Healing from the Inside Out: Understanding Complex Trauma

by Anne Fruetel

When we hear the word “trauma” many of us think of a single painful event, like a natural disaster or an accident. But for many people, trauma isn’t just a single moment in time. It’s a series of ongoing relational wounds stemming from neglect, abuse, or emotional misattunement that happen in relationships we depended on as children and adolescents. This is called complex trauma, and its effects can be deeper than many realize. 

How Complex Trauma Affects Us

Complex trauma creates invisible wounds that we carry so long it starts to feel like who we are:

  • Creating patterns of self-criticism, shame, inadequacy, or hopelessness

  • Disrupting our ability to regulate our emotions, leading to anxiety, anger, or numbness

  • Fragmenting our sense of self and leaving us with a sense of disconnection 

  • Impacting our ability to trust and find intimacy in relationships with others

  • Living with physical symptoms like fatigue, chronic pain, or panic that stays in our bodies

These symptoms are not flaws; they are intelligent survival adaptations to early pain. At NCTP, we help people move from survival mode to connection, aliveness, and self-compassion.

Healing from the Inside Out

What if healing complex trauma isn’t about fixing what’s broken, but about remembering and reclaiming the parts of yourself you may have lost along the way? Healing can include:

  • Connection - Restoring authentic presence with ourselves and with others.

  • Self-Regulation - Integrating physiological and emotional balance without overwhelm.

  • Agency and Identity - Rebuilding trust in our own feelings and boundaries.

  • Non-Pathologizing - Your symptoms are adaptive survival responses, not flaws. 

  • Present-Focused: You are more than your trauma. Becoming aware of how survival responses that served you in the past are affecting you in the present. 

If you carry complex trauma, please hear this: You are not broken. The ways you’ve coped were necessary for survival. It is possible to release what no longer serves you and reclaim your authentic voice, sense of safety, connection, and wholeness. At NCTP, we are here to offer you compassionate support from a trauma-informed perspective. 

Healing is a journey, and you don’t have to walk it alone.

Matt Headland