Therapy for Complex Trauma (CPTSD)

"Children don’t get traumatized because they are hurt. They get traumatized because they’re alone with the hurt."

– Dr. Gabor Maté

Complex trauma can be defined as a developmental injury that occurs in childhood as a result of feeling chronically unsafe and unsupported. Complex trauma (CPTSD) is differentiated from PTSD in the sense that complex trauma is, as its name suggests, complex: unresolved stressors accumulate and commonly manifest as chronic mental and physical health struggles (ongoing anxiety, depression, intense emotions and unexplained aches and pains are common among folks with complex trauma). CPTSD occurs over the span of time and sometimes entails less obvious damage to the emotional development.

Complex trauma may be caused by long-term or recurring traumatic events, such as:

Emotional neglect - our need for presence, consistency, and emotional nurturance was unmet/inconsistently met
Various forms of abuse, including emotional, verbal, sexual, and spiritual
Experiencing and/or witnessing domestic violence
Parentification (parent-child role reversal)
Being raised by a highly critical, narcissistic, emotionally immature parent
Covert Emotional Incest
Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families - growing up in a family system where one or more caregivers struggled with addiction, mental illness, domestic violence, or consistent inability to be emotionally present and provide for their children.

Commons signs of CPTSD include:

Chronic anxiety and/or depression
Struggling with attention, focus, or memory loss (ADHD and CPTSD have a strong overlap)
Intense emotions and trouble regulating these, strong reactivity
Finding people overwhelming or triggering (often leading to tendencies of isolation, avoidance, and struggling with asking for help)
Difficulty with intimacy (examples include tendency to attract unavailable, abusive or destructive people, feeling like you wear a "mask" around others, and not speaking up for what you need/feel)
Tendency towards addictive and compulsive behaviors (including but not limited to use of drugs, alcohol, food)
Unexplained aches, pains or chronic health problems with no clear cause
Feeling chronically alone and/or empty, even when surrounded by others

3 Stages of Trauma Therapy*

Safety & Stabilization

Creating safety through relationship-building. Resourcing strengths. Noticing where tension is held, how trauma (ie. anxiety, panic, sadness, anger) shows up physically. Education about the physiological and psychological impacts of trauma and nervous system responses. Identify personal trauma responses and how these were learned to protect us. Learning skills to soothe a traumatized nervous system.

Remembrance & Mourning

Naming what happened to us. Beginning to process trauma verbally, through art, movement, and memory. Exploring core negative beliefs that arose as a result of trauma.

Reconnection & Meaning-making

Helping traumatized parts shift into areas of strength. Rebuilding sense of self. Reconstructing values and core beliefs about self and the world.