Complex Trauma

Trauma is the change within us as a result of a highly difficult or overwhelming experience. It is not the event itself yet the imprint of the experience that remains in our body, our psyche, and our spirit. Complex trauma typically refers to unmet physical, psychological, emotional, or attachment needs which may or may not be accompanied by overt abuse or mistreatment.

Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN), term coined by Jonice Webb, PhD, is a primary and often unrecognized contributor to the development of complex trauma. It is what didn’t happen to you. All the ways in which you were ignored, dismissed, misunderstood, or invalidated. If you have a deep but persistent feeling of being unimportant, unlovable, or invisible and can’t pinpoint why, you may have experienced CEN.

Whether you call it developmental trauma, complex trauma, CEN, PTSD, or any other name, at the core you are dealing with an attachment wound. Our relationships with our primary caregivers, whether we like it or not, set the stage for our attachment style to develop-- if our caregivers are good enough, attentive enough, attuned enough, then you likely have a Secure Attachment style in relation to yourself and others. If your caregivers were unreliable, absent, or otherwise preoccupied, then you likely developed an Insecure Attachment style. Our attachment styles underlie the way we interpret others' language and behaviors, our unconscious attempts to avoid abandonment, even who we are attracted to in the first place.

I can help you bring these unconscious patterns into your conscious awareness so you can begin to truly heal from the inside out.