Trauma and CPTSD using IFS Therapy

Trauma is not always a single dramatic event. For many people it is something more pervasive — a childhood in which safety or attunement were inconsistent, relationships in which something essential was violated, a working life that gradually ground something down until very little was left. The result is not always what people recognise as trauma. It can look like chronic anxiety, a persistent sense of shame, difficulty trusting others, emotional numbness, or a feeling of being fundamentally disconnected from yourself.

If any of this sounds familiar, you are not broken. You are someone whose system learned to adapt to difficult circumstances. And those adaptations — however painful now — can be understood, worked with, and gently transformed.

Understanding trauma and CPTSD

Post-traumatic stress (PTSD) can follow a single overwhelming experience. Complex PTSD (CPTSD) tends to develop from prolonged or repeated experiences — particularly those that occurred in childhood, or within relationships where there was a significant power imbalance.

Common signs include:

  • Difficulty regulating emotions — feeling overwhelmed, shut down, or swinging between the two

  • A persistent inner critic or deep sense of shame

  • Difficulty feeling safe in relationships, even close ones

  • Intrusive memories, flashbacks, or a body that feels perpetually on alert

  • A sense of being cut off from yourself or from life

Many people with CPTSD have spent years managing these symptoms without ever understanding where they come from. Therapy that works at the root — rather than just the surface — can change this.

A trauma-informed IFS approach

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is one of the most effective and compassionate approaches available for trauma work. Rather than requiring you to relive or re-narrate painful experiences directly, IFS works by helping you build a relationship with the parts of yourself that are carrying the trauma — the parts that are frozen in the past, the parts that protect you from feeling too much, the parts that have been holding pain for a very long time.

This approach is gentle, client-led, and deeply respectful of your system's own pace. It does not push. It does not re-traumatise. And for many people it reaches places that other therapies have not been able to touch.

What I work with

  • Childhood trauma — including neglect, emotional unavailability, chaotic or frightening early environments, and the long shadow these cast into adult life

  • Relational and attachment trauma — including the impact of early relationships that were inconsistent, controlling, or lacking in genuine attunement

  • Sexual abuse — worked with sensitivity, at your pace, and with full respect for what you are and are not ready to explore

  • Workplace trauma and burnout — including the particular kind of exhaustion that comes from prolonged high pressure, toxic environments, or a career that has cost more than it should have

Experience and discretion

I have over 25 years of clinical experience working with trauma across a wide range of presentations and client backgrounds. I understand that for many people — particularly professionals — seeking help with trauma requires significant courage, and that privacy is not a luxury but a necessity.

Everything discussed in our sessions is held in the strictest confidence, in full accordance with professional and ethical guidelines.

Where we meet

Sessions take place at:

35 Great James Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 3HB(a short walk from Russell Square and Chancery Lane)

or

Chedworth House, Lansdown, Stroud GL5

Online sessions via Zoom are also available.

Getting started

If you'd like a confidential conversation to explore whether this work might be right for you, I'd be glad to hear from you.