Cassie McCarthy, LICSW

12/25/2025

On paper, you have it all together. You’re successful in your career, you’re the reliable friend, and you get things done. But on the inside, you feel disconnected, exhausted, and overwhelmed.

This is a common presentation of high-functioning trauma. You’ve become an expert at coping and compartmentalizing. But keeping those walls up takes a tremendous amount of energy. Eventually, the body keeps the score.

You don’t have to wait until you hit burnout to ask for support. You are allowed to set down the weight you’ve been carrying.

I help women navigate the complexities of trauma and PTSD using evidence-based methods. Let’s help you find some peace. Click to schedule your free intro call.

12/22/2025

Do you crave intimacy, but panic when someone gets too close? It’s a painful cycle: you want connection, but your body interprets vulnerability as danger.

This often manifests as jealousy, needing constant reassurance, or suddenly pulling away when things are going well. This isn’t a personality flaw. It is often a protective response born from past relationship trauma or betrayal. Your brain is trying to protect you from getting hurt again.

The good news is that you can retrain your nervous system. You can learn to trust yourself and others again. We can work together to untangle your past from your present, so you can enjoy the healthy relationships you deserve.

Ready to break the cycle? Schedule a free consultation with me today.

12/22/2025

A lot of people are told they’re “just anxious.”
And while anxiety is real, that explanation doesn’t always tell the full story.

If you’ve tried therapy, coping skills, or self-help strategies and still feel like something deeper is going on — you’re not imagining it.

For many women, what looks like anxiety on the surface is actually trauma underneath.

PTSD doesn’t always show up as flashbacks or obvious fear.
It can look like:
• constant alertness
• trouble trusting yourself or others
• feeling unsafe even when things are “fine”
• shutting down or over-functioning
• a nervous system that never really rests

This article breaks down the difference between anxiety and PTSD, why they’re so often confused, and how to tell which one might actually be driving your symptoms.

If you’ve ever wondered,
“Why doesn’t anxiety treatment fully work for me?”
—this may help things finally make sense.

💛 Read here:
https://cassiemccarthy.com/anxiety-vs-ptsd-symptoms/

Understanding what you’re dealing with isn’t about labels.
It’s about getting the right kind of support.

12/18/2025

"But it wasn't violent." "I didn't say no." "I froze."

When we think of sexual trauma, we often picture scenes from movies. But for so many women, trauma happens in the gray areas—through coercion, manipulation, or freezing up when boundaries are crossed.

If you are struggling with shame or guilt because your experience doesn't look like what society calls "assault," I want you to know: Your feelings are valid. Trauma is defined by how your system processed the event, not just the event itself.

You deserve a space where you don’t have to justify your pain. As a specialist in women’s trauma, I help you release the shame that was never yours to carry. Recovery is possible.

I am currently accepting new clients for online therapy. Click below to book a free consultation and start your healing journey.

12/16/2025

Intake is often where trauma-informed care quietly breaks down — not because clinicians don’t understand trauma, but because the systems themselves weren’t designed with trauma in mind.

I’m opening the waitlist for a new training, The Trauma-Informed Intake Toolkit, created to walk clinicians through what they actually need to know and do to build high-quality, trauma-informed intake systems — from first contact through documentation and workflows.

It’s a skills-based, asynchronous, CEU-eligible course designed for real-world clinical practice.

If this would be useful for you or your team, you can learn more or join the waitlist here:
👉

A Clear, Trauma-Informed Intake Process That Protects Clients, Reduces Dropout, and Strengthens Your Clinical Confidence.

12/15/2025

Many women I talk to say things like:
🔹 “I took a PTSD screen and it came back negative… so I must not have trauma?”
🔹 “Does that mean I’m just anxious, not traumatized?”

If that sounds familiar — you’re not alone.

Screening tools and questionnaires are helpful, but they’re not perfect.
Even well-used PTSD screens can miss people who are actually struggling with trauma symptoms — especially when the way trauma shows up doesn’t match the textbook checklist.
PMC

Here’s the truth:
✨ A “negative” result on a PTSD test doesn’t mean your nervous system wasn’t impacted.
✨ Tests are limited by how they’re designed — and many women’s trauma doesn’t fit the expected pattern.
✨ False negatives happen when questions don’t capture the complexity of real lived experience.

Trauma isn’t only about dramatic events.
It can be relational, chronic, or hidden in experiences no one ever labeled “traumatic.”
And that means symptoms can go unnamed — even when someone is struggling deeply.

If you’ve ever wondered:
“Why did the test say no, but I still feel like something’s wrong?”
…this article may help you make sense of that.

💛 Read it here:
https://cassiemccarthy.com/ptsd-test-false-negative/

And always know: your experience matters — even when a test doesn’t name it.

12/15/2025

Have you spent years in talk therapy but still feel stuck? It is incredibly frustrating to retell your story over and over again without feeling any relief. In fact, for many trauma survivors, unstructured venting can sometimes make things worse.

You don’t need to just "talk about it." You need a structured way to process it.

In my practice, I specialize in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). We don’t just look at what happened; we look at how that event changed the way you view yourself, your safety, and your relationships. It’s an evidence-based approach designed to help you get unstuck—so you don't have to be in therapy forever.

Real healing is possible, even if previous therapy hasn't worked. Let’s talk about a different approach. Schedule a free consultation to learn more.

12/11/2025

Do you feel like you’re constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop? You might call it anxiety, or maybe you just think you’re a "worrier." But if that anxiety feels less like nervousness and more like a constant scan for danger, it might be an echo of the past.

Many women I work with don’t realize that their chronic anxiety, perfectionism, or people-pleasing are actually trauma responses. You’ve learned to be hyper-vigilant to keep yourself safe. But that safety mechanism is exhausting when you’re trying to live your normal life.

You don’t have to live in a state of high alert forever. Understanding the root of your symptoms is the first step toward relief. Let’s move you from surviving to actually living.

I offer trauma-focused therapy for women in Massachusetts, Virginia, Illinois, and Vermont.

Schedule your free consultation today to start making sense of your story.

12/11/2025

So many women spend years believing they’re “anxious,” “too sensitive,” or “overreacting”…
when in reality, they’re carrying trauma that no one ever named.

The truth is: trauma isn’t always loud.
It’s not always a single event.
And it doesn’t always look like what we’ve been taught to expect.

For many women, trauma was:
• Coercion that didn’t look like force
• Emotional manipulation disguised as “love”
• Walking on eggshells to keep the peace
• Chronic invalidation or betrayal
• Growing up responsible for other people’s emotions
• Quiet, persistent fear instead of one big moment

And because these experiences don’t match the traditional PTSD model — the one built around male, combat-style trauma — women often get misdiagnosed, misunderstood, or told their symptoms are “just anxiety.”

This carousel breaks down why trauma is missed so often
… and how to finally understand what your symptoms are trying to tell you.

If any part of this feels familiar, you’re not alone — and you’re not imagining it.
Naming trauma isn’t about blaming the past.
It’s about finally understanding yourself with compassion and clarity.

✨ Read the full article:
https://cassiemccarthy.com/why-trauma-gets-missed/

If you’re in MA, VT, VA, FL, or IL and want trauma-focused therapy that truly understands women’s experiences, I offer free consultations.

12/10/2025

When working with clients who’ve experienced sexual pressure or “complicated consent,” what do you find most challenging?

What I’d love to know:

What’s hardest to assess or name?

What feels under-trained or unclear?

What skills or frameworks do you wish you had?

If a CE training on treating the effects of sexual coercion existed, what would you want it to cover?

Thanks for sharing — your input helps me understand what clinicians actually need.

12/08/2025

If you’ve ever felt like you should be “over it by now,” I want you to know: trauma doesn’t follow a timeline. Especially not trauma that lives in silence.

You might have pushed through, buried it, or minimized it. But if it’s still showing up in your life—in anxiety, shame, or disconnection—it’s worth healing.

I specialize in working with women who’ve experienced sexual trauma, helping them recover using evidence-based therapy that honors both your story and your strength.

🌐 Online trauma therapy available in MA, VA, VT, IL, and FL. 📲 Message me or book a free consultation. Let’s begin.

12/08/2025

So many women go through life thinking, “This is just anxiety.” Or, “I’m overreacting.” Or, “It wasn’t bad enough to be trauma.”
But what if the symptoms you’ve been carrying for years—hypervigilance, exhaustion, feeling unsafe, shutting down, struggling to trust—aren’t personality flaws or overthinking…
What if they’re signs of trauma that no one ever named?

Trauma gets missed all the time—especially when it didn’t involve something dramatic, violent, or obvious.
Most women’s trauma comes from relationships, betrayal, coercion, emotional harm, or situations where they had to survive quietly. And because it didn’t “look like trauma,” no one ever connected the dots for them.

If you’ve ever wondered:
“Does what I went through actually count?”
…this blog might give you the clarity you’ve never been offered.

✨ Here’s why trauma often goes unseen—and how to finally understand what your symptoms are trying to tell you.
Read it here:
https://cassiemccarthy.com/why-trauma-gets-missed/