Heidi McKinley, LPC · For Referring Therapists
Focused trauma work
To support ongoing therapy.
A short-term specialty referral for clients who are ready to work directly with a defined trauma target, attachment wound, or recurring activation.
Your client remains your client.
My role is to go somewhere specific with your client—and then return the work to the larger therapy relationship.
This service is for clients who already have an ongoing therapist and need a focused container for trauma reprocessing.
You remain the primary clinician. I do not take over the broader treatment relationship or convert referrals into ongoing therapy.
I work with the treatment focus, communicate with you when the client consents, and help the client bring what shifts back into the work they are already doing with you.
When the focused course is complete, the client continues fully with you. If another target later emerges, you may refer again—or we may mutually decide to continue with another clearly defined focus before transition.
contact@heidimckinley.com
Heidi McKinley, LPC
Wisconsin & Louisiana · Telehealth
A specialty referral—not a transfer of care.
You identify the stuck point.
A traumatic memory, hypervigilence or fear, attachment anxiety and avoidance, freeze response, people pleasing, intense resentment, or other recurring activation that appears ready for more direct work.
I provide focused reprocessing.
Using EMDR, IFS, and attachment-informed trauma treatment, I work directly with the treatment focus while respecting readiness and protective structure.
The work returns to you.
The client continues the broader treatment process with you. With consent, I share relevant clinical observations, what shifted, and what may still need support.
Simple, collaborative, and clearly bounded.
I designed this service to fit naturally into the work you're already doing. I specialize in depth and trauma reprocessing. Your client continues meeting with you throughout the process. Although we may discover that a deeper organizing memory or attachment wound becomes the true focus of the work—--that's often how trauma unfolds—--the collaborative structure remains the same: your client continues in therapy with you, and I offer a time-limited specialty sessions that supports, rather than replaces, your ongoing treatment.
You and your client identify the treatment focus
You can email or book a brief call to discuss fit, readiness, or the area that seems stuck. You may also simply have your client book a consult call to get started.
Intake Session + Focused reprocessing
Your client continues seeing you while completing an assessment and a series of focused EMDR and IFS sessions with me. As the work unfolds, deeper organizing memories may emerge naturally. We follow the clinical process while remaining within the same collaborative treatment model.
Integration
While the treatment focus is processing, or after it has been sufficiently processed, your client continues their ongoing work with you. With written consent, I am happy to share observations, progress, and recommendations that may support the next phase of treatment. Direct consulation is not a requirement for referrals. Your client may choose to simply let you know how it's going.
The number of sessions depends on the work. A single-incident trauma may move quickly; layered or relational trauma may require a longer or repeated focused course.
In our consult we will discuss more what you can expect in terms of lenth of treatment. Everyone's system is different and outcomes also depend on current support or stressors and the time, readiness, and energy someone has for this kind of work.
Clients who tend to do well here.
- Clients with whom you have already established relational safety, stabilization, and enough capacity to approach difficult material
- Clients who remain activated by a specific memory, incident, trauma network, attachment rupture, or recurring trigger
- Clients who understand the issue cognitively but continue to react somatically or emotionally as though the danger is present
- Clients whose protectors repeatedly interrupt or prevent direct trauma work in the current treatment frame
- Clients who may benefit from longer sessions and a narrower treatment focus
- Clients who understand that this is adjunctive, time-limited work rather than a new primary therapy relationship
Less likely to be a fit
Readiness and scope.
- Clients in acute crisis or requiring a higher level of care
- Clients who need a new ongoing primary therapist
- Clients who require substantial stabilization before trauma processing can begin.
- Clients with active psychosis, mania, or another condition that may significantly compromise safe participation
- Clients in early or unstable substance-use recovery
- Clients who have not yet developed enough continuity, trust, or self-observation in the primary therapy relationship
Uncertain referrals are welcome. I would rather have a brief clinician-to-clinician conversation before the client invests in an assessment.
What your client can expect.
Private pay only. Superbills are available upon request. The client must be located in Wisconsin or Louisiana during sessions.
View the client-facing page →Collaboration
Communication that supports the work.
- Your client continues meeting with you throughout the focused course.
- A brief clinician consultation is available before referral.
- Coordination is available with written client consent.
- I will communicate if the work reveals a need for additional stabilization or support in ongoing therapy.
- At transition, I can share a concise summary of what shifted, what remains active, and what may be useful to hold in the primary treatment relationship.
Considering a referral?
Let's think it through together.
I'm always happy to talk through a referral before your client reaches out. Whether you're wondering about fit, timing, readiness, or simply want another clinical perspective, feel free to reach out.
Focused Trauma Reprocessing · Telehealth in Wisconsin and Louisiana.
Ongoing therapist required · Collaboration available with written client consent.