Complex Trauma Therapy
Trauma Therapy in Kansas City & greater Missouri
In-person and online trauma therapy for individuals with Complex Trauma, family trauma, and/or relationship trauma who want to make sense out of their past, cope with difficult emotions, and restore a sense of safety and well-being in their lives.
But I don’t even really know if I actually experienced “trauma”…
When most people think of trauma they think of catastrophic events - like a soldier in wartime, a natural disaster, or a terrible car accident. They may even think of some kind of childhood physical abuse or domestic violence. But, what many people don’t know is that sometimes trauma is more subtle and insidious than this.
Here are some types of traumatic events that I often work with in therapy:
Emotional or psychological abuse
Emotional neglect
Sexual trauma or sexual abuse
Betrayal trauma (e.g. being betrayed by a parent or significant other)
Family trauma or growing up in a dysfunctional family system
Growing up with emotionally immature or mentally ill parents
Religious trauma
Narcissistic abuse or toxic relationship trauma
History of being bullied or abused by peers
PTSD and Complex PTSD
(For a more comprehensive list of events that could cause trauma, I recommend this article, which can help to contextualize some of your own difficult experiences).
What are some signs & symptoms of Complex Trauma?
Like many of my therapy clients, maybe you’ve experienced the following:
A very difficult childhood or traumatic relationship
Disturbing memories, thoughts, or images from the past
Frequent physical anxiety (e.g., heart pounding, trouble breathing, sweating, chronic muscle tension, headaches etc.)
Trouble sleeping or nightmares
Feeling overly watchful, hypervigillant, or paranoid about other people
Feeling distant from others, cut-off, or emotionally numb
Intense and difficult to manage emotions
Anger, irritability, or fearful outbursts that are difficult to explain to other
Difficulties with identity or feeling like you are a bad person in some way
Pervasive feelings of worthlessness, guilt, or shame
Feeling that no one can be trusted or the world is a very dangerous place
Impulsive or reckless behavior
Treatment-resistant depression or anxiety
Hi, I’m Christin Trott, Trauma Therapist in Kansas City
If you’ve arrived here, you’re probably feeling anxious and ready for relief. I’m here to provide a safe space to lay out the events of your past. We will work together to establish a coherent story about what happened in your life so your mind can stop living it on repeat. Meanwhile, we will work on nervous system regulation strategies to help you find feelings of safety and calm within your body. Often we will also work to establish increased feelings of peace, safety, and joy in your day to day environment, workplace, and relationships.
My Approach to Trauma Therapy
My approach to trauma treatment leans heavily on Trauma-Informed and DBT orientations. I often explore my clients' stories to help them understand the impact of early wounding and developmental trauma on their current ways of thinking about themselves and the world. As we better understand the impact of early wounding, we'll work on skills to manage intense emotions, think in more-balanced ways, strengthen your sense of self, improve your relationships with others. See below for more information on how I typically do trauma therapy. We can incorporate some or all of the elements below depending one what you need.
-
The first part of trauma work is simply developing a coherent narrative of what happened to you. Often, with complex trauma it’s difficult to pinpoint what actually happened to you to create so much distress. This is the first step toward making sense of your symptoms.
-
Alongside of our work of developing a trauma narrative, we will work on skills to manage anxiety symptoms, panic attacks, and emotional flashbacks as they happen to create more calm, peace, and safety in your body. This usually helps with sleep and nightmares as well the more we are able to get into regulation strategies.
-
After my clients become more regulated and able to talk about their trauma without becoming overwhelmed, we will often do work on stuck beliefs. This involves examining extreme beliefs that have resulted from trauma and replacing these beliefs with more effective beliefs that fit better in the present.
-
Once the trauma is understood and we get to a point of regulating our anxiety and flashbacks, there is often a period of sadness and grief. We have to grieve the loss of innocence we may have experienced as a result of trauma. And we sometimes have to grieve the loss of who we once thought our parent or partner was before we recognized the ways they betrayed us.
-
Often after trauma and grief work are completed, my trauma clients will want to work on making up for lost time in identity formation. We often will do work related to understanding their personality type, values, and strengths in the ways they may not have gotten due to a difficult childhood.
-
Often a big part of trauma work is acknowledging the relationships that we once held that weren’t healthy for us. This can be with friends, family, a parent, or an ex partner. Once we have grieved the losses of one or more of these people in our lives (or the increased boundaries we have to put in place with these significant others). It is often helpful to examine our attachment styles and work on interpersonal skills to build healthier relationships.
