Healing from Complex PTSD

Janice LaFountaine, LMFT, provides trauma-informed therapy via telehealth throughout Washington and Idaho, specializing in complex PTSD, 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. 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, captivity, or growing up in high-control environments.

C-PTSD includes PTSD symptoms plus additional challenges:

Emotional dysregulation:

• Intense emotions that feel overwhelming or difficult to control
• Sudden emotional shifts or mood swings
• Difficulty calming down once upset

Negative self-concept:

• Deep shame or feelings of worthlessness
• 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
• 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 might include:

• Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse
• Neglect or abandonment
• Witnessing domestic violence
• Living with a caregiver struggling with addiction or mental illness
• Disrupted attachment with primary caregivers

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 have no power to change their circumstances.

Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Violence

Domestic violence involves harm or threats from partners or family members. 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 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.

My Approach: Phase-Oriented Trauma Treatment

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

Phase 1: Safety and Stabilization 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)

This phase takes as long as you need. Rushing into trauma processing before you're stable 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"

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 As trauma symptoms decrease, we focus on:

• Reclaiming your identity beyond survival
• Building healthy relationships and boundaries
• Reconnecting with your values and purpose

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 using Hassan's BITE Model framework.
• EMDR Therapy: Comprehensive information about EMDR protocols, what to expect in sessions, and how EMDR works for trauma reprocessing.
• Soul Unity Therapy: My integrative framework combining evidence-based trauma treatment with principles of inner wisdom and conscious creation.
• Couples Therapy: When trauma affects your relationship, we can incorporate Gottman-informed couples work to rebuild safety, communication, and trust.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a PTSD diagnosis to work with you?
No. Many people who would benefit from trauma therapy don't meet full diagnostic criteria for PTSD. If past experiences are affecting your present life, trauma-informed treatment can help.

How long does trauma therapy take?
This varies widely depending on the complexity of trauma, your current stability, and your goals. Single-event trauma often responds relatively quickly to EMDR (often 6-12 sessions after stabilization). Complex trauma typically requires longer treatment—often a year or more—because we're addressing developmental impacts and multiple layers of harm.

Will I have to talk about everything that happened?
No. You're in control of what you share and when. EMDR allows trauma processing without detailed narrative retelling. You can heal from trauma without describing every painful detail.

What if I dissociate or can't remember parts of my trauma?
This is common with complex trauma. We work with what you do remember and what you're experiencing now. As therapy progresses and safety increases, some memories may become more accessible—but forcing memory recovery isn't the goal.

Is this therapy only for severe trauma?
No. Trauma exists on a spectrum, and what matters is how it's affecting you now. "Small" traumas can have significant impacts, and your suffering is valid regardless of whether it "seems bad enough" compared to others.

Can trauma therapy make things worse?
When done properly with phase-oriented treatment, no. We establish safety and stability before processing. If symptoms increase temporarily, we slow down and add more stabilization. You're never pushed beyond what you can handle.

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 doesn't have to define your life. Healing is possible, and you deserve support on that journey.