Elaine Skoulas, (she), LMFT #126670
Elaine Skoulas is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist based in Los Angeles, California. She specializes in working with adults experiencing trauma, chronic pain and illness, grief and loss, and addiction.
Her work centers on psychodynamic psychotherapy and trauma-focused approaches, including EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, and Pain Reprocessing Therapy. She places a strong emphasis on how the nervous system organizes around safety in response to threat and works with clients to process unresolved experiences by working directly with these physiological responses.
Elaine focuses on the intersection of trauma, chronic pain, and the nervous system, and is committed to advancing more integrative approaches to understanding and treating somatic symptoms in clinical practice.
Understanding Chronic Pain And Somatic Symptoms Through The Nervous System
This presentation explores a trauma-focused approach to understanding chronic pain and somatic symptoms through the nervous system. Early-career clinicians often encounter clients whose distress presents through pain, tension, fatigue, and other somatic symptoms that can feel confusing or difficult to treat.
This presentation introduces a framework for understanding these presentations as physiological responses shaped by trauma, chronic stress, conditioning, and neuroplasticity over time. The nervous system organizes around safety in response to perceived threat, and these patterns can become reinforced, contributing to the persistence of pain and somatic distress even in the absence of ongoing danger.
Participants will learn how to recognize these patterns as they emerge in session and how to track nervous system responses in real time. The focus will be on working directly with these responses in the body to support the completion of trauma responses, reduce threat activation, and shift the nervous system’s relationship to pain.
Clinical examples will be used to connect theory to practice and demonstrate how mind-body approaches can be applied in therapy. Participants will leave with a clear and practical framework for working with trauma-related somatic symptoms and increased confidence in responding to these presentations in clinical work.
Where you can see my presentation:
California Pathways to Practice Symposium
Friday, September 25, 2026
11:00-12:30 pm
This event is intended to be accessible to all. If financial barriers would otherwise prevent your attendance, please reach out to Robyn@alignedcarecenter.com to discuss financial accommodations. For other accommodations, please click here for more information.
We extend our gratitude to our sponsors for making it possible for us to compensate the speaker and make this event accessible. ​