Complex PTSD — CPTSD — is what develops not from a single traumatic event but from repeated or prolonged trauma, often beginning in childhood. Emotional neglect, abuse, growing up in an unpredictable or unsafe environment, or long-term coercive relationships can all lead to CPTSD. Its effects are wide-ranging and often feel deeply ingrained — because in many ways, they are. But somatic therapy offers one of the most promising routes to recovery available.
Why CPTSD Is Different From Single-Incident Trauma
With CPTSD, the nervous system didn’t just experience one overwhelming event — it was conditioned over time to expect threat, to remain on high alert, to distrust safety. The patterns that developed were adaptive responses to genuinely difficult circumstances. But they often persist long after the circumstances have changed, shaping relationships, physical health, and the ability to feel at home in oneself.
Because CPTSD is fundamentally a nervous system condition, approaches that work primarily at the cognitive level often have limited reach. Understanding your history can be valuable, but the nervous system doesn’t reorganise on the basis of insight alone. It reorganises through repeated experiences of safety, regulation, and gentle, body-level release.
How Somatic Therapy Helps With CPTSD
Somatic approaches work directly with the nervous system — which is exactly where CPTSD lives. Therapies like craniosacral therapy create conditions of deep physical safety that allow the system to begin shifting from chronic hyperarousal or shutdown into a more regulated, available state. Emotion Code releases specific trapped emotions — the fear, the shame, the grief, the helplessness — that accumulate through prolonged trauma. Reiki works with the energy field to restore a sense of wholeness and safety in the body that CPTSD often erodes.
None of these approaches require you to revisit painful memories in detail. They work at a level below narrative — which for many people with CPTSD is an enormous relief.
What Healing Looks Like
Recovery from CPTSD is rarely linear, and it takes time. But with the right support, it is possible. In my practice in Northamptonshire, I work with clients processing complex trauma backgrounds with gentleness and at whatever pace feels right. Common experiences as the work progresses include a reduction in emotional reactivity, an increasing ability to feel safe in the present moment, the return of capacity for joy and connection, and a gradual sense of coming home to oneself.
What This Looks Like in a Session With Me
I take a thorough history at the first session — not to go through everything that’s happened to you, but to understand where you are now and what your nervous system needs. Sessions are always completely non-pressuring. You’re fully in control of the pace and depth. Many clients with complex trauma find the gentleness of this approach to be exactly what they’ve needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I also be working with a therapist or counsellor for CPTSD? For most people with CPTSD, a combination of approaches works best. Body-based work like what I offer complements trauma-informed counselling very well — they address different layers.
Is this suitable if I’m currently in crisis? If you’re in acute crisis, please seek support from your GP or a mental health service first. Once you’re more stable, somatic body-based work can be a valuable part of ongoing recovery.
How long does this kind of work take? CPTSD is deep-rooted and the healing process takes time. There’s no honest answer that involves a specific number of sessions — but change is genuinely possible.
Read more about my approach on the trauma and emotional release page, and explore the therapies that might be most helpful for your particular situation.