Understanding PTSD, Complex PTSD, and Developmental Injury

Language Matters (and Maybe We Throw It All Away)

In trauma therapy, we use words like PTSD, complex PTSD, and developmental injury to describe different patterns of suffering. These categories can be helpful—they give form to something that often feels invisible and overwhelming.

But it’s also true that these are made-up boxes. They’re human attempts to organize pain into neat shapes. Real experience is rarely that tidy. Most people don’t fit perfectly into one label, and trying to can sometimes make us feel even more alienated from our own truth.

So while I’ll describe these terms, I invite you to hold them lightly. Use what resonates and let the rest fall away.

PTSD: When Something Overwhelming Happens

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is often used to describe what happens when a single event overwhelms the nervous system’s capacity to cope—like a car accident, assault, medical trauma, or natural disaster.

The body may keep reliving the event through flashbacks, nightmares, or a constant sense of danger. The nervous system doesn’t realize the threat is over—it stays stuck in “then.”

In EMDR, we help the brain and body reprocess these stuck experiences so they can be stored as memories rather than ongoing emergencies. You begin to feel the difference between past and present again.

Complex PTSD: When It’s Not Just One Thing

Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) describes the impact of repeated or chronic trauma—often the kind that happens in relationships where safety and care were missing. This might include ongoing emotional abuse, neglect, domestic violence, or growing up in a family system that never felt secure.

The effects go deeper than flashbacks or nightmares. They show up as chronic shame, self-doubt, difficulty trusting, or feeling like you can’t fully relax anywhere.

In Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, we don’t rush to tell the story or fix the symptoms. We notice how those patterns of survival live in the body—through collapse, tension, bracing, or disconnection—and create small experiences of safety and choice. Over time, this rewires the nervous system toward connection and agency, rather than protection and shutdown.

Developmental Injury: When the Wound Is Subtle but Deep

Some wounds aren’t about what happened, but about what didn’t.

Developmental injury refers to the absence of consistent attunement, safety, or emotional availability during early years. It’s what happens when needs for connection and validation weren’t met, or when you learned to take care of others before learning how to feel cared for yourself.

This kind of injury can quietly shape your sense of self, boundaries, and belonging. It can make “safe” relationships feel confusing or even threatening.

Sensorimotor and EMDR can both support this type of healing—helping you slowly reestablish a sense of trust, self-worth, and presence in your body. The process is relational and experiential, not diagnostic.

Beyond the Boxes

Whether you relate to PTSD, C-PTSD, or developmental injury—or none of these terms at all—what matters most is that your experiences make sense in the context of what you’ve lived through.

Healing begins with curiosity, not categorization. We start by asking: What is your nervous system trying to protect you from? and What helps it feel safe enough to soften?

From there, we build the capacity for presence, connection, and okayness—slowly and in relationship.

A Gentle Invitation

If these words resonate—or even if they don’t, but something in you is curious—know that there’s no wrong place to begin. You don’t need to fit neatly into a diagnosis to deserve healing.

I work with people who want to understand and re-pattern the impact of trauma through Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, EMDR, and mindfulness-centered approaches. Together, we go slowly, gently, and at the pace of safety.

I offer free 30-50 minute consultations. Let's connect.