
Free Daily Podcast Summary
by Sarah Herstich
A podcast for anyone healing from complex PTSD, childhood emotional neglect, and the patterns you've been carrying without knowing what to call them.Hosted by EMDR and somatic trauma therapist Sarah Herstich, each episode gets into nervous system healing, trauma responses, and what it actually takes to stop living in survival mode.If you've spent years people-pleasing, apologizing for existing, or holding it together on the outside while unraveling on the inside, this is for you.We talk about the fawn response, toxic shame, hypervigilance, and why your body still doesn't feel safe even when nothing bad is happening. No bypassing, no Band-Aids, just honest conversation about healing from complex trauma and getting your life back.Whether you're just figuring out what CPTSD is or you've been in therapy for years, you'll find nervous system education, somatic practices, and someone who actually understands what you'
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Everyone has parts. So how do you know when a part is just a part of you, and when it's crossed into a dissociative disorder like OSDD or DID? This episode came from a listener healing from CPTSD who just found out she has a dissociative disorder. She asked two questions a lot of trauma survivors are carrying. How common are dissociative disorders in trauma survivors? And with parts work like IFS so popular right now, where's the line between ordinary parts and dissociation? So we're walking ...
Why can you feel lonely and then want everyone to leave you alone, or set a boundary and immediately want to take it back? Today, I explore why conflicting parts and contradictory responses can feel especially intense after complex trauma, drawing from parts work, attachment research, fear learning, and Somatic Experiencing. You’ll hear why missing someone doesn’t mean the relationship was safe, why guilt doesn’t prove a boundary was wrong, and how the body can move toward something while als...
How do you grieve a childhood you never had? If you grew up with childhood emotional neglect, you may have heard that grief is part of complex trauma recovery and still have no idea what you're supposed to be grieving, or what that grief is supposed to feel like. This episode is built around a listener's question. She grew up without much affection, remembers wanting it, and came to believe that needing it meant she wasn't growing up properly. Decades later, she's wondering whether she has an...
What happens when you grow up learning that someone else’s needs, emotions, or version of reality matter more than your own? In this episode, I’m joined by Amy Marlow-MaCoy, MEd, LPC, to talk about narcissistic abuse and its relationship to complex trauma. We unpack narcissistic family systems, gaslighting and DARVO, the roles children can take on in these families, and why survivors may struggle with self-trust, perfectionism, overfunctioning, guilt, and boundaries long after childhood. We a...
You’re functioning. You may even be the person everyone relies on. But inside, you feel stuck, distant, or like you aren’t fully there for your own life. In this episode, I'm answering a listener’s question: Is functional freeze actually real, or is it something the internet picked up and oversimplified? We explore what trauma clinicians mean by functional freeze, why it isn’t a formal diagnosis, and how mixed patterns of activation and shutdown can make you look capable while everything insi...
You finally understand something about yourself. Something that took months of therapy to even name. And now you need someone else to get it too. This week we're talking about that longing, where it comes from, why it can feel so urgent with certain people, and what happens in your body when the conversation doesn't go the way you hoped. We'll cover emotional flashbacks, the fight flight freeze fawn response, and the difference between being understood and being agreed with. Plus, what's actu...
Why can you handle a crisis without blinking but completely blank when someone asks what you want for dinner? Brain fog, forgetfulness, trouble focusing, difficulty starting tasks, and executive dysfunction can all show up alongside complex trauma. But “trauma changed your brain” is a much more complicated story than the internet often makes it sound. In this episode of The Complex Trauma Podcast, we’re breaking down what may actually be happening when your brain feels scattered, slow, forget...
Maybe you barely remember your childhood. Maybe you've done years of trauma work, you're finally feeling better, and now you're wondering, was it really that bad? Did I make it all up? This episode is about trauma, memory, and self-trust. Why memory isn't a recording, why gaps and fragments don't prove or disprove anything, why healing itself can create distance from a memory, and why I don't remember doesn't have to become I can't trust myself. You don't have to make yourself hurt agai...
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A podcast for anyone healing from complex PTSD, childhood emotional neglect, and the patterns you've been carrying without knowing what to call them.Hosted by EMDR and somatic trauma therapist Sarah Herstich, each episode gets into nervous system healing, trauma responses, and what it actually takes to stop living in survival mode.If you've spent years people-pleasing, apologizing for existing, or holding it together on the outside while unraveling on the inside, this is for you.We talk about the fawn response, toxic shame, hypervigilance, and why your body still doesn't feel safe even when nothing bad is happening. No bypassing, no Band-Aids, just honest conversation about healing from complex trauma and getting your life back.Whether you're just figuring out what CPTSD is or you've been in therapy for years, you'll find nervous system education, somatic practices, and someone who actually understands what you'
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