Trauma Therapist + EMDR Specialist in Peoria, AZ
Christina Behrens, MA, LPC
Serving Adults
You've spent years being the one who holds it all together. For your family. Your team. Your clients. Maybe all three at once. On the outside, you're capable and composed. Inside, there's a version of you that's quietly exhausted, carrying more than anyone around you realizes, and not entirely sure when it became this heavy.
That gap between how you look and how you feel? That's not a character flaw. It's often a sign that something underneath hasn't had a chance to be heard.
I built Inside Out Therapy + Consulting on one foundational belief: that healing the inside is what changes everything else. Not forcing it. Not white-knuckling through it. Healing it, from the root.
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Therapy for adults
* Therapy for adults
What does trauma therapy look like for high achievers?
I work exclusively with adults (18+), particularly those in high-responsibility roles who are used to being the ones others lean on. My clients are often the last people anyone would guess are struggling, which is exactly why they need a space where they don't have to manage how they come across.
My clients often include:
Type-A high achievers and overachievers whose anxiety, irritability, or emotional numbness is finally catching up with them
Moms navigating the invisible mental load of parenting, especially those with children who have special needs or complex diagnoses
Nurses, first responders, and helping professionals carrying the cumulative weight of other people's hardest moments
Adults who have tried therapy before but felt unseen, over-agreed with, or stuck in surface-level work
People in major life transitions where old wounds tend to resurface, role shifts, relationship changes, identity questions
"I don't have my own agenda for where your healing goes. But I will be honest with you, curious about you, and present with you, even in the hard moments. Especially in the hard moments."
— Christina Behrens, LPC | Founder of Inside Out Therapy + Consulting
How does EMDR treat complex trauma and dissociation?
EMDR is the foundation of how I work, but how I use it is shaped by decades of experience across some of the most complex trauma presentations in clinical practice, including dissociative disorders and OCD.
Most therapists who offer EMDR receive two weekends of foundational training (Level 1 and Level 2). I trained to a higher standard, grounded in Francine Shapiro's original model, and I supervise the entire Inside Out team in that same framework.
If you've had a difficult experience with EMDR before, I want to hear about it. You can learn more about what quality EMDR treatment looks like at EMDRIA.org.
I also incorporate:
Sand tray therapy — a non-verbal modality that reaches what words sometimes can't, available to adults and children alike
Somatic and body-based awareness — helping you recognize and work with how trauma lives in the body, not just the mind
Attachment-informed work — exploring the early relational patterns that quietly shape how you connect, trust, and see yourself
Trauma therapy for the person everyone else leans on
My clients are often high-functioning people in demanding roles, the ones others rely on, and the last ones anyone would expect to need support. They don't need someone to validate everything they say. They need someone who can see what they can't see from the inside, and say it directly.
I will. That's probably the most honest thing I can tell you about working with me.
As Clinical Director I also guide the entire Inside Out team in this same approach, every clinician in this practice was trained alongside me and holds the same standard of care.
Specialties: trauma, anxiety, attachment wounds, children + first responders
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Trauma + PTSD
Complex trauma does not always look like what people expect. If what you are carrying feels layered, rooted in early experience, or resistant to approaches you have already tried, this is where Christina's work lives most deeply.
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Anxiety + Chronic Stress
The anxiety that never fully quiets even when life looks fine on the outside. Christina works with the high-functioning presentation that manages well enough until it does not — and with what is underneath it.
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Attachment Wounds + Relationship Strain
The patterns that keep showing up in relationships despite everything you understand about where they came from. Christina works at the level where those patterns are actually stored — not just the story around them.
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Children's Emotional + Behavioral Regulation
Christina works with children as young as five using sand tray and EMDR adapted for younger nervous systems. If your child is struggling in ways that are showing up at home or school, this is the place to start.
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Grief, Loss + Life Transitions
Grief that has no clear timeline, no recognized category, or that has been carried quietly for a long time without a space to put it down. Christina holds space for all of it.
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First Responders + Helping Professionals
The weight that builds over a career of high-stakes, high-exposure work. Christina's advanced EMDR training makes her a strong fit for the presentations that go deeper than standard stress responses.
My work spans each of these areas, and in most cases, they're connected. Trauma doesn't stay in one lane, and neither does healing.
Trauma Therapy Training + EMDR Qualifications
I hold a Master of Arts in Counseling with a forensic concentration and am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with experience across multiple levels of care, hospital settings, community mental health, and private practice. I've worked with court-mandated populations, sexual offense treatment, and a wide range of complex trauma presentations throughout my career.
I have advanced specialized training in dissociative disorders and OCD, as well as EMDR training focused on working with complex disorders. I am currently completing an additional EMDR training focused on treating and healing internalized shame.
As Clinical Director, I also supervise the full Inside Out clinical team. Every clinician in the practice was trained by the same EMDR instructor, a deliberate decision to ensure clinical consistency across every client experience.
Outside the therapy room, I'm the mom of two children with special needs and the wife of a retired police officer. I've lived the realities many of my clients carry, and that experience is woven into how I show up.
Liberty, My Service Dog in Training
Liberty is a Great Dane service dog in training who joins me in sessions whenever I am in the office. She was a rescue, and I kept the name the shelter had given her because it felt right for what we do here.
Liberty is not a therapy dog in the informal sense. She has been trained to detect physiological changes: anxiety, stress, panic, cortisol spikes, and respond with grounding physical presence before I or the client has consciously registered what is shifting. She will rest her head in your lap, lie across your feet, or simply stay close until the nervous system begins to settle.
If you would like her in our session, mention it when you reach out or at the start of your appointment. If you have a dog allergy or would prefer she not be present, that is completely fine. Just let me know.
A little more about me
I started Inside Out because the west side of Phoenix deserved a therapy practice that was warm, skilled, and real, not sterile, not scripted, and not interested in performing wellness. My practice motto is lived out loud: grace, not perfection. It's on the wall in every office. It's the standard I hold for my clients, my team, and myself.
Further reading
FROM INSIDE OUT
Why We Do Not Put Our Degrees on the Wall
Most therapy offices look the same. Ours does not. Here is the thinking behind the choices Christina made when building Inside Out.
MENTAL HEALTH + CULTURE
Therapy Is Everywhere on Social Media. Here Is What It Is Getting Wrong.
There is a gap between recognizing yourself in a post and actually shifting the pattern running in the background. Here is what closes it.
MENTAL HEALTH + CULTURE
First Responders Do Not Burn Out. They Adapt. And That Is the Problem.
Burnout is the wrong word. Cumulative trauma is more accurate — and the distinction matters because the interventions are different.
Ready to take the next step?
If something on this page felt familiar, the pressure, the exhaustion, the sense that you're carrying more than anyone realizes, you're not alone.
You're welcome to reach out and start with a conversation. We'll talk about what's been weighing on you and whether working together feels like the right next step.
Common Questions About Working With Me
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Not at all. Many of my clients arrive describing anxiety, burnout, or relationship patterns — not a single dramatic event. Trauma doesn't have to look a certain way to be real, and we don't need a label before we can start doing meaningful work.
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Talk therapy helps you understand your experience. EMDR helps your nervous system actually process it. Rather than retelling the story repeatedly, EMDR works with how the memory is stored in the brain — so it loses its charge and stops driving your reactions. Learn more at EMDRIA.org.
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That happens more than people realize — usually because EMDR was applied without proper groundwork or training. Every clinician at Inside Out trained under the same instructor using Francine Shapiro's foundational model. If you've had a difficult experience, I want to hear about it before we do anything else.
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I work exclusively with adults (18+), but Inside Out as a practice sees children as young as five. If you're looking for support for your child or teen, I'll personally help match them with the right clinician on our team.
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That uncertainty is more common than you'd think — and it's not a reason to wait. Most of my clients weren't sure either. A consultation is just a conversation — no commitment, no pressure. The only way to know is to take one small step and see how it feels.