What is complex trauma?
Complex trauma comes from experiencing trauma repeatedly over months or years, such as experiencing years of childhood abuse or neglect. It is similar to traditional Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in that you may experience flashbacks, dissociation, avoidance behaviors, and hypervigilance about possible threats.
When we are exposed to chronic trauma as a child when we are developing our sense of self and learning how to relate to the world, the traumatic experiences can lead to developing a chronically negative sense of self, difficulty forming healthy emotional attachments to others, and overly strong protective/defensive habits.
How can therapy help?
Many people know they were affected by their childhood experiences but don’t know the steps to start healing. If we have had certain mindsets or habits our whole lives, it is easy to believe they are just who we are instead of seeing them as the role we learned to play. However, we are more than the behaviors modeled for us or the coping strategies we use for survival.
Therapy not only provides a safe space to talk about your trauma, but it is also where you can learn the skills needed to face the traumatic memories in a safe and healing way and better understand how the trauma affects your present-day life. With the proper tools, you can learn how to effectively revisit the trauma memories without it feeling as overwhelming or re-traumatizing. This is why it is important to learn skills for handling strong negative emotions and processing skills as a foundation for effective trauma work.
As you learn how to process past trauma memories safely, it often becomes easier to see how certain limiting beliefs or unhelpful behavioral response patterns developed. Part of therapy is learning to identify and release the old responses created during the time of trauma that are no longer needed. The coping skills or thought patterns we develop to survive or meet our needs in an environment of neglect or abuse may no longer be helpful in a healthier environment or even do harm. Understanding how these responses make sense helps us face the problem responses without shame. The process of healing from old trauma allows us to develop new responses and create healthier versions of ourselves.
What you can learn:
- To understand the subtle ways trauma could be affecting your habits, emotional responses, and relationships
- How to cope with memory flashbacks and emotional flashbacks in the moment
- Healthy ways to cope with strong emotions that trauma may bring up, such as anxiety, guilt/shame, depression, or anger
- Processing skills so you are able to process the memories in a new way and integrate the trauma memories without being retraumatized
As a Certified Clinical Trauma Specialist, I have studied many different models for treating trauma, so I have a large array of tools to help you along your healing journey. I have learned how important it is for the body and mind to work together when working with trauma, so a mix of traditional cognitive processing models and holistic practices, such as breathwork and meditation, can be used to help the mind and body heal more effectively.
If you are ready to begin your healing journey, visit the Request an Appointment page.