Trauma & Complex PTSD
You can know exactly what happened to you, have talked about it a hundred times, and still find your body reacting like it's happening now. That's not you doing it wrong. That's what complex trauma does — it doesn't just live in your memory; it lives in your nervous system.
What this can look like:
Overreacting to something small and not understanding why
Feeling on edge or hypervigilant in situations that are actually safe
Going numb or checking out when things get emotionally intense
A relationship pattern you can name and still can't seem to change
Feeling like you're "too much" or "too sensitive," when really your nervous system learned to protect you and never got the memo that it can stand down
How we work on this together
This is where I've done my deepest clinical work, and I use EMDR, parts work (IFS), expressive arts, and somatic approaches specifically because talking alone often can't reach what's stored below conscious thought.
We start by building safety and stabilization — this isn't about reliving your worst moments on a schedule, and you won't be asked to say more than you're ready to. From there, we work with what's actually stored in your body and your reactions, not just your story, so the past can stop narrating the present. The goal isn't just fewer symptoms. It's a life where your history informs you instead of running you.
Common Questions
Will I have to talk about the worst moments in detail?
1
Not necessarily, and not before you're ready. EMDR and experiential work don't require a full narrative retelling the way traditional talk therapy sometimes does — we can work with what your body is holding without you reliving it in detail.
How is this different from therapy I've already tried?
2
If you've done years of talk therapy and you're still stuck, that's often a sign the work needs to happen somewhere other than the thinking, narrating part of your brain. That's exactly what experiential methods are built for.
Is this a fit for "big-T" or "little-t" trauma?
3
Both. Complex trauma often comes from a pattern of smaller experiences over time, not a single event — and it's just as real and just as treatable.
If you're worried this will be too much
A lot of people put off trauma work because they're afraid it means reliving the pain to heal from it. That's not how this works. We move at a pace your nervous system can actually tolerate, and stabilization comes first, always. You're not signing up to relive your worst days — you're signing up to stop being run by them.
When talking isn't enough
For some people, weekly sessions are exactly the right pace for this work. For others — especially when a pattern has been stuck for years despite real effort — a therapy intensive offers concentrated time to get further than an hour a week allows.
Complex trauma often overlaps with substance and process addictions — if that's part of your story too, you can read more here.