At some point, you might notice that the habits that once helped you get through life—shutting down during conflict, avoiding hard conversations, staying hyper-independent—are no longer working. Maybe they’re affecting your relationships, your confidence, or your ability to feel calm and connected.
Often, these coping strategies are rooted in childhood trauma.
At Sunstone Counseling, we help adults gently unpack their past traumatic events, understand how early environments shaped them, and begin to heal through adult therapy for childhood trauma. Using evidence-based methods like EMDR therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and inner child healing, we help clients replace survival patterns with emotional resilience, self-trust, and connection.
If past traumatic events are still affecting your mental health, our trauma-focused therapists can help you find relief and clarity. Reach out to Sunstone Counseling today.
How Childhood Trauma Shapes Adult Life
Not all trauma is loud or obvious. Childhood trauma can result from emotional abuse, neglect, childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, or repeated adverse childhood experiences. Even subtle patterns like never feeling safe to express your needs or being forced to “grow up too fast” can leave lasting imprints on your mental health.
These traumatic events are often internalized as shame, fear, or the belief that you’re “too much” or “not enough.” Over time, they can lead to:
- Relationship struggles or emotional distress
- Overwhelm in daily life or with chronic stress
- Somatic symptoms like fatigue or chronic pain
- Disconnection from your body, feelings, or self-worth
Many clients come to therapy not even realizing their current struggles are connected to early childhood trauma. They just know they feel stuck, anxious, or emotionally exhausted.
Therapy Helps You Break the Cycle
Through trauma-informed approaches, we help clients begin addressing childhood trauma in a safe and supportive environment. Healing isn’t about going back in time, it’s about updating how those memories live inside you today.
Some of the tools we use include:
- EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
- This powerful approach uses bilateral stimulation to help the brain reprocess stuck traumatic memories. EMDR therapy in Virginia is highly effective for reducing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and trauma-related symptoms, without reliving the trauma in detail.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- CBT uses cognitive behavioral techniques to help you recognize and shift harmful thought patterns rooted in trauma. It’s one of the most widely used therapies for treating childhood trauma.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Particularly effective for complex trauma and borderline personality disorder, DBT builds skills in mindfulness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation.
- Inner Child Healing
- This approach nurtures the younger, wounded parts of yourself still carrying unmet needs and emotional pain. By engaging with those parts, you can develop healthy coping mechanisms and rewrite deeply ingrained beliefs.
- Other tools like prolonged exposure therapy, cognitive processing therapy, and narrative exposure therapy may also be integrated into your treatment plan, depending on your goals.
Signs You May Be Ready for Childhood Trauma Treatment
You don’t need to hit rock bottom to begin healing. Many clients start trauma therapy when they realize their emotional patterns don’t match the life they want.
You may benefit from adult therapy for childhood trauma if you:
- Feel chronically anxious, even in safe situations
- Avoid intimacy or healthy relationships
- Experience intense reactions you don’t fully understand
- Feel shame or guilt tied to your childhood trauma experiences
- Are tired of people-pleasing, overworking, or emotional numbing
- Are managing unresolved pain from childhood abuse or neglect
Therapy is especially important if you’ve been struggling with mental health conditions, substance abuse, or long-term emotional responses that interfere with your physical health or day-to-day functioning.
Healing Is Possible—and You Don’t Have to Do It Alone
You are not broken. You adapted. But now it’s time to heal, and we’re here to walk beside you. Through the therapy process, you’ll build insight, process traumatic stress, and develop coping strategies that align with who you’re becoming, not who you had to be.
Whether you’re exploring psychodynamic therapy, talk therapy, or seeking EMDR therapy, Sunstone Counseling provides a supportive environment where you can rediscover your voice, your value, and your wholeness.
Start Your Healing Journey with Sunstone Counseling
If you’re ready to explore adult therapy for childhood trauma, reach out today. Our team of trauma-informed, compassionate clinicians offers effective, personalized care for healing from early trauma, trauma effects, and the long shadow of the past.
Contact Sunstone Counseling to learn how EMDR therapy, inner child healing, and our full spectrum of trauma services can support your next chapter.
