Why Clients Choose Me for Relational & Attachment Trauma Therapy

Sara Forcella, EMDRIA Certified Therapist and Approved Consultant-in-training

I’ve dedicated my career not just to trauma, but to a very specific kind of trauma: the wounds that happen in relationships. For well over a decade, my work has centered around relational and interpersonal violence. I’ve been a therapist for seven years, specializing in relational and attachment trauma—experiences like childhood sexual abuse, relationship violence, emotionally immature or narcissistic family systems, and other experiences where the people who were supposed to feel safe became a source of harm.

There’s one belief at the center of how I practice: if the wound happened in relationship, I believe it must heal in relationship.

The Relationship Isn’t Just Part of My Therapy

It’s the foundation of it. Relational trauma can change the way you experience other people—and yourself in relationship with them. Maybe you learned to read the room before you learned to read yourself. Maybe you can sense the smallest shift in someone else’s mood but have no idea what you want. Maybe conflict feels dangerous, you question your own perceptions, or you’re incredibly capable and independent until a relationship makes you feel like a completely different version of yourself.

You may even understand exactly why you do these things and still not know how to stop. I don’t think another person simply explaining your patterns to you is necessarily what heals that. I believe we need the opportunity to experience something different inside of a relationship. That includes the relationship we build in therapy.

I Pay Attention to What Happens Between Us

Maybe you’re worried I’m mad at you. Maybe you tell me something is fine when it isn’t. Maybe you agree with something I say because disagreeing feels uncomfortable. Maybe you spend the whole session talking about everyone else and struggle when I ask what you want. Or maybe you’re waiting for me to become disappointed, withdraw, misunderstand you, or respond the way someone else once did.

I’m interested in those moments—not because you’re doing therapy wrong, but because what happens between us can give us incredibly important information about what happens for you in relationships outside of therapy. Therapy becomes a place where we can notice those patterns together and, over time, create a different experience.

EMDR Is One of the Tools I Bring to This Work

I’m an EMDRIA Certified Therapist and EMDR Consultant-in-Training, and EMDR is a significant part of my clinical work. But EMDR isn’t what made me a trauma specialist. I brought EMDR into a career already dedicated to relational trauma.

I integrate EMDR with attachment-focused and relational therapy, IFS-informed work, and somatic and Polyvagal-informed approaches. Sometimes EMDR is exactly where we need to go. Sometimes the work is learning to recognize what you want, noticing what happens in your body when someone is disappointed in you, or getting to know parts of yourself you didn’t have much room to know when so much of your attention had to be focused on everyone else. And sometimes, the relationship itself is where the work is happening.

The Goal Is Greater Access to You

The patterns you developed in relationships often made sense in the relationships where they began. Reading people, keeping the peace, staying small, being incredibly independent, taking care of everyone else, or questioning yourself before questioning someone you love may have served an important purpose.

I’m less interested in simply teaching you to stop doing those things and more interested in understanding why you needed them in the first place—and helping you discover what becomes possible when you don’t need them in the same way anymore.

Ultimately, I want you to have greater access to you: your wants, your boundaries, your anger, your values, your body, your choices, and your relationships. Not the person you think you’re supposed to become, but the self you may not have had enough safety to fully know.

Relational & Attachment Trauma Therapy in Raleigh, NC

I’m Sara Forcella, LCSW. I specialize in relational and attachment trauma therapy for adults 25+, with particular experience in childhood sexual abuse, relationship violence, and emotionally immature or narcissistic family systems. I offer virtual trauma and EMDR therapy throughout North Carolina, with in-person options in Raleigh.

If you’ve spent years understanding what happened to you but are ready for therapy that pays attention to what happens in relationship now, we might be a good fit.