Even Still, moving.
Some things don’t resolve the way we imagined. They ask something different of us. Therapy for those living with trauma, chronic illness, disability, and other life-altering change.
Aurielle Zeitler, LCSW
Welcome. I’m so glad you landed here.
When your body has been through a lot, whether that’s trauma, prolonged illness, injury, or other life-altering experiences, your nervous system learns to stay on guard, even when the acute crisis has passed. You might feel stuck in survival mode, exhausted by the effort of managing symptoms alongside everyday life, or grieving a version of yourself that existed before everything changed.
You may have been told your symptoms are stress, imagined, or that you just need to think more positively. You may have spent years advocating for yourself in medical systems that felt rushed, dismissive, or simply unprepared for the complexity of what you were living with. That experience leaves a mark, and it deserves real attention.
My Approach
This is a space for real presence: unhurried, non-judgmental, and grounded. Where what you’re carrying can be set down long enough to look at it differently.
Sessions are collaborative and adaptive. We move at a pace that respects how capacity fluctuates, because that fluctuation is real and honorable, not a weakness, not a failure. All sessions are offered via telehealth throughout California so you can join from the most convenient and comfortable space for you.
My approach draws on EMDR to help the nervous system process and release what talk therapy alone sometimes can't reach, particularly effective for trauma and chronic pain. I'm also trained in polyvagal-informed care, which means we look at your nervous system responses not as dysfunction, but as adaptations that made sense given what you've been through. And for clients who are worded out from years of medical conversations or talk therapy, I bring a genuine expressive arts background — as a working musician and studio artist — to help reach what language alone hasn't quite been able to. We find the medium that works for you, whether that's movement, image, sound, writing, or simply a different kind of conversation.
You don’t have to have a diagnosis or the perfect words to begin.
Why This Work
I bring more than clinical training to this work. I have lived with aplastic anemia, a rare bone marrow failure condition, since I was 14. That is more than three decades of navigating a serious, unpredictable illness through adolescence, adulthood, and everything in between.
I know the exhaustion of endlessly managing your own medical care. The grief that builds through each shifted identity and adjusted dream. That particular loneliness of carrying something serious while the rest of life keeps moving and somehow leaves you behind. I understand what it feels like to hold down life demands while wondering if today will be a day your body lets you show up, and how that uncertainty can impact your relationships, your sense of self and what you let yourself hope for.
I also know what it looks like to build a life that holds all of that and still means something.
I share this upfront rather than in your session — not to make the work about me, but because I know how much it matters to sit with someone who genuinely understands. Not just clinically. From the inside.
Who I Work Well With
Much of my work centers on chronic illness and medical trauma, the population I am most specialized to serve. I also work with people navigating burnout, grief, major life transitions, and other experiences that have left the nervous system overwhelmed and the sense of self shaken. If your life has been turned upside down, by illness or by something else entirely, there is likely a place for you here.
You might be a good fit if you are:
Living with a disability, chronic illness, autoimmune condition, fibromyalgia, cancer, or chronic pain
Processing medical trauma: difficult diagnoses, invasive procedures, or experiences of being dismissed or harmed in healthcare settings
Grieving the identity shifts and losses that come with a body or life that has changed
Carrying trauma, burnout, or major life transitions that have left everyday life feeling overwhelming and unsteady
Interested in EMDR, expressive approaches, or body-informed therapy
Open to curiosity over answers, humor, or unconventional exploration of inner experiences
Chronic illness does not discriminate and neither does this practice. Still Creek is an affirming space for all races and ethnicities, LGBTQ+ individuals, neurodivergent clients and people of all body shapes and sizes. Whoever you are and whatever you are carrying is welcome here. I believe you.
Fees & Access
50-minute individual sessions are $150.
90-minute sessions if needed are $225.
I offer a sliding scale for clients who need it — please don’t let cost be the thing that stops you from reaching out.
I accept insurance through Headway. Please reach out to see what I’m currently accepting.
I offer a free 15-minute consultation to see if we fit. There’s no pressure or commitment — just a conversation.
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.”
–Rainer Maria Rilke
