About the Founder
Dr. Reyna Aday, PhD, LMHC
PhD · LMHC · LPC · LPCC · NCC · CST · MCAP · CFMHE · E-RYT 500 · EMDRIA Certified Therapist
Dr. Reyna Aday is a licensed mental health counselor and a board-certified sex therapist, certified by the Therapist Certification Association. She provides trauma therapy and EMDR for adults in person in Coral Gables and by telehealth across eight states: Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Indiana. She founded SOMA Trauma Healing Center and serves as its clinical director. She is an EMDRIA Certified Therapist, and she originated the Emotional Sovereignty framework for recovery from narcissistic abuse and coercive control.
Dr. Aday works with adults carrying the lasting effects of trauma, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. She has spent more than a decade in behavioral health leadership, including executive roles in integrative wellness. That background shapes how she practices: she treats the whole person, not a symptom list.
She holds a Doctorate in Clinical Sexology from the International Institute of Clinical Sexology. She earned an MS in Mental Health Counseling from Capella University, Summa Cum Laude. Her BS in Business Administration is from American Intercontinental University, Cum Laude.
Her clinical work rests on a framework she developed: Emotional Sovereignty. Narcissistic abuse and coercive control rarely announce themselves. They take over a person's emotional life quietly. The framework is a neuroscience-informed path back to psychological autonomy. Recovery begins with decentering from the abuser's version of reality, then re-anchoring in your own.
Her other research areas are Embodied Cognition in Trauma Work and the Perimenopause and Menopause-Trauma Intersection. The second asks how hormonal transitions interact with unresolved trauma, and what that means for treatment.
She sees clients in person at the Coral Gables office, and by secure video anywhere in the eight states listed above.
Original Theoretical Contribution
A Framework That Redefines the Field
Decentering / Emotional Sovereignty
A neuroscience-informed clinical framework for how narcissistic abuse and coercive control quietly take over a person's emotional life, and a path back to full psychological autonomy. It names what happens inside: an abuser's needs, beliefs, and version of reality gradually reshape the other person's inner world. It then sets out the clinical process for decentering from that constructed reality and re-anchoring in your own emotional and cognitive experience.
A Teaching Practice
Committed to the Development of the Trauma Field
SOMA operates a dedicated training and supervision pipeline for graduate trainees from NOVA Southeastern University, as well as providing qualified supervision for pre-licensed clinicians. Dr. Aday serves as clinical supervisor for approximately eight interns per year and is a guest lecturer at Florida International University.
She is also a Subject Matter Expert for the NBCC NCMHCE, contributing to the national standards that shape the next generation of mental health professionals. This institutional commitment to training reflects SOMA's belief that the advancement of trauma care is a collective responsibility.