Trauma-informed therapy — online across India and in-person in Gurgaon
Most people who've been through difficult things don't think of themselves as "traumatised." They think of trauma as something that happens to other people — war veterans, survivors of violence. But trauma is just what happens when an experience overwhelms your nervous system's ability to process it — and that can happen in ways that are quieter and more ordinary than you'd expect.
It can be growing up in a home where love came with conditions. It can be a relationship that slowly eroded your sense of self. It can be a loss that hit before you were ready, a betrayal that rewrote everything you thought you knew, or years of being told your feelings were too much, too sensitive, too dramatic.
The thing about trauma is that it doesn't stay in the past. It travels with you — as hypervigilance that reads threat everywhere, as emotional reactions that don't match the present moment, as an exhaustion you can't explain, as a shutdown that happens just when you need to be present. The body keeps the score, as Bessel van der Kolk's research consistently demonstrates. That's not a metaphor — it's physiology.
A 2019 study in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry found that trauma-related disorders are significantly under-identified in India, partly because cultural narratives around resilience — "be strong," "don't dwell on the past" — make it harder to name what's actually happening. You're not weak for being affected. You're human.
No trauma work happens before there's a stable foundation. The early sessions focus on building your capacity to feel safe — in your body, in the therapeutic relationship, and in the tools you'll use between sessions.
Trauma therapy moves at the pace of your nervous system, not the pace of a protocol. Ruchi draws on trauma-informed CBT and somatic techniques to work with what your body holds — not just what you can describe in words.
The goal is to move from a life organised around survival to one where you have genuine choice again — in how you respond, how you relate, what you let in. That's not erasure. It's integration.
Trauma isn't one thing. These are some of the presentations Ruchi works with most — though you don't need a label to reach out.
Trauma therapy is different from standard counselling in one important way: the sequence matters. Ruchi follows a phased approach because that's what the evidence and experience support.
Before going anywhere near the difficult material, you'll learn to regulate your nervous system — breathing techniques, grounding tools, ways to move between activation and calm. This isn't delay; it's the work. You need to be able to handle what comes up before you go looking for it.
Once stability is established, you'll move toward the experiences that still carry charge — gradually, with care. This might involve talking through what happened, working with body sensations, or processing the meaning you've made of the experience. Ruchi never pushes you further than your system is ready to go.
The goal isn't to forget. It's to reach a place where the memory no longer hijacks the present — where it's part of your story, not the thing running it. Most clients describe this as feeling like they've finally been able to put something down that they didn't realise they'd been carrying.
Sessions are 50 minutes. No hidden fees, no intake charges.
Sliding scale fees available. If cost is a barrier, please say so — no one who genuinely needs support should be turned away because of money.
This is one of the most common things people say when they first reach out: "I'm not sure my experience counts." Trauma isn't defined by how dramatic the event looks from the outside — it's defined by how it lives in your nervous system. Experiences that leave you hypervigilant, shut down, or unable to trust — those matter, regardless of whether they'd make someone else's "worst thing" list. Developmental trauma, relational betrayal, chronic emotional neglect — these are just as real as a single catastrophic event.
Trauma therapy is paced very deliberately. Standard talk therapy focuses on processing thoughts and emotions verbally — valuable, but incomplete for trauma, which also lives in the body. Pushing too hard too fast can re-traumatise rather than heal. Ruchi's approach builds safety first, works with the nervous system, and approaches difficult material at a pace your system can tolerate. She draws on trauma-informed CBT, somatic techniques, and narrative approaches depending on what fits you.
More than almost any other presenting issue, it varies. A single-incident trauma with no prior history might shift meaningfully in 12–20 sessions. Complex trauma — developed over years — typically requires longer work. What Ruchi won't do is rush it. Processing trauma before you're ready doesn't work, and the path to healing isn't a straight line. You'll have a realistic sense of what to expect after the first few sessions.
Yes — and many clients prefer it. Being in your own space can create the safety that trauma therapy needs. Sessions are via secure video. Ruchi will cover grounding and stabilisation tools in the first session so you're never left alone with activated material after a call ends. If you're in Gurgaon and prefer in-person, that option is available too.
A completely valid concern. Trauma therapy done poorly — going straight into detailed retelling without building stabilisation first — can be retraumatising. Done well, it never pushes you further than your system is ready to go. The early sessions always focus on building capacity before approaching difficult material. You're in the driver's seat throughout.
A first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Send Ruchi a WhatsApp message and she'll reply within a day.
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