Trauma Therapy for Healing, Repair, and Life Transitions

Meet Jennie

Jennie Denney, AMFT #153029

Therapist for Trauma, Self-Harm Recovery, Faith Transitions, & Relational Healing

Serving San Clemente and surrounding areas in South Orange County and across California via Telehealth

Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist
Supervised by Rachel Daggett, M.S., LMFT #107858

Jennie Denney AMFT #153029, trauma-informed therapist specializing in self-harm, religious trauma, and attachment work in San Clemente

You may have found your way here because life feels heavy, perhaps patterns that once served you no longer do, a loved one’s pain feels overwhelming, or questions about faith and identity have unsettled your sense of self. If you’re looking for grounded, compassionate support that meets both your heart and your nervous system, you’re in the right place.

Whether this is your first experience with therapy or you’ve walked this path before, it’s okay to take your time finding a therapist who feels like a good fit. I’m glad you’re here.

I Work With People Facing Complex Life Transitions

Sometimes the things that hurt the most are the things we don’t yet have the words for.

I work with:

  • Teens and adults experiencing emotional hardship, overwhelm, or burnout

  • Individuals and families navigating self-harm recovery

  • Adults wrestling with spiritual or faith transitions

  • Couples and partners seeking deeper connection and repair

  • Clients who want nervous-system-centered, relational healing

Tending to see these issues as invitations to understand yourself more deeply.

Schedule a free 15-minute consultation

My Approach: Safe, Relational, Nervous-System-Aware

Therapy isn’t about “fixing you.” It’s about helping you feel steadier in your own skin and more grounded in your relationships.

I blend evidence-informed approaches in ways that honor your pace and capacity:

• Relational & Attachment-Informed Work
We explore how your early and current relationships shape your patterns, reactions, and roles.

• Trauma-Informed EMDR
When clinically appropriate, EMDR helps people process stuck or overwhelming memories in a way that supports real nervous-system regulation.

• Parts-Based & Experiential Work
We make space for the parts of you that feel afraid, hurt, or unsure.

• Movement & Walking Therapy (Optional)
For some clients, integrating gentle movement outdoors creates calm and access to new insight.

Across all of this, safety and pacing matter most. We slow down long enough to process, not just talk.

What You Can Expect in Our Work Together

Therapy with me is:

• Warm but grounded, not vague or overly airy
• Collaborative, not authoritarian
• Focused on healing relationships, with yourself and others
• Guided by both evidence and your unique story

You won’t be rushed toward solutions, but you will be supported in understanding what patterns keep showing up, how your nervous system holds the past in the present, and how to move toward greater regulation and connection.

Ready to take the next step?

If you’d like to:

  • ask questions

  • share what you’re experiencing

  • get a feel for how I work

…you’re invited to schedule a free 15-minute consultation with me

Free 15-minute Consultation
 

Jennie’s Approach

My approach to therapy is grounded in the belief that healing happens through safety, connection, and nervous system awareness. I work relationally and at a pace that honors your system, slowing things down enough to support real processing rather than pushing for quick fixes.

I draw from trauma-informed and attachment-based therapy, including EMDR, parts work, and experiential approaches. Together, we focus on understanding patterns shaped by past experiences, supporting emotional regulation, and helping the nervous system process what it’s been holding so change can feel integrated and lasting, not just understood.

I work with individual adults and teens, as well as couples, particularly when trauma, attachment wounds, or major life transitions are impacting emotional connection and communication. Whether we’re working individually or relationally, therapy is centered on building safety, restoring trust, and supporting more grounded and connected ways of relating to yourself and others.

A stack of nine smooth gray stones balanced on a rocky surface near water, with a blurred background of bright circles of light.

Attachment Focused

  • Attachment-based therapy looks at how our earliest relationships shape the way we relate to ourselves and others today. It helps us make sense of emotional patterns that sometimes run underneath the surface of our lives.

  • I believe that connection is the foundation for real healing. Exploring your attachment style can offer insight, compassion, and a path toward creating healthier relationships—with others and with yourself.

    • Understand why certain relationship patterns feel so hard to change

    • Build trust, connection, and emotional safety in new ways

    • Heal old wounds that may still impact your current relationships

    • Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller — a clear, relatable guide to understanding attachment styles in adult relationships.

    • Parenting from the Inside Out by Dr. Dan Siegel and Mary Hartzell — a powerful resource for parents wanting to raise emotionally secure children by first understanding their own attachment stories.

A river flowing through a forested canyon with tall green trees and rocks, under a partly cloudy sky.

Narrative & Experiential Elements

  • Experiential therapy invites you to feel and engage with your healing—not just talk about it. Narrative therapy focuses on understanding and reshaping the stories you tell yourself about who you are.

  • Healing isn’t just a cognitive process—it’s emotional, sensory, and deeply personal. By experiencing your emotions safely and exploring your personal narrative, you gain new agency and meaning over your story.

    • Reclaim your voice and agency in your life story

    • Process emotions that feel stuck or overwhelming

    • Find new meaning after loss, trauma, or identity shifts

    • The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk — a powerful exploration of how the body holds emotional memory and how experiential healing works.

    • Rising Strong by Brené Brown—How we make meaning out of our struggles, and how rewriting our internal stories leads to resilience.

    • Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl—Finding personal meaning in suffering and choice; building identity through narrative and resilience.

Close-up of a human eye with green and yellow coloring, black pupil, and detailed iris patterns on a black background.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

  • EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a therapy approach that helps people heal from trauma, distressing memories, and emotional pain. It uses bilateral stimulation (like guided eye movements) to help the brain reprocess stuck or overwhelming experiences so they can be stored in a healthier way.

  • Sometimes talking alone isn’t enough to fully heal old wounds—especially trauma. EMDR offers a way to work through painful memories without needing to relive them in detail. I’m pursuing EMDR training because I believe it offers a powerful, research-backed pathway to healing that honors both the mind and the body’s natural ability to recover.

    • Process trauma and painful memories safely and efficiently

    • Reduce emotional triggers and reactivity

    • Build a stronger, calmer internal sense of self

    • Heal experiences that feel “stuck” even after traditional talk therapy

    • Getting Past Your Past by Dr. Francine Shapiro — an accessible guide to how EMDR helps people move beyond painful memories and reclaim their lives.

Book a 15 Minute Consultation with Jennie
“Caring for others requires caring for oneself.”
— —Dalai Lama—