clients who need a higher level of care than outpatient — including residential trauma treatment or hospitalization during a mental health crisis — Asana Recovery coordinates placement through trusted partner facilities. Once stabilized, clients transition back into our outpatient programs where trauma-informed care continues.
Asana Recovery serves clients seeking trauma-informed care throughout Southern California:
Asana Recovery is in-network with major PPO insurance providers including Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna, Cigna, ComPsych, TriCare, and Tri-West. Most other PPO plans are accepted on an out-of-network basis. TriCare and Tri-West coverage is particularly relevant for veterans and military service members seeking trauma treatment, including PTSD-related care.
Most clients pay little to nothing out of pocket once benefits are verified — coverage for outpatient mental health and substance use treatment, including trauma therapy and EMDR, is a federal requirement under the Mental Health Parity Act and the Affordable Care Act.
Free, confidential insurance verification is typically completed within the hour. Call (949) 763-3440 or verify your insurance online.
Recovery starts with care that recognizes the full scope of your experience — including trauma. At Asana Recovery, our trauma-informed approach is designed to help you heal from substance use, mental health conditions, and the underlying traumas that often drive them. Our licensed clinical team — led by Clinical Director Sheida Shavalian, LMFT — provides evidence-based trauma therapies (EMDR, comprehensive DBT, Seeking Safety, CBT, somatic approaches) within structured outpatient programs that meet you where you are clinically.
Whether you’re seeking care in Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Diego County, or anywhere in California via Virtual IOP, we provide trauma-informed outpatient care designed to support your healing without forcing artificial timelines or premature trauma processing. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation or verify your insurance — and take the first step toward lasting change.
No. Trauma-informed care at Asana Recovery is available to all clients in our outpatient programs — not just those with a formal PTSD diagnosis. Many clients have trauma histories that significantly impact mental health, substance use, and quality of life without meeting full PTSD diagnostic criteria. Trauma-informed care principles (safety, trust, collaboration, empowerment, cultural humility) shape how we deliver every aspect of treatment regardless of diagnosis. For clients who do have PTSD, complex PTSD, or PTSD with co-occurring substance use, we provide specialized evidence-based trauma therapies including EMDR, CPT, TF-CBT, and Seeking Safety.
Our trauma-informed outpatient programs address the full range of trauma experiences — including single-incident (acute) trauma, complex trauma, developmental and childhood trauma (ACEs), PTSD and Complex PTSD, combat and military trauma, intimate partner violence trauma, sexual trauma, medical and treatment-related trauma, and grief or traumatic loss. We treat trauma alongside any co-occurring substance use disorders or mental health conditions through our integrated dual diagnosis approach.
Yes. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) can be delivered effectively via secure telehealth through our Virtual IOP for California Residents. EMDR delivered virtually uses adapted protocols developed during the expansion of telehealth therapy, with the same evidence base as in-person EMDR. This makes specialized trauma therapy accessible to clients across California — including those in Los Angeles County, San Diego County, and rural areas — who cannot easily travel to Orange County for in-person care.
No. A core principle of trauma-informed care is empowerment, voice, and choice — clients are never required to share specific trauma content in group settings before they are clinically ready. Our trauma-informed group therapy uses present-focused frameworks (like Seeking Safety) that emphasize coping skill development and peer support without requiring detailed trauma narrative work. Specific trauma processing happens in individual therapy with your licensed clinician, at your own pace.
Trauma recovery is non-linear and varies significantly by client. Some clients with single-incident trauma may complete focused EMDR treatment in 6-12 sessions; others with complex developmental trauma may need longer-term work over months or years. Asana Recovery’s outpatient programs (PHP, IOP, OP, Virtual IOP) support flexible treatment length — clients can step down through levels of care or maintain Standard Outpatient or aftercare support for extended periods. Our clinical team works with you to develop realistic treatment expectations based on your specific trauma history and recovery goals.
Traditional addiction treatment often focuses on behavioral changes and managing substance use symptoms without addressing the trauma history that drives many substance use disorders. Trauma-informed care recognizes that trauma frequently underlies addiction and integrates trauma processing alongside substance use treatment. Rather than asking “What’s wrong with you?” trauma-informed care asks “What happened to you?” — shifting the focus to understanding root causes. Asana Recovery’s integrated dual diagnosis approach treats trauma and substance use simultaneously, by the same clinical team, through the same outpatient programs.
Yes. Trauma frequently co-occurs with anxiety, depression, PTSD, ADHD, OCD, and personality disorders. Asana Recovery’s integrated dual diagnosis treatment addresses trauma alongside mental health conditions and substance use simultaneously — through the same clinical team, in the same treatment plan. Psychiatric medication management overseen by Medical Director Dr. Joseph DeSanto, M.D. is coordinated with trauma therapy when clinically appropriate.
Yes. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and the Affordable Care Act require insurance to cover outpatient mental health and substance use treatment — including trauma therapy, EMDR, and dual diagnosis care — at parity with medical/surgical benefits. Asana Recovery is in-network with Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna, Cigna, ComPsych, TriCare, and Tri-West. Most other PPO plans are accepted on an out-of-network basis. TriCare and Tri-West coverage is particularly relevant for veterans seeking PTSD and trauma treatment. Free, confidential insurance verification is typically completed within the hour at (949) 763-3440.
Free, confidential, and no obligation. Get your insurance verified by our admissions team.