Therapist Mentor

TLDR: CPTSD teaches the body to expect threat. Healing helps the body discover what safety feels like again.

Complex trauma can be difficult to identify because it rarely has a clear beginning or end. It is not about one moment. It is about the entire developmental environment that shaped you. It is the pattern of not feeling safe or supported over time.

When you grow up or live through experiences where care is inconsistent, unpredictable, or absent, your nervous system learns that you have to be on the lookout. You become the one responsible for anticipating danger. That role becomes a part of you because it once protected you.

Many people with CPTSD say things like:
“I am always on.”
“I cannot relax even when I want to.”
“The smallest things set me off.”
“I do not know who I am when I am not surviving.”

These are not personality traits.
These are trauma responses that stayed because they were never allowed to complete.

Your nervous system continues doing what worked once, even if the circumstances have changed. It does not want to take any chances with your safety.

You deserve a life that feels like more than threat avoidance. And that is possible.
Not quickly. Not forcefully.
But gradually. With care.

What helps the nervous system relearn safety?

• Novel experiences of rest that do not end in harm
• Safe relationships where truth is believed
• Somatic practices that allow the body to process energy completely
• Play, creativity, and connection without punishment
• Self talk that is patient rather than panicked

Healing is not linear. Healing is not simply about having fewer symptoms. Healing is about having more capacity. More choices. More access to comfort, internal safety, and yourself.

You are not broken.
You adapted to survive.
And now you have the opportunity to soften into something more than survival.

Thank you for letting me see you,