Tatianna Saunders, LPCC

From the outside, I was capable, insightful, high-achieving. Inside, my nervous system was braced. 

For much of my life, I survived through hypervigilance, fawning, and people-pleasing. I became exquisitely attuned to others’ needs while drifting from my own. My body carried the cost of masking; the incongruence between my inner truth and outer performance. Eventually, it began expressing what my mind had long overridden. Chronic illness, fatigue, and pain became messengers asking me to stop abandoning myself.

I came to understand that core parts of me had fragmented in service of belonging and safety. Adaptive protectors led; tender, authentic parts went quiet. As an adult with agency, I began the sacred work of reclamation—restoring relationship with my body, my neurodivergence, my queerness, my desire, my boundaries, and my joy.

Through somatic work, mindfulness, parts work, creative practice, nature, and community, I rooted into authenticity grounded in nervous system safety rather than performance. I could finally exhale. I believe joy and embodiment are forms of resistance in systems that depend on our disconnection.

Again and again, I witness how people who feel “too much” or “not enough” are often carrying complex histories within remarkably intelligent nervous systems. When we slow down and listen, symptoms make sense. The same neurobiological pathways that once mobilized for danger can build capacity for safety, presence, rest, pleasure, and connection.

This is the heart of my work.

Who I Work With

I offer a tending space for individuals and couples who are LGBTQ+, neurodivergent, and/or living with Complex PTSD (CPTSD) to explore, express, embody, and expand.

Complex trauma is relational and repetitive. It can include attachment, developmental, intergenerational, collective, or existential-religious trauma, as well as conditional love or chronic emotional neglect. It teaches us to anticipate instability—in ourselves, our relationships, and the world—keeping the mind and body braced or collapsed.

CPTSD may show up as people-pleasing, perfectionism, difficulty trusting, chronic shame, pain or exhaustion, numbness, distraction or escape, or feeling stuck. I also support adults navigating chronic illness, anxiety, life transitions, and relationship challenges, and I often work with creatives and care-workers.

Many neurodivergent, queer, and trans people learn early that authenticity can cost connection. To preserve belonging within family, school, religious, or social systems, we may repress essential parts of ourselves. Later, when safety increases, those exiled parts begin knocking. What once ensured survival may now limit expansion. Through attuned relationship and nervous system repatterning, safety in wholeness and freedom in authenticity can become linked again.

If you’ve spent your life masking, performing, or over-functioning to survive, we will move at a pace that honors both your protectors and your longing for something more congruent.

What I Bring

I am someone who has rebuilt my life from the inside out. I know what it is to unravel, to question everything, and to piece myself back together in a way that feels more honest.

I value working within communities I’m part of. Feeling seen and understood—especially in therapy—is foundational. Sometimes safety is built not only through words, but through shared humor, cultural nuance, subtle cues, or the quiet permission to stim.

I am drawn to the symbolic, the somatic, and the subtle layers shaping how we relate to ourselves and the world. My work is grounded in somatic therapy, applied interpersonal neurobiology, and depth psychotherapy. I draw from attachment and polyvagal frameworks, Internal Family Systems (IFS), mindfulness and nervous system tracking, and expressive arts and active imagination within relational, trauma-informed care.

Sessions feel gentle, collaborative, and at times playful, guided by your direction and our connection. We track sensations, emotions, beliefs, and patterns to build safety and self-compassion, access creative resources, support inner dialogue, and restore integration between body, mind, and self. We move at the speed of trust and the rhythm of safety.

Beyond the Therapy Room

Outside of sessions, you can find me sitting by a creek with my journal, hiking, writing songs, making art, listening to podcasts, cooking nourishing meals for friends, and watching RuPaul’s Drag Race with my partner and dog.