Complex trauma developmental trauma
Why Is It So Hard to Heal From Complex Or Developmental Trauma?
Complex trauma, often rooted in developmental trauma, refers to repeated exposure to harmful or neglectful experiences, especially during formative years. This can include chronic abuse, inconsistent caregiving, or significant emotional neglect. Unlike single-event traumas, complex trauma affects a person’s entire framework for relating to themselves and the world, making recovery more challenging.
Healing from complex trauma is difficult because these early experiences disrupt core developmental processes, shaping one's sense of self, trust, and safety. As a result, survivors may develop coping mechanisms that helped them survive then but can limit their growth and fulfillment later in life. Patterns like hypervigilance, emotional dysregulation, and difficulty in relationships are common, as the brain and body become “wired” to expect threat or neglect.
Recovery involves rebuilding these foundational aspects of self and retraining the nervous system to feel safe in stable relationships and environments. This requires both time and a therapeutic approach that recognizes the layers of impact—mentally, emotionally, and physically.
Trauma Therapy with CAP
Healing from trauma is a complex process that is unique to each individual. In treating trauma we have the goal of restoring people’s connections to themselves, their relationships, and their communities. At CAP we use a multidisciplinary approach when working with trauma. Creative Arts Therapies is used to create a safe space for nonverbal expression. Gestalt Therapy is a mindful, non-pathologizing, relational, dialectical, and existential approach that starts from the present moment working experientially to help people become aware of and process unresolved parts of our history in order to integrate experiences. For specific trauma work, Somatic Psychotherapy with the body in order to find safety and settling in our nervous system helping to find relief and deactivation.
How we understand trauma
Peter Levine the founder of Somatic Experiencing, a therapeutic method aimed at treating trauma and stress-related disorders, defines trauma as experiencing fear in the face of helplessness. Or as Bessel Vander Kolk, author of the book The Body Keeps the Score, notes, trauma is specifically an event that overwhelms the central nervous system, altering the way we process and recall memories. Both are useful frames in our work at CAP with people who have experienced trauma. Trauma is not only something that happened to us in the past it is something that lives in us in the present affecting our physical, psychological, and emotional worlds as well as shaping our worldview and ability to feel a sense of safety and connection with others.
What is the difference between Trauma, PTSD, and CPTSD?
Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Complex trauma refers to the cumulative impact of repeated, prolonged exposure to trauma, often occurring in situations where escape is not possible—such as chronic abuse, neglect, or domestic violence. This type of trauma impacts multiple areas of functioning and self-identity over time.
Developmental Trauma
Developmental trauma, meanwhile, specifically relates to traumatic experiences during early childhood development, affecting the nervous system, attachment, and sense of self. It often includes adverse experiences from caregivers, like emotional neglect, that disrupt normal developmental milestones.
While developmental trauma can lead to complex trauma, not all complex trauma is developmental. For example, someone might experience complex trauma as an adult in an abusive relationship without having experienced developmental trauma. Conversely, developmental trauma impacts foundational aspects of self and relational trust from a young age, making it especially challenging to heal from. Therapy for either involves deep, integrative work to rebuild attachment, emotional regulation, and resilience. trauma happened over a longer period of time, such as child abuse, and may include multiple traumas. Although people with C-PTSD can experience all or many of the symptoms of PTSD they additionally often experience difficulties with emotional regulation. C-PTSD is most commonly misdiagnosed as Borderline Personality Disorder.
Why do we use somatic approaches when working with trauma?
Trauma occurs when there is a breach of boundaries that leads to immobilizing anxiety and fear. The effects of the event, rather than the event itself, determine whether it is traumatic. PTSD and CPTSD are the results of our natural defense, survival, and protective cycle being obstructed or impeded, leaving us with unprocessed and undischarged survival energy. Because our natural response is thwarted, we never complete the cycle, and our body never fully understands that the threat has passed.
To fully process and overcome trauma, it's essential to delve deep into the felt sense of the body to access the implicit memory where the traumatic material is stored. This is distinct from the explicit memory, which contains the story of what happened. Often, individuals make progress in dealing with the explicit memory of a traumatic event, but still experience symptoms because their body remains in a state of high alert, expecting danger despite the knowledge that they are safe.
What constitutes a Trauma?
Big T Trauma
Can include but are not limited to:
- war, combat, persecution
– serious accidents such as a car crash
– sexual or physical abuse
– domestic abuse
-child abuse, neglect
-witnessing death
-witnessing domestic violence
-the death of a loved one
– major surgery, life-threatening illnesses
Little t trauma
Can include but are not limited to:
– accidents and falls (such as a child falling off a bike and breaking their leg)
-hospital procedures (such as getting tonsils removed).
-a child’s family dog dying
-conflict with parents
-being raised in a household where there is a lot of shouting
-corporal punishment
-being bullied, shamed, mocked, made fun of, humiliated
-having parents with a psyciatric diagnosis
Disclaimer
As stated previously, we define trauma based on its effects on the nervous system of the body, rather than the event itself. The lists provided are meant as a general guide, as the level of trauma experienced by a person depends on various factors, such as the pervasiveness of the experience and the degree of intensity felt by the person affected. It's important to note that the body's ability to move through and integrate traumatic material is also a crucial factor in determining the level of trauma experienced.
“Trauma is hell on earth. Trauma resolved is a gift from the gods.”
―Peter A. Levine