William Koehler, PhD, LCSW

Will Koehler PhD, LCSW (pronouns: he/they) is founder of Disco Sock Productions, LLC., author of memoir - Dragons & Disco Socks (2021), co-owner of the counseling practice Journey to a Trauma Informed Life, LLC and Executive Director of Journey: Healing Together. His areas of expertise include trauma-informed, culturally competent treatment of traumatic stress and dissociative disorders, mental health concerns among LGBTQ+ individuals, children exposed to violence and abuse, and those living with HIV.

Since 2009, he has served the NW PA region as a Clinical Social Worker by empowering LGBTQ+ youth and adults with evidence-based, trauma-focused outpatient counseling. He currently provides training, supervision, and consulting services in the areas of LGBTQ+ competency, trauma-informed practices, and is an EMDRIA-approved Consultant. Koehler founded Disco Sock Productions in honor of his grandmother who encouraged him to share his light with everyone without prejudice. Hence, DSP is an online coaching, consulting, and training platform to help illuminate the darkness cause by trauma. 

Who am I, how did I get here, and why am I here?

Why am I here? I have reached this point in my life because of human resilience, support, and a mixed-up layered life privileged & painful experiences. I was born to a teenage mom and her teenage husband who were both from homes riddled with alcoholism and abuse. I was born with cysts in my lungs which grew to the point of needing surgery for their removal by the time I was 2 years old. My parents divorced, each re-marrying to spouses who abused and mistreated them and their children. At this point, I’m grateful to be alive - that I survived childhood abuse and religiously-motivated unreasonable corporeal punishment. I’m surprised I didn’t take my own life as a young gay boy in a rural, football-obsessed community being raised by fundamentalist Christian parents where being bullied was as much of my daily experience as breathing and being told regularly that I should spend eternity in hell because God hated homosexuals.  I’m grateful I survived the AIDS epidemic through the 80s and 90s, but I’m sad it was at the expense of being closeted and terrified I would be a victim of gay-bashing.

I am here today because there were mentors, protectors, and healers who crossed my path all throughout my life. I never would have sought therapy for myself if it wasn’t for my ex-wife, seeing through my façade into my heart which was full of such pain that little kindness could flow from it. While my first therapist taught me about relationships and parenting, he also was invested in my being straight. “You’re not gay.” was a common phrase in those days. After my divorce, I returned to school for my master’s in social work and began working with children who were sexually abused by their family members. This, of course, brought up a full flood of issues for me. I also decided to come out fully to everyone as queer. By the time I had graduated with my PhD and accepted a tenure track at a local State University 10 years later, I had been through several co-dependent or otherwise un-healthy relationships, had grown weary of my complex PTSD symptoms which reoccurred with regularity, and had come to the conclusion that my poor physical, mental, emotional, and relational health were the result of unprocessed trauma being stored up in my body and mind.  

Dragons & Disco Socks Excerpt
Years of teaching Psychopathology and Trauma Theory courses at a local state university taught me how our body stores traumatic memories in unexpected ways. These memories can stick with us so even a smell associated with the memory can catapult us back in time to when it occurred. Our brains tell us we are in the same danger as we were back then, even if we are just standing in a department store and catching a whiff of cologne our abuser wore. Not only does our body want to react to this perceived danger, but our mind retells us the same thoughts we have about ourselves because of that memory. For example, our abuser told us we asked for the abuse, therefore we believe we wanted it. These distorted thoughts produce feelings that can cloud our perception of ourselves, such as, “I’m disgusting because I liked having sex with my abuser.”  

So, I was fortunate enough to find someone who could guide me back through my past and unlearn those negative beliefs, cleanse my body of the toxic trauma stored within, and begin to live a life which felt safer and healthier than I ever thought was possible. Now, being in therapy myself for the fourth time in my life I was determined to eradicate these negative messages once and for all. I was tired of falling into the same destructive patterns of allowing people to mistreat me. I was sick of debilitating migraines following a triggering argument at work. I no longer wanted to have attacks of anxiety when I had to confront a friend who had hurt me. I wanted desperately to be in a relationship with someone who didn’t remind me so much of one of my many childhood caregivers. I knew enough about trauma, healing, and growth to give me hope. But I didn’t know enough about EMDR to prepare me for the negative emotions, foul thoughts, or lingering fatigue days after an intense session. A difficult session was like opening a small path for a septic pool of water to drain into a freshly flowing stream. As the putrid water would mix with the fresh, it clouded the whole stream— the infiltration of trapped and rotting memories polluting the new, crisp flow of experiences on their way to the deep sea of my integrated past. The process of EMDR was anything but straightforward. When I started, I assumed I would address the memories associated with my current difficulties, like the bullies in the locker room peeing on me. Instead, my guide had me lay out my whole life story and poked around in areas I thought completely irrelevant. She was an expert guide, able to lead me to the pockets of festering memories like an emotional dowser. She didn’t baby me and she wasn’t going to carry me through this process. I quickly realized, if I was to find my way to a life free from my traumatic past, I would need skills, training, strength, endurance, and support along the way.  

I recognize how fortunate I am to have been given gifts for this journey. I have never really wondered where my next meal is coming from, nor if I will have a warm bed to sleep in each night. I am a white, cisgender, upper-middle-class male, able to walk through the world largely unscathed by oppression and discrimination. I have the privilege of a quality education and over twelve years’ experience as a mental health professional working with traumatized children and adults. I taught as an Assistant Professor in a university program for 12 years, giving me access to recent research and teaching regarding trauma and treatment of trauma-related concerns. I have researched and written about trauma and its treatment, and presented to hundreds of people on the impact of trauma, how to treat it, and how to heal and grow from it.