About Us
A practice built around healing trauma.
Trauma Specialists of Maryland is a Frederick County therapy practice that specializes in trauma-informed care, EMDR therapy, and the work of helping people move forward from what they've carried for too long.
Why we exist
Most people who come to us have carried something for a long time. Sometimes they know what it is. Sometimes they don't. Either way, they have spent years working around it, managing it, hoping it would lift on its own. The work we do here is the work of finally meeting it directly, with the right tools and the right amount of care.
Trauma Specialists of Maryland was founded by Rachel Harrison, LCPC, NCC, a Certified EMDR Therapist and EMDRIA-approved trainer with more than 25 years of clinical experience. The practice grew out of Rachel's conviction that trauma is highly treatable when met with the right modalities and that too many clinicians are not trained in those modalities. The practice now extends across Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, with a sister training institute that prepares mental health professionals to deliver evidence-based trauma care.
Our day-to-day work is the therapy itself. The reason we built the practice is the bigger one: we want trauma-informed care to be the default, not the specialty.
What it actually means
What trauma-informed care looks like in practice
"Trauma-informed" has become a common phrase. It can also become an empty one. Here is what it means in our day-to-day work.
Pacing belongs to the client
Trauma work that moves faster than the nervous system can handle is not effective and can be harmful. Our therapists are trained to read the signals of overwhelm and to slow down, ground, or step back when the work needs that. The client always knows what is happening and why.
The body is part of the conversation
Trauma lives in the body as much as the mind. Approaches that work only at the level of thought tend to hit a ceiling. Most of our work draws on modalities that engage the nervous system directly: EMDR, art therapy, Alpha-Stim, and somatic work alongside talk therapy.
Detail is not required for healing
Several of the modalities we use, including EMDR, do not require you to narrate traumatic experiences in detail. You hold the memory in mind while your therapist guides you through a structured process. For people who find talking about earlier experiences overwhelming, this matters.
Care is integrated, not siloed
When a client benefits from more than one approach, we coordinate across our team. A client doing EMDR with one therapist may also see another for art therapy or use Alpha-Stim alongside. We staff multiple specialties because trauma rarely fits into a single modality.
The relationship is the foundation
No technique works without a steady, attuned therapeutic relationship. The first goal of the work is for you to feel met by the person you are working with. Everything else builds from there.
Trauma is treatable. The work is to meet it with the right tools, at a pace that holds, and with a therapist who knows how to be with you in it.
What sets us apart
A practice with a focus, not a menu
Many therapy practices list every condition they will see. Ours does not. We chose to specialize in trauma and trauma-related conditions because that is where we have the deepest training and where the difference between specialty care and general care is most visible to clients.
Deep training in EMDR
Many of our clinicians are EMDRIA-certified, several are Approved EMDR Consultants, and our founder is a nationally recognized EMDR trainer. EMDR is not an add-on for our practice; it is one of the modalities we built around.
Care across the lifespan
Our team includes clinicians who specialize in young children, adolescents, adults, and families navigating adoption and foster care. EMDR can be adapted for children as young as two with appropriate developmental modifications, and we have clinicians trained to do this work well.
A connected training institute
Rachel also founded the Trauma Specialists Training Institute (TSTI), which trains mental health professionals in EMDR and trauma-focused care. The benefit to our clients is twofold: our clinicians stay current with the field they help shape, and the practice attracts clinicians who are serious about trauma work as a vocation, not a credential.
Where our clinicians come from
Our team grows mostly through the training institute and through referral from clinicians we already trust. Many of our therapists first encountered the practice as participants in TSTI's EMDR trainings. By the time they apply, they have already chosen trauma work as their direction and trained in the modalities our practice is built around. We tend to attract people who want depth in a focused area more than breadth across many. The community sees that as a quality marker, and it shows up in how often other clinicians refer their own clients to us.
Specialty doesn't mean a narrow door
People sometimes read "trauma specialists" and assume we are only the right fit for someone with PTSD or a clear trauma history. Most weeks our clinicians are also working with anxiety, depression, ADHD, grief, life transitions, and parenting struggles. The unifying thread is that every therapist here is trained in trauma-focused work, so when something deeper surfaces under any of those presenting concerns, we are equipped to meet it. Therapy is therapy.
Trauma-informed from the first call
The trauma-informed posture starts before you meet your therapist. The intake call is paced. We do not push you to share more than you want to in the first conversation. The first session focuses on getting to know each other, not on jumping into difficult material. Anything that the work will eventually touch is approached when you are ready, not before.
Where you can find us
In Frederick County and across Maryland
Our Maryland practice serves clients in person at three Frederick County offices and via secure video across the state.
In person
Frederick
Our main office, in the heart of downtown Frederick.
In person
Urbana
Serving the southern Frederick County corridor.
In person
Ballenger Creek
Convenient to families across western Frederick County.
Anywhere in MD
Telehealth
Secure video sessions across Maryland.
Our sister practices in Pennsylvania and Delaware serve clients in those states with the same approach and the same standards of care.
If you've been thinking about reaching out
A consultation is the most direct way to figure out whether we are the right fit. We will help you sort through what kind of work might help, and there is no commitment to start care from a consultation. If we are not the right practice for you, we will say so and try to point you somewhere that is.
If a form doesn't feel right, you can also email us at info@traumaspecialistsofmd.com. We're here either way.
Learn More
What to Expect
A walkthrough of the first call, the first session, and what working with us looks like over time.
How We Help
Browse our services by what you're experiencing, who you are, or the treatment approach you're curious about.
Meet Our Team
Read about each clinician on our team, including their training, specialties, and the populations they work with.