Childhood Trauma Therapy in Washington, DC
What we experience in childhood sets a certain kind of patterning
Whether your childhood was good-on-paper, obviously traumatic, or something in between, the answers to how to change dynamics today are often found within your past.
I offer in-person therapy in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC, and online therapy for residents of DC, Maryland and Virginia.
Even if it seems like your childhood “shouldn’t” still affect you….
“That was so long ago. I should be over it by now.”
“No one’s childhood is perfect. Why am I the only one who’s struggling now?”
“It wasn’t that bad compared to what other people go through.”
“It was bad, but I’ve come to terms with it. How could it still be influencing me?”
… your unconscious has likely been shaped by it.
Which can present today as:
“I don’t think I’m a good or worthy person, even if other people say I am.”
“Sometimes I do things I don't understand or things I know aren't right for me.”
“I feel XYZ, but am not sure why, and no matter what I do it always returns.”
“There’s an undercurrent of anxiety pretty much 24/7.”
“Somehow, I always end up in bad relationships or harmful jobs.”
“I can’t handle conflict or vulnerability, so I keep people at arm’s length.”
Childhood trauma therapy helps you make the unconscious conscious, so that you can take the reins back.
Success shows up differently for everyone.
My clients have reported:
✔ Improved self-esteem and confidence
✔ Less shame
✔ Leaving situations that aren’t good for you (e.g. a relationship or a job)
✔ Finding a healthy relationship you feel safe in
✔ Breaking conflict cycles in your family or friendships
✔ Feeling like you can trust other people for the first time
✔ More relaxed amid conflict and less hypervigilant in relationships
✔ Able to feel empathy and joy rather than empty, numb, or dysregulated
“Claire is an empathic listener who works hard to help clients achieve their therapy goals. A skilled clinician, Claire guides clients toward a greater understanding of themselves and others resulting in improvement in their lives.”
Debra Caplowe, lcsw
Changing your life and how you feel begins with understanding your history and its impact on you
With a nonjudgmental, safe, warm expert to help you explore your thoughts and feelings, uncover unconscious patterns, and develop new ways of being.
This is exactly where a childhood trauma therapist for adults comes in.
I'd love to meet you.
Questions for a childhood trauma therapist for adults?
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There isn’t one quick technique that "fixes" childhood trauma. The work that works is deeper and slower than that. In my practice, I focus on helping you make the unconscious conscious: understanding how what happened in your early life has shaped patterns you're still living out today without realizing it.
That might show up as who you're drawn to romantically, how you handle conflict, or why you can't quite explain why certain things affect you so much. The healing doesn't happen just from insight, though; it happens in the relationship between us. A lot of it is about finally being able to trust, feel safe, and have a different, corrective experience than the one you had growing up, and doing the important inner child work you never got to do.
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That’s up to you. Many people resonate with different types of therapy.
The therapy that I do for childhood trauma or complex trauma centers around inner child work, learning how to re-parent yourself, and experiencing healing within a safe, nonjudgmental relationship with your therapist — the kind you never had with your parents.
We go back to your past to understand your early life and family history and how it's still operating in you now.
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Unhealed childhood trauma in adulthood rarely looks like saying, "I have childhood trauma."
It's usually much more disguised than that. It can look like anxiety or depression you can't explain. It can look like repeating the same relationship pattern over and over, hoping it'll go differently this time. It can look like feeling like you're "too much," or not understanding why you still care about something that happened a long time ago, and being frustrated with yourself for still being affected by it.
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Yes, this is one of my specialties. I've worked with people who experienced abuse, neglect, or emotionally immature parenting, and helped them move through trauma recovery.
I've seen people go from not being able to trust anyone to forming real, secure relationships. It takes time and it asks a lot of you, but I think that's exactly why it holds.
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Yes, I specialize in working with clients who have or are exhibiting symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorder. DID can develop as a result of childhood trauma, abuse or neglect. Whether you’ve been diagnosed or suspect you may have it, I can help.
"Fire can warm or consume, water can quench or drown, wind can caress or cut. And so it is with human relationships: we can both create and destroy, nurture and terrorize, traumatize and heal each other."
-Dr. Bruce Perry