Online Psychologist Hawaii | EMDR, Somatic & Trauma Therapy | Sven Schild, PhD

You may be successful, capable, and accustomed to handling a great deal on your own. Yet there may be parts of your life that remain surprisingly difficult to change.

Perhaps you understand where your patterns came from but still find yourself becoming anxious, overwhelmed, shut down, angry, or emotionally disconnected. You may struggle to feel secure in relationships, have difficulty slowing down, carry the effects of earlier experiences, or find that your body reacts long before your rational mind can reassure you.

Sometimes insight is important—but insight alone may not be enough.

I am Sven Schild, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 20 years of clinical experience. I provide specialized online psychotherapy for adults throughout Hawaiʻi, integrating traditional psychotherapy with EMDR, Somatic Experiencing®, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and attachment-focused approaches.

My practice is entirely online, allowing adults throughout Oʻahu, Maui, Hawaiʻi Island, Kauaʻi, Molokaʻi, and Lānaʻi to access specialized psychotherapy from the privacy of their own home.

Many of the people I work with are thoughtful and psychologically minded. Some have been in therapy before. They may already understand their childhood, recognize their attachment patterns, know their triggers, and have developed effective ways of coping.

And yet something still feels unresolved.

You might notice that:

• You understand your past, but your body continues to react as though the past is happening now. 
• You are highly capable professionally but privately struggle with anxiety, self-doubt, perfectionism, loneliness, or imposter syndrome. 
• Certain relationships activate reactions that feel much stronger than the situation seems to warrant. 
• You have difficulty trusting, depending on others, setting boundaries, or feeling truly secure in close relationships. 
• You remain hypervigilant, tense, emotionally numb, or unable to fully relax even when life is going well. 
• You have spent years talking about what happened but sense that healing may require something more experiential. 

My approach is designed to work not only with what you think and understand, but also with the emotional, relational, and physiological patterns that can continue long after difficult experiences have ended.

My practice is particularly focused on adults experiencing:

Trauma & Complex Trauma
Including the lingering effects of childhood adversity, emotional neglect, abuse, difficult relationships, overwhelming experiences, and other events that continue to affect present-day life.

Attachment & Relationship Patterns
Fear of abandonment, difficulty trusting, anxious or avoidant relationship patterns, difficulty with vulnerability, people-pleasing, emotional withdrawal, and recurring relationship dynamics.

Anxiety & Chronic Stress
Persistent worry, hypervigilance, panic, difficulty relaxing, somatic anxiety, and a nervous system that seems continually prepared for something to go wrong.

High Achievement, Perfectionism & Imposter Syndrome
For professionals who appear successful externally while privately struggling with pressure, inadequacy, self-criticism, exhaustion, or the feeling that their accomplishments are never quite enough.

Men's Mental Health
A confidential space for men navigating anger, relationships, loneliness, stress, grief, identity, emotional expression, trauma, and major life transitions.

Grief, Loss & Life Transitions
Support for experiences that alter your sense of yourself, your relationships, or the future you expected to have.

There is no single therapeutic method that is appropriate for every person or every stage of treatment.

Rather than fitting clients into one particular model, I draw from several complementary approaches and tailor treatment to your history, needs, goals, and responses during therapy.

As an EMDRIA Certified EMDR Therapist and EMDRIA Approved Consultant, I have extensive experience using Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing as part of trauma-focused psychotherapy.

EMDR can help address distressing experiences and memories that continue to evoke strong emotional or physiological reactions in the present.

I am also a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner (SEP). Somatic approaches bring careful attention to the ways stress and trauma are experienced through the nervous system and body.

Rather than relying exclusively on talking about an experience, therapy may include noticing sensations, movement, posture, impulses, breathing, and other aspects of present-moment experience.

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy further informs my work by integrating cognitive and emotional psychotherapy with mindful attention to the body, movement, attachment patterns, and procedural learning.

This can be particularly useful when you intellectually understand a pattern but find that your automatic reactions remain difficult to change.

ACT helps us explore how you relate to difficult thoughts and emotions while clarifying the values and directions that matter most to you.

Together, these approaches allow therapy to move flexibly between mind, body, emotion, relationships, and meaning rather than treating them as separate parts of your experience.

High levels of professional achievement don't protect us from anxiety, trauma, loneliness, relationship difficulties, or self-doubt.

In fact, qualities that contribute to professional success—discipline, independence, responsibility, persistence, and high personal standards—can sometimes make it difficult to recognize when something needs attention.

I work with physicians, healthcare professionals, attorneys, executives, business owners, academics, technology professionals, therapists and other professionals navigating concerns such as:

• Chronic stress and difficulty switching off 
• Perfectionism and relentless internal standards 
• Imposter syndrome 
• Burnout and emotional exhaustion 
• Relationship difficulties 
• Anger and emotional reactivity 
• Loneliness and disconnection 
• Difficulty asking for or receiving support 
• Trauma and unresolved childhood experiences 
• Questions about meaning, purpose, identity, and the next stage of life 

Online therapy can also offer a degree of discretion and convenience that may be particularly valuable for professionals with demanding schedules.

No. My practice is exclusively online. I provide secure telehealth psychotherapy to adults located in Hawaiʻi.

The initial evaluation is $300. Ongoing 53-minute psychotherapy appointments are $250.

I am currently in network with Cigna/Evernorth for eligible plans. Coverage and patient responsibility vary by plan.

No. I work with adults experiencing trauma and PTSD as well as anxiety, attachment and relationship difficulties, grief, stress, emotional reactivity, men's mental health concerns, and other issues.

No. Part of my role is to determine collaboratively which approaches may be most appropriate based on your goals, history, preferences, and responses during treatment.

Yes. Some people seek specialized therapy precisely because they have gained considerable insight through previous treatment but continue to experience emotional, relational, or physiological patterns that feel difficult to change.

You are welcome to contact me to inquire about current availability and determine whether scheduling a consultation would make sense.

Finding the right therapist is a personal decision. Experience, specialization, therapeutic approach, and the quality of the relationship all matter.

If you are looking for specialized online psychotherapy in Hawaiʻi and believe my approach may fit what you are seeking, you are welcome to contact me about current availability.