Trauma Therapy for Complex and Relational Trauma
Complex trauma can develop through repeated or prolonged experiences that overwhelm your ability to cope, often beginning in childhood or occurring within important relationships. These experiences may include abuse, neglect, instability, loss, emotional unavailability, disrupted caregiving, or relationships in which you did not consistently feel safe, seen, or supported.
Over time, these experiences can affect how you relate to others, respond to stress, understand yourself, and care for your emotional needs. Some people develop symptoms associated with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or CPTSD.
How Complex Trauma May Affect You
The effects of trauma are not always obvious. You may appear capable, successful, and composed while privately struggling with:
Perfectionism or relentless self-criticism
Difficulty trusting others or allowing yourself to be vulnerable
Fear of rejection, conflict, or abandonment
Feeling responsible for other people’s emotions
Anxiety, hypervigilance, or difficulty relaxing
Emotional overwhelm, numbness, or shutting down
Shame or a persistent belief that you are not good enough
Difficulty identifying or expressing your needs
Relationship patterns that continue despite your efforts to change them
Burnout, disconnection, or the feeling that you are simply pushing through life
These responses are not personal failures. They may be adaptations that helped you survive experiences in which safety, stability, connection, or choice were limited.
My Approach to Trauma Therapy
My approach is client-centered, trauma-informed, and attachment-based. This means that our work is collaborative and guided by your needs, experiences, and goals. You will not be pressured to revisit painful experiences before you feel ready, and you will have an active voice in determining the pace and direction of therapy.
Together, we may explore how past experiences continue to affect your relationships, self-worth, nervous system, and responses to stress in the present. We will work to increase self-understanding, develop supportive ways of responding to difficult emotions, and create greater space between what happened to you and how you choose to live now.
Our work honors the strategies that helped you survive while making room for new ways of relating to yourself and others. Therapy can offer a consistent, supportive relationship in which you can practice experiencing trust, boundaries, vulnerability, and connection differently.
Healing does not mean erasing your past or becoming an entirely different person. It can mean developing a greater sense of safety, agency, authenticity, and compassion for yourself while honoring the path you have walked.
I provide trauma therapy in Palo Alto and online throughout California. If you are ready to explore whether we may be a good fit, I invite you to schedule a free 20-minute consultation.