Childhood Relational Trauma
Serving Georgia and MinnesotaTherapy for Childhood Relational Trauma
Childhood relational trauma refers to the emotional and psychological wounds that result from harmful, neglectful, inconsistent, or unsafe relationships with parents, caregivers, or other significant adult relationships during childhood (0 to 18 years old).
Unlike trauma caused by a single event, childhood relational trauma develops within ongoing relationship experiences such as emotional neglect, abandonment, chronic criticism, rejection, betrayal, inconsistent caregiving, exposure to domestic violence, or physical, emotional, verbal, or sexual abuse.
Because these experiences occur during critical stages of development, they can have a lasting impact on a child's sense of safety, self-worth, emotional regulation, and ability to trust and connect with others throughout life. As an adult, you may struggle to form and maintain secure relationships, fear abandonment or rejection, experience chronic self-doubt, avoid intimacy while deeply craving connection, have difficulty regulating emotions, alternate between emotional numbness and hypervigilance, experience mood instability, and have nightmares along with several other trauma-related symptoms and patterns that can affect the quality of your life.
Healing from childhood relational trauma is a deliberate, highly personal, and multifaced process. In our work together, we use trauma-informed, evidence-based approaches that help you heal emotional wounds, understand and break unhealthy patterns, and cultivate a more regulated, confident sense of self.
Because childhood relational trauma affects every person differently, treatment is highly individualized. Our work together may incorporate a variety of evidence-based approaches designed to address trauma at the level of the mind, body, and relationships, including:
-
Childhood relational trauma is not only stored in the mind — it lives in the body. Somatic therapy focuses on the connection between the mind and body, recognizing that trauma is also a physiological experience.
Through increased body awareness, grounding techniques, and nervous system regulation skills, somatic therapy helps you to recognize and release unprocessed trauma, learn to identify and regulate stress responses, and develop a greater sense of safety and presence in your own body.
-
The stories we tell about ourselves are often shaped by our earliest experiences — and childhood relational trauma can leave us with a narrative centered on shame, unworthiness, or blame.
Narrative therapy helps you examine and reauthor that story, separating who you are from what happened to you. By externalizing the problem, challenging harmful beliefs, and creating a more empowering and compassionate personal narratives, you begin to see yourself — and your history — with greater clarity and self-compassion.
-
Childhood relational trauma often disrupts our ability to manage intense emotions and navigate relationships without conflict or withdrawal.
DBT provides practical, evidence-based skills in four key areas — mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness — giving you concrete tools to respond to difficult emotions and relationships with greater intention and stability.
-
Our earliest relationships teach us what to expect from relationships with others — whether it feels safe, reliable, or threatening.
Attachment-based therapy explores how those early bonds shaped your relational patterns and helps you understand how they continue to show up in your adult relationships. By understanding attachment wounds and developing corrective emotional experiences within the therapeutic relationship, you can build greater trust, improve emotional security, and develop healthier, more secure fulfilling relationships with others and yourself.
-
Much of what drives our thoughts, behaviors, and relational patterns operates beneath the surface — shaped by experiences we may not fully remember or have never had language for.
Psychodynamic therapy explores the unconscious roots of your emotional struggles, helping you uncover how unresolved childhood experiences continue to influence who you are and how you relate to others today. By bringing what is hidden into awareness, you gain deeper self-understanding and the freedom to make more conscious, intentional choices in your relationships and your life.
How Childhood Relational Trauma Shows Up
-
Insecure Attachment
Difficulty trusting closeness, fear of abandonment, or pulling away when relationships get too safe.
-
Chronic Dysregulation
A nervous system stuck in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn — long after the original threat is gone.
-
Chronic Anxiety and Depression
Low mood, worry, or numbness rooted in patterns established long before adulthood.
-
Complex PTSD
Lingering hypervigilance, emotional flashbacks, or a nervous system that reacts to present-day stress as if it's still back in that childhood home.
-
Parental Wound
The lasting impact of an emotionally unavailable, critical, or inconsistent parent — shaping how you seek approval, handle intimacy, and see yourself. Also known as the Mother/Father wound.
-
Generational Patterns
Parenting, communication, or coping styles passed down from parent to child — often unconsciously — until someone finally interrupts the cycle.
-
Unresolved Family Conflict
Recurring tension, blowups, or estrangement that echo the roles and dynamics you learned to survive growing up.
-
Low Self-Esteem
A persistent inner sense of not being enough, rooted in early messages — spoken or unspoken — that your worth was conditional or up for debate.
The Family System Audit
When we start to wonder, ‘Was my family really that bad?’, that’s means its time for some answers and clarity. This free mini-guide helps you explore the impact of your family system and see the patterns you’ve been carrying.
If you grew up in a home with inconsistent care, high conflict, or unspoken rules, you likely learned specific survival strategies and roles. As an adult, these same strategies can keep old family wounds alive, affecting your sense of self, relationships, and choices.
The Family System Audit walks you through the 10 core dysfunctional family roles, helping you recognize patterns and reflect on how they show up in your life today.
Get free instant access, plus join our community for ongoing support, events, and resources on healing relational trauma.
FAQs
-
I’m glad you’re taking this step, and I value your consideration to move forward together! Here’s what you can expect.
Step 1: Free Consultation — 15 Minutes
The first step is to schedule your consultation. This is a brief virtual meeting to learn what is important to you in therapy right now, answer any questions you may have, and see if we’re a good fit to work together.
Step 2: Intake Session — 80-90 Minutes
If we decide to move forward, we will schedule your first appointment which is an intake session. This is where we’ll explore your history, current concerns and needs, establish your therapeutic goals, and begin creating a plan for your care.
Step 3: Therapy Sessions - 50 minutes per session
After our intake appointment, we’ll move forward with weekly or bi-weekly appointments to meet your therapeutic goals and needs.
-
Individual Counseling:
$165 - 50 min session
$297 - 80-90 min one time intake session
Couple/Family Counseling:
$200 - 50 min session
$360 - 80-90 min one time intake session
*If this rate is not affordable to you at the moment, please reach out anyway as I may be able to offer a reduced rate upon availability.
-
Although I do not accept insurance, I can provide a superbill which you can submit to your insurance provider to see if you qualify for reimbursement.
I also offer a co—pay match, sliding scale (fee based on income) and a few reduced rate slots upon availability.
-
Yes, I offer both telehealth and in-person sessions.
For in-person, I am located at 199 Armour Drive, Atlanta, GA 30324. Feel free to arrive 10 minutes early for your appointment to enjoy our coffee and tea station.
-
There is no exact answer as every client is different from their needs, history, severity of concern, and symptoms.
At minimal, expect at least 8-10 sessions.
-
My approach to therapy is rooted in the belief that you are the expert of your own world, and our work together is a collaboration. I bring clinical training, skilled experience, and attuned therapeutic care, while you bring your lived experiences, openness to the process, and inner wisdom.
-
No, I only offer therapy to adult clients 18 years and older.
If you need a referral for a child/teen therapist, then please feel free to contact me on the contact page and I’ll be happy to help.
On the Blog