Therapy for PTSD & Complex PTSD
Understanding what happened. Changing what comes next.
Trauma can leave you carrying more than anyone else can see.
Trauma can affect more than what you remember. It can influence how you feel, respond, connect with others, and experience yourself long after the traumatic experience has ended.
At Momenta Trauma Solutions, trauma-focused therapy provides space to understand how trauma may be affecting you and to work toward meaningful change at a pace that respects your history, needs, and readiness.
What is PTSD?
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. Trauma affects everyone differently, and symptoms can vary in how they appear and how much they interfere with daily life.
PTSD may involve:
Intrusive experiences
Unwanted memories, nightmares, flashbacks, or strong reactions to reminders of what happened.Avoidance
Avoiding people, places, conversations, emotions, or situations connected to the experience.Changes in thoughts and mood
Persistent guilt or shame, difficulty trusting, feeling disconnected, negative beliefs about yourself or others, or emotional numbness.Changes in arousal and reactivity
Feeling constantly on guard, easily startled, irritable, restless, or unable to relax or sleep.
You do not have to experience every symptom for trauma to have a significant impact on your life.
What is complex trauma?
Complex trauma generally refers to the effects of repeated or ongoing traumatic experiences, particularly when those experiences occur over time or within relationships or environments where safety, trust, or connection should have existed.
Complex trauma can include experiences such as ──────────➤
Childhood abuse or neglect
Repeated interpersonal trauma
Betrayal & institutional trauma
Military & occupational trauma
Repeated exposure to violence or unsafe environments
Other prolonged or cumulative traumatic experiences
The effects of complex trauma may extend beyond memories of what happened. They can influence relationships, emotional regulation, boundaries, self-worth, trust, identity, and your nervous system's response to perceived danger.
Related Trauma Concerns
Religious Trauma
Military & Veteran Trauma
First Responder & Healthcare Trauma
Medical Trauma
Reproductive Trauma
How Trauma Can Show Up
You do not have to experience classic PTSD symptoms to be affected by trauma.
Trauma may show up as:
✓Feeling constantly on guard or easily overwhelmed
✓ Difficulty regulating emotions
✓ Shame, guilt, or a persistent feeling that something is wrong with you
✓ Difficulty trusting others or feeling safe in relationships
✓ Strong emotional reactions that seem bigger than the situation
✓ Understanding your patterns intellectually but still feeling unable to change them
✓ Numbing, disconnecting, or feeling detached from yourself
✓ Difficulty identifying your needs or setting boundaries
✓ Repeating relationship patterns that leave you feeling stuck
✓ Feeling responsible for other people’s emotions
✓Difficulty relaxing even when you are objectively safe
Sometimes people simply know that something still feels stuck, even when they cannot clearly connect it to a specific traumatic experience.
Trauma Work Doesn't Have to Mean Reliving Everything
Healing from trauma does not require you to repeatedly tell the story of what happened.
Trauma-focused therapy may involve understanding patterns, building resources, increasing awareness, working with protective parts, processing memories, or addressing the ways trauma continues to influence your present life.
The work is not about erasing what happened. It is about changing the way those experiences continue to affect you.
Trauma- Focused Therapy
Trauma therapy is not about forcing yourself to relive everything that happened. The work begins with understanding what you need to feel safe enough to engage in therapy and determining what your system is ready to address.
Treatment may integrate ──────────➤
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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing to support processing of traumatic and distressing experiences.
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To better understand protective patterns, internal conflict, and the different parts of yourself that developed in response to your experiences.
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To increase awareness of how experiences may be reflected in the body and support greater regulation and awareness.
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To address thoughts, beliefs, behaviors, and patterns that developed in response to trauma.
These approaches are integrated based on your history, goals, needs, and readiness. There is no single path that every trauma client follows.
You Are More Than What Happened To You
Trauma can become part of the story without becoming the whole story.
Therapy can help you understand what happened, recognize what you have been carrying, and create space for something different.
You do not have to continue living as though the danger is still happening.
Ready To Take The Next Step?
You don't need to have everything figured out before reaching out. A consultation can help determine whether trauma-focused therapy is the right fit for what you're experiencing and what you would like to work on.