About Tiffany Savener PhD, LPC-Associate
Trauma-Informed Therapy for Individuals and Couples
LPC-Associate #93330 | Supervised by Mark Cagle, MA, LPC-S (#71799)
In-person therapy in Northwest Austin (MoPac & Far West) and Round Rock, TX | Online therapy across Texas
Healing from Trauma, Betrayal, and Relationship Wounds
Healing from trauma, betrayal, or the slow erosion of a relationship that was supposed to feel safe takes courage, and a space where that courage is met with someone who can sit with complexity, make sense of a tangled history, and help you find your way through.
Relationships shape us. They can wound us. And they can heal us.
The relationships we experience throughout our lives influence how we see ourselves, what we expect from others, and how safe we feel in the world. When those relationships are marked by betrayal, neglect, emotional immaturity, chronic conflict, or disconnection, they can leave wounds that follow us for years, showing up as anxiety, self-doubt, people-pleasing, difficulty trusting, or an aching sense that something is always slightly off.
I work with people navigating high levels of responsibility, achievement, and relational complexity, often alongside internal stress that isn't visible from the outside. My work is grounded, trauma-informed, and relational: a space where people can slow down enough to notice patterns that have been running automatically in the background of their lives, and begin to understand themselves with more clarity and compassion.
At a Glance
View my professional training and clinical development →
Education
PhD in Clinical Psychology, Texas Tech University
BA in English, University of Texas at Austin
Specialties
Relational Trauma, Betrayal Trauma & Attachment Wounds
(including infidelity, emotional affairs, narcissistic abuse, complex PTSD, and family-of-origin trauma)
Trauma-Informed Couples Therapy & Relationship Repair
(including affair recovery, emotional disconnection, and intimacy/sexual relationship concerns)
Family Systems & Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents
(including emotionally immature parenting dynamics and long-term relational impact)
Sexual Health, Intimacy & Relationship Patterns
(including desire differences, pornography-related concerns, and sexual disconnection in relationships)
Anxiety & Depression
Approaches
Gottman Method Couples Therapy
Research-based couples therapy focused on communication patterns, conflict repair, and rebuilding trust in relationships.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Attachment-based couples therapy that helps partners understand emotional cycles, strengthen connection, and create secure bonding.
Trauma-Informed Therapy for Complex Trauma
Integrates EMDR, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Janina Fisher’s Complex Trauma training to help process trauma, reduce emotional overwhelm, and support nervous system regulation.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
Structured, evidence-based trauma treatment focused on identifying and shifting trauma-related beliefs, including guilt, shame, and self-blame.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
Trauma processing approach that helps reduce the emotional intensity of distressing experiences and support adaptive integration of traumatic memory.
Complex Trauma Treatment (Janina Fisher training)
Includes parts-based approaches and nervous system regulation strategies for working with complex trauma, attachment wounds, and relational survival strategies.
Attachment-Based Clinical Framework
A relational lens that informs how patterns of closeness, distance, safety, and emotional regulation develop across relationships and life experiences.
Family Systems Therapy
A systems-based framework for understanding how family-of-origin dynamics and emotionally immature parenting patterns shape adult relationships.
Sexual Health & Couples Intimacy Work
Integrates CSTIP-informed sex therapy training and PACT-informed interventions to support couples navigating desire differences, intimacy challenges, and pornography-related relationship concerns.
How I Came to This Work
After graduating from UT Austin, I spent several years teaching high school, work I loved, but that kept pointing me toward something deeper. I was drawn to the emotional lives of the people in front of me: what shaped them, what hurt them, what helped them grow. That pull led me to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Texas Tech University.
My clinical training spanned the full spectrum of care. I worked in inpatient psychiatric units within correctional facilities serving adolescents and adults, in a state hospital with children, adolescents, and adults with complex, high-acuity needs, and in outpatient clinics with equally complex presentations. I worked with individuals across the lifespan and across a wide range of racial, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, including rural communities and urban settings, and people living in both significant economic hardship and relative stability.
Those years taught me something that remains central to my work today: people find powerful ways of surviving experiences that were overwhelming and did what they had to do to get through them. Often, the same strategies that once created safety can later make intimacy, connection, and emotional closeness more difficult in the present. The past doesn’t disappear; it continues to live with us in patterns we may not fully recognize. In therapy, we begin to understand and honor those survival responses, and through telling our story in a safe and supported way, space can open for new ways of relating that feel healthier and more connected.
After completing my doctorate, I stepped back from formal practice to focus on raising my family. Those years weren’t a pause. They deepened my understanding of the relational systems my clients actually live inside: the weight of caregiving, the complexity of shifting family roles, the ways connection sustains us and the ways it can wound us. I returned to clinical work when my children were older, bringing both additional training and a deeper clinical understanding shaped by that earlier season of life.
Why I Specialize in Relationship Wounds
Most of my specialties share a common thread.
Betrayal trauma lives in intimate relationships. Family estrangement grows from unresolved relational injuries. Emotionally immature or narcissistic family systems shape how we see ourselves for decades. Couples come to therapy when trust, connection, or emotional safety has been disrupted. Even anxiety, depression, and trauma often affect our relationship with ourselves most deeply.
Underneath all of these concerns, the same questions tend to surface:
How did I learn to relate to myself? How did I learn to relate to others? And how can those relationships become healthier?
Helping clients answer those questions is at the heart of everything I do.
A Little More About Me
I’m an Austin native, a mom of three, and have been married for over 30 years.
In the therapy room, I pay close attention to both what is being said and what has been difficult to put into words. My focus is on helping people make sense of their experience in a way that feels steady, nonjudgmental, and emotionally safe, while also supporting meaningful change over time.
I believe therapy works best when it is collaborative, and when people feel they don’t have to perform, defend themselves, or convince someone their experience is real.
Clients often describe therapy as a place where they begin to see themselves more clearly and feel more grounded in their own internal experience.
What I Believe About Therapy
I believe most people make complete sense once their story is fully understood.
Rather than asking what’s wrong with you, I ask what happened to you? And just as importantly, what strengths helped you survive?
The patterns that bring people to therapy, anxiety, perfectionism, people-pleasing, emotional shutdown, difficulty trusting, rarely come from nowhere. They developed because they once served a purpose: keeping you safe, keeping the peace, keeping relationships intact. Therapy isn't about judging those responses. It's about understanding them, and making room for something new.
I believe healing happens through greater self-awareness, meaningful connection, emotional safety, and the courage to engage honestly with ourselves and the people we love.
Schedule a Consultation
Whether you’re carrying the weight of old wounds, navigating a relationship in crisis, or feeling stuck in patterns you can’t seem to change, therapy can help you understand yourself more fully and move toward something different.
Schedule a free consultation by clicking the link below to choose a time that works for you. If you don’t see an available time or still have questions, you’re welcome to email me at tsavener@seekthesun.net. We’ll talk about what you’re navigating and whether we might be a good fit.