Trauma doesn’t always come from a single, definable incident. For many, it’s the result of ongoing experiences that erode one’s sense of safety, worth, and belonging. These experiences—especially when they happen in childhood—can leave deep imprints that continue to affect how you feel, think, and relate to others well into adulthood. A lot of psychological trauma happens in childhood because children are especially vulnerable to being traumatized. They are unable to understand themselves or the world very well and sometimes they have to rely on parents who are emotionally immature, impatient or traumatized themselves. 

Psychological trauma is a negative event so overwhelming that we can’t properly understand, process or move on from it. We lose the ability to remember it accurately, to reflect on what it was, and to gauge how it has changed us. Instead, it lodges itself in the body and psyche, announcing its presence only through symptoms such as low self-esteem, difficulty sustaining relationships, panic attacks, hypervigilance, insomnia, rigidity and so on.

I work with adults navigating childhood/complex trauma, C-PTSD, intergenerational trauma, and relational trauma, particularly those rooted in emotional neglect, emotional abuse or physical abuse from parents or caregivers. These wounds often go unseen by the outside world but can be felt every day in your relationships, self-esteem, and inner life.

Understanding Complex & Relational Trauma

Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) often develops from repeated or prolonged experiences of harm—especially within important relationships such as with parents—rather than a single, time-limited event. This includes relational trauma, which can happen when the people who were supposed to care for you instead ignored, dismissed, or emotionally harmed you.

The Trauma of Omission: When Care Is Conditional or Absent

Relational trauma develops when the very people we rely on for safety, love, and guidance are also the source of emotional neglect or rejection. This is known as the trauma of omission. For a child, this creates a profound conflict: needing care from someone who is also a source of pain.

This can take many forms:

• Emotional neglect—your feelings and needs were overlooked or dismissed.

• Love that was conditional on achievement, obedience, or caretaking of others.

• A steady atmosphere of criticism, shaming, or punishment through the silent treatment.

• A home environment where emotional safety was unpredictable.

Over time, these experiences can become internalized—the critical or unresponsive voices of caregivers may echo inside you as self-doubt, shame, or an inability to trust closeness. In adulthood, this often shows up as difficulty in relationships, chronic self-criticism, or a lingering sense that you are “bad.”

Intergenerational Trauma

Intergenerational trauma refers to the emotional pain and survival strategies passed down from one generation to the next. If your parents or grandparents were refugees, lived through severe poverty, colonization, war, internment, displacement, or discrimination, the effects can ripple into your own life—even if those experiences were never openly discussed. This can show up as family dynamics marked by prioritizing achievement and success above everything else, repeating patterns of abuse, silence, secrecy, or expectations to suppress feelings and “be strong.”  

When working through complex trauma and C-PTSD, it’s important to work within a safe and trusting environment at a pace that feels safe to you. If you’d like to reach out to see if we’d be a good fit, contact me for a free phone consult.