Healing from Complex PTSD

Janice LaFountaine, LMFT, provides trauma-informed therapy via telehealth throughout Washington and Idaho, specializing in complex PTSD, attachment wounds, childhood trauma, coercive control recovery, and EMDR therapy for trauma processing.

What Is Trauma? Understanding PTSD and Complex PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) develops when traumatic experiences—whether single incidents like accidents or assaults, or ongoing situations like abuse—overwhelm your brain's ability to process and integrate what happened. Your nervous system remains stuck in survival mode, continuing to respond as if the danger never ended.

What Is Complex PTSD (C-PTSD)?

Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder develops from recurring or long-term traumatic experiences, most often beginning in childhood within the context of relationships. Unlike PTSD from a single event, C-PTSD results from prolonged exposure to situations where you couldn't escape—like ongoing abuse, neglect, domestic violence, or growing up with misattuned caregivers.

C-PTSD includes PTSD symptoms plus deep attachment wounds:

Emotional dysregulation:

• Intense emotions that feel overwhelming or difficult to control
• Sudden emotional shifts or mood swings
• Difficulty calming down once upset (lack of self-soothing)

Negative self-concept & Attachment Shame:

• Deep shame or feelings of worthlessness ("I am unlovable")
• Believing you're fundamentally damaged or different from others
• Persistent self-blame for things outside your control

Relationship difficulties:

• Trouble trusting others or feeling safe in relationships
• Patterns of intense connection followed by withdrawal (Anxious/Avoidant cycles)
• Difficulty setting or maintaining boundaries

Dissociation:

• Feeling detached from your body or emotions
• Memory gaps or lost time
• Numbness or feeling like you're in a fog

Physical symptoms:

• Chronic pain without clear medical cause
• Digestive issues, headaches, or other stress-related conditions
• Heightened sensitivity to stress

Common Sources of Trauma

Childhood Trauma and Developmental Trauma

Childhood trauma occurs when harm, neglect, or overwhelming experiences happen during developmental years. This often results in Developmental Trauma Disorder or profound attachment injuries, including:

• Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse
• Neglect or abandonment ("Mother Hunger")
• Witnessing domestic violence
• Living with a caregiver struggling with addiction or mental illness
• Disrupted attachment with primary caregivers (inconsistent or frightening care)

When trauma occurs during childhood, it affects how your brain develops, how you learn to regulate emotions, and how you understand relationships. This isn't your fault—children rely on caregivers for co-regulation, and when that is missing, the nervous system adapts to survive.

Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Violence

Domestic violence involves harm or threats from partners or family members. This destroys the "secure base" necessary for a healthy life. This can include:

• Physical violence or threats of violence
• Sexual coercion or assault
• Emotional or psychological abuse
• Financial control or exploitation
• Coercive control (see below for specialized treatment)

Coercive Control and High-Control Groups

Some clients have experienced systematic control over their beliefs, behaviors, relationships, and access to information. This is a profound violation of autonomy and attachment. This might include:

• Coercive intimate partnerships where one partner controls the other's reality
• High-control religious or ideological communities
• Cult involvement or authoritarian group dynamics

For specialized treatment of coercive control dynamics, including recovery from cult involvement, see my dedicated Coercive Control Recovery page, which addresses the specific therapeutic needs of this population using Hassan's BITE Model framework.

Relationship Trauma and Betrayal

Relationship trauma occurs when people you trusted cause significant harm through:

• Betrayal by partners, friends, or family members
• Abandonment during vulnerable times
• Manipulation or gaslighting

These experiences can create difficulties trusting others, persistent loneliness, and fear of future relationships.

Sexual Assault and Sexual Trauma

Sexual trauma includes any unwanted sexual contact or coercion. This trauma often creates:

• Shame, self-blame, or guilt (none of which you deserve)
• Difficulty with physical intimacy or trust
• Hypervigilance in situations that feel vulnerable

Sexual trauma is never the survivor's fault, regardless of circumstances.

Other Forms of Trauma

Trauma can also result from:

• Combat or military experiences
• Medical trauma (difficult procedures, life-threatening illness)
• Accidents or natural disasters
• Witnessing violence or death

How Trauma Therapy Works

Trauma treatment isn't about reliving every detail of what happened or forcing yourself to "just get over it." Effective trauma therapy helps your nervous system finally complete the survival response it couldn't finish during the trauma and rebuild a sense of safety within yourself and with others.

My Approach: Phase-Oriented Trauma Treatment

I integrate evidence-based trauma care with my Soul Unity Therapy framework to create a comprehensive healing path that honors your attachment needs:

Phase 1: Safety and Stabilization (Building a Secure Base) Before processing traumatic memories, we establish:

• Physical and emotional safety in your current life
• Nervous system regulation skills (how to move out of fight/flight/freeze)
• Understanding your "window of tolerance" (your capacity to feel without overwhelm)
• A therapeutic alliance that feels safe and consistent

This phase takes as long as you need. Rushing into trauma processing before you have a secure internal base actually retraumatizes you.

Phase 2: Processing and Integration When you're ready, we use EMDR therapy and other trauma reprocessing methods to:

• Target specific traumatic memories that still trigger you
• Reduce the emotional intensity of intrusive memories
• Help your brain file memories as "past" rather than "present threat"
• Heal the attachment wounds that tell you "I am alone" or "I am unsafe"

Processing doesn't mean reliving trauma in painful detail. EMDR allows your brain to reprocess memories while maintaining enough distance to stay safe.

Phase 3: Rebuilding and Integration (Earned Secure Attachment) As trauma symptoms decrease, we focus on:

• Reclaiming your identity beyond survival
• Building healthy relationships and boundaries
• Reconnecting with your values and purpose
• Developing "Earned Secure Attachment"—the ability to feel safe and connected despite past harm

Real Experiences from Clients

Specialized Related Services

Complex trauma often intersects with other areas of specialty:

• Coercive Control Recovery: Specialized treatment for recovery from cult involvement, high-control groups, and coercive relationships. We address the "trauma bond"—where your natural need for attachment was exploited to maintain control.
• EMDR Therapy: Comprehensive information about how we use EMDR not just for flashbacks, but to heal the attachment wounds that tell you "I am unlovable" or "I am unsafe."
• Soul Unity Therapy: My integrative framework combining evidence-based trauma treatment with principles of inner wisdom to heal Mother Hunger and early nurturance deficits.
• Couples Therapy: When trauma affects your relationship, we incorporate Gottman-informed couples work to rebuild the Secure Base necessary for intimacy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a PTSD diagnosis to work with you?
No. Many people who benefit from this work don't meet the rigid criteria for PTSD but are suffering from attachment disturbances or "Complex Trauma" (C-PTSD). If your past relationships are affecting your present peace, this therapy is for you.

How long does trauma therapy take?
Healing deep-seated relational patterns is different from fixing a broken bone. Single-event trauma often responds relatively quickly to EMDR. However, Complex Trauma involving early attachment wounds typically requires longer treatment—often a year or more. We are essentially "re-wiring" how you relate to safety and connection, which takes time and patience.

Will I have to talk about everything that happened?
No. You're in control. EMDR allows us to process trauma without you having to retell every painful detail. We focus on the felt sense of the memory and how it lives in your body today, rather than just the narrative.

What if I dissociate or can't remember parts of my trauma?
This is common with attachment trauma. We work with what you do remember and what you're experiencing now. As the therapeutic relationship becomes a safe container, some memories may surface, but forcing memory recovery is never the goal.

Can trauma therapy make things worse?
If rushed, yes. That is why I use a phase-oriented approach. We establish Safety and Stabilization first. We build your capacity to self-soothe and trust me as a secure base before we ever open the door to deep processing. You are never pushed beyond your window of tolerance.

Do you offer in-person therapy?
My practice operates primarily via secure telehealth, though I do have a home office location near Spokane/Chattaroy, WA for clients who prefer in-person sessions within driving distance.

Trauma may have shaped your past, but safe connection can shape your future. Healing is possible, and you deserve support on that journey.