Complex trauma is highly relational in nature. Relational trauma refers to mistreatment by another person, and for those living with complex trauma, this often means chronic misattunement, abuse, or neglect by emotionally immature, misattuned, or narcissistic caregivers. Many children living through this near-constant traumatization develop complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD).  So, what does healing from C-PTSD, or complex trauma, look like? Let’s dive in.

There is a strong connection between narcissistic or emotionally unstable parenting and complex trauma (C-PTSD). In other words, adults with complex trauma often have parents with narcissistic qualities or significant emotional limitations. Thus, C-PTSD children often grow into adults who are used to navigating emotionally nonreciprocal relationships.  

Today we are going to talk about the overlap between childhood complex trauma and narcissistic abuse, and how this can show up in adult relationships. We will also discuss 3 strategies to heal from narcissistic abuse. 

Just as the eyes scan the outside environment for information and signals, they do the same in our inside environments, scanning inside our brains for areas where trauma is stored. Essentially, when we talk about trauma, the brain scans itself to reveal where that trauma is being held. Reflexive cues—seen in the eyes—tell us when the brain has found something important. Brainspotting notices and follows these cues to find where the brain pointing to—where that trauma is stuck. This place is called a Brainspot. 

We get a lot of questions about gaslighting.  One of the most common has to do with whether or not the experience "counts" as gaslighting, and where gaslighting fits under the Trauma umbrella. Gaslighting feeds off of confusion and murkiness, so let's shed some light here. 

Dissociation refers to a shutdown of sensory experience. There are two main types of dissociation, which include shame and terror dissociation. Both are developed in response to severe or ongoing trauma. This means that during a traumatic event, or a series of traumatic events (such as we often see in survivors of childhood abandonment, neglect, or other types of abuse), our best option was to disconnect. 

Dissociation is one way that the brain and body respond to difficult, trauma-induced emotions. It is the ultimate state of hiding or escaping from the intense danger that your body has registered either outside or inside yourself.

Attachment therapy uses the framework of Attachment Theory, which helps us to understand how relationships with our primary caregivers predict our sense of safety and security in the world, starting in infancy. These early relationships also tell us how safe other people are, how hard we should work to express or reject our emotional needs, and how deserving of love we are as individuals--felt “truths” that we can’t help but carry with us long after they’re born.  

Inner child work is a style of therapy that focuses on addressing unmet childhood needs and healing attachment wounds while exploring how the inner child shows up in your adult life.

At Woven, we specialize in relational, depth-oriented therapy approaches that provide a solid foundation for the delicate and challenging work of Complex PTSD treatment. Here, I describe 3 Steps we use to address CPTSD for our Clients, sharing in detail what this style of treatment looks like. I also explain the role of grief work in treating complex PTSD.

In trauma work, I hear this question all the time. Understandably, people want to know why it matters if they grieve the past (or present) or not. Moreover, people worry about being overcome or undone by their grief, should they let it out. This process can be difficult, but grieving is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal to heal childhood wounds and other trauma across the lifespan.

Here, you’ll learn the areas of life and self most impacted by PPD, the most common signs and symptoms of PPD, and two resources that you can immediately use to support your recovery. This is not an exhaustive list of signs and symptoms, but some of the most common.

Group Therapy is a style of therapy in which the group itself is the main instrument of therapeutic change, and one or more therapists facilitate the group with several people synonymously. Group therapy is a dynamic process that encourages and utilizes relationships between members and therapists to create insight, build skills and work toward overall improvement.

I’m guessing you’re here because you’ve been shaken by something in your life, and you’re considering asking for help. There are many different types of support out there so I am going to help break it down for you and detail what trauma therapy even looks like, so you can decide if it’s right for you.

Here, I’ll break down the three steps for identifying trauma, so you can feel better equipped to decide what’s next.