here’s who i am

I'm Trina — a relational, trauma-informed therapist based in Austin, Texas. I work with individuals and couples navigating anxiety, relationships, identity, burnout, and the kind of patterns that are hard to name but impossible to ignore.

I've never met someone who didn't make sense once I understood what they'd been through. That's not a therapeutic technique — it's just how I see people. Whatever you're carrying, whatever you've tried, whatever you're not sure you can say out loud: there's a logic to it. My job is to help you find it.

before i was a therapist

I spent years working in library science — which sounds like an unlikely origin story until you consider what libraries are actually about: making sense of information, understanding how meaning gets organized, and helping people find what they're looking for. I eventually realized I cared less about the systems and more about the people inside them. Therapy felt like the natural next step.

I've worked with families in the child welfare system, incarcerated youth, adults experiencing homelessness, and people navigating major life transitions across a range of contexts. Those experiences didn't just build my clinical skills — they shaped how I understand resilience, and what it actually takes to change.

I'm also an artist. I tend to experience the work of therapy the way I experience making art: each relationship creates something that couldn't have existed without both people in it.

what it’s like to work with me

I move slowly, in the way that trauma work asks. I'm not going to push you somewhere you're not ready to go — and I'm not going to decide for you what you're ready for. Several clients have told me that they went deeper with me than with previous therapists because they could tell I trusted them to know what they could handle. That trust is real, and it goes both ways.

I also try not to assume that everything needs to be fixed. Sometimes the most useful thing we can do together is understand something well enough to let it be what it is.

People tend to find me easy to be around — calm, unhurried, genuinely curious about them. I'll let you set the pace.

a little more about me

I hold a Master's in Information Studies from UT Austin and a Master's in Counseling. I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and Licensed Profession Counselor (LPC), with both licenses in the state of Texas. I work with adults, couples, and families in person in Austin and via telehealth across Texas.