The Complex Trauma Podcast

Sleep is one of the most common struggles in the CPTSD community, and one of the least understood. If you've tried the routines, the supplements, the magnesium, the blue light glasses, and you're still lying awake at midnight or waking up at 3am feeling like something is wrong, this episode is for you.
Today I break down why sleep is uniquely hard when you have complex trauma, what's actually happening in your nervous system at night, and what might actually help. 
In this episode:
Why sleep requires felt safety and why that's so hard with CPTSD
The two ends of the sleep struggle spectrum: can't fall asleep vs. sleeps but never feels rested
Hypervigilance at night and why the quiet, dark room can become the trigger
Nightmares as attempted processing and what's actually getting in the way
The IFS lens: the protectors, managers, and exiles running the show at night
Why parts work is nervous system work
Sleep hygiene that actually makes sense for a dysregulated nervous system
Somatic tools to try before bed and when you wake up at 3am
References:
Dana, D. (2018). The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation. Norton.
Balban, M. Y., Neri, E., Kogon, M. M., Weed, L., Nourski, B., Picard, M., ... & Huberman, A. D. (2023). Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1).
Southwick, S. M., Bremner, J. D., Rasmusson, A., Morgan, C. A., Arnsten, A., & Charney, D. S. (1999). Role of norepinephrine in the pathophysiology and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 46(9), 1192–1204.
Yehuda, R. (2002). Post-traumatic stress disorder. New England Journal of Medicine, 346(2), 108–114.
Thanks for listening to The Complex Trauma Podcast!
Be sure to follow, share and give us a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Follow on Instagram: @sarahherstichlcsw 
Follow on TikTok: @sarahherstichlcsw
Learn more about EMDR & trauma therapy in Pennsylvania with Reclaim Therapy
This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or nutritional advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Remember, I'm a therapist, but I'm not your therapist. Nothing in this podcast is meant to replace actual therapy or treatment. If you're in crisis or things feel really unsafe right now, please reach out to someone. You can call 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, text them, or head to your nearest ER.
The views expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organizations or institutions. Reliance on any information provided by this podcast is solely at your own risk.

Inner child healing isn't easy work. For people living with complex trauma, it can be one of the most neurobiologically specific processes in trauma recovery. And the version most people have been handed doesn't come close to touching it.
In this episode we get into what inner child healing actually is, what the young part is really doing in your nervous system, and what reparenting actually looks like and what might get in the way.
In this episode:
Why the inner child wound shows up as exhaustion, automatic accommodation, and disconnection from your own needs more often than it shows up as a recognizable emotional reaction
What emotional flashbacks are and why the inner critic is often the young part's most audible signal
The difference between toxic shame and regular shame, and why that distinction matters for healing
Why insight dissolves after therapy sessions and what's actually happening when the healing doesn't land
What reparenting actually is at the neurological level, including the grief piece that most content skips entirely
Four body-based practices for building a real relationship with the young part of you that never got what it needed
If your nervous system is chronically dysregulated and you want somewhere to start, grab the free Dysregulation SOS Toolkit here.
It's a practical, body-based resource for getting out of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn in real time.
Clinical frameworks referenced in this episode include Janina Fisher's structural dissociation model, Internal Family Systems, and Pete Walker's work on complex PTSD and emotional flashbacks.
Thanks for listening to The Complex Trauma Podcast!
Be sure to follow, share and give us a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Follow on Instagram: @sarahherstichlcsw 
Follow on TikTok: @sarahherstichlcsw
Learn more about EMDR & trauma therapy in Pennsylvania with Reclaim Therapy
This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or nutritional advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Remember, I'm a therapist, but I'm not your therapist. Nothing in this podcast is meant to replace actual therapy or treatment. If you're in crisis or things feel really unsafe right now, please reach out to someone. You can call 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, text them, or head to your nearest ER.
The views expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organizations or institutions. Reliance on any information provided by this podcast is solely at your own risk.

You've done the work. You've been in therapy, read the books, and you can name what happened to you. So why doesn't it feel like enough?
That gap between understanding your story and actually feeling different in your body has a reason. And it's not because you haven't tried hard enough. It's because childhood emotional neglect creates a very specific kind of wound that requires a very specific kind of repair. In this episode we're going past the recognition and getting into what that repair actually looks like and how to start creating it in your real life.
In this episode we cover:
What implicit emotional learnings are and how to recognize the ones that may still be running in the background of your relationships
Why insight alone often doesn't move them and what the brain actually needs instead
The three step sequence that allows the brain to revise an old emotional learning at its root
Why CEN survivors often have no discrete memory to target and how the implicit learning tends to surface instead
How corrective experiences can happen in therapy through co-regulation, rupture and repair, EMDR, and somatic work
How they can also happen outside of therapy in your relationships, your body, and your daily life
What interoception is and why rebuilding it is a core part of this work
How to start recognizing a corrective experience when it's happening because it often doesn't feel the way you might expect
What hyperindependence has to do with all of this
Why animals, nature, and routine can be legitimate corrective experiences for people who feel isolated right now
What earned secure attachment is and what the research suggests about getting there
What tends to get in the way, including shame, and what active receiving looks like in practice
Thanks for listening to The Complex Trauma Podcast!
Be sure to follow, share and give us a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Follow on Instagram: @sarahherstichlcsw 
Follow on TikTok: @sarahherstichlcsw
Learn more about EMDR & trauma therapy in Pennsylvania with Reclaim Therapy
This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or nutritional advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Remember, I'm a therapist, but I'm not your therapist. Nothing in this podcast is meant to replace actual therapy or treatment. If you're in crisis or things feel really unsafe right now, please reach out to someone. You can call 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, text them, or head to your nearest ER.
The views expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organizations or institutions. Reliance on any information provided by this podcast is solely at your own risk.

If you've been diagnosed with more than one thing, and it feels like every provider is treating each piece in isolation, this episode is for you.
Complex PTSD doesn't just show up as one condition. For many people, CPTSD symptoms include a stack of co-occurring diagnoses that are deeply connected at the nervous system level but rarely treated that way. In this episode, I break down exactly what might be happening underneath seven of the most common conditions that show up alongside complex trauma, and why understanding the connection changes everything about how healing can work.
In this episode you'll learn:
What the window of tolerance is and how complex PTSD shrinks or collapses it
The faux window of tolerance: the nervous system concept that explains why behaviors like restriction, compulsions, and substance use are so hard to give up
A quick nervous system primer covering sympathetic activation, dorsal vagal shutdown, and the vagus nerve
How CPTSD and eating disorders are connected at the nervous system level, including restriction, bingeing, and purging
The research-backed link between complex trauma and OCD, including a documented posttraumatic subtype
Why substance use, workaholism, chronic pain, dissociation, and emotional dysregulation are all nervous system adaptations in people with complex PTSD
Why treating these complex PTSD symptoms in isolation so often stalls, and what integrated trauma-informed treatment actually looks and feels like
The three phases of healing: stabilization, the thaw, and integration
Whether you're early in understanding your CPTSD symptoms or years into treatment and still feeling like something is missing, this episode offers a framework that finally puts all the pieces in the same room.
Free Resource: Dysregulation Toolkit for CPTSD
Thanks for listening to The Complex Trauma Podcast!
Be sure to follow, share and give us a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Follow on Instagram: @sarahherstichlcsw 
Follow on TikTok: @sarahherstichlcsw
Learn more about EMDR & trauma therapy in Pennsylvania with Reclaim Therapy
This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or nutritional advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Remember, I'm a therapist, but I'm not your therapist. Nothing in this podcast is meant to replace actual therapy or treatment. If you're in crisis or things feel really unsafe right now, please reach out to someone. You can call 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, text them, or head to your nearest ER.
The views expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organizations or institutions. Reliance on any information provided by this podcast is solely at your own risk.

If you've spent your life being told you're "too nice," "a people-pleaser," or that you just need to "set better boundaries," this episode is for you. 
Fawning is the fourth trauma response, and for most folks with complex PTSD, it's been... a thing... for decades. 
In this episode, Sarah unpacks what fawning actually is (hint: it's not a personality flaw), how it gets built in childhood, what it can feel like in the body, and three small experiments to begin the work of coming home to yourself.
This is one of the most requested topics on The Complex Trauma Podcast. Sarah brings together the foundational work of Pete Walker, current research on complex trauma and emotional neglect, parts work and structural dissociation from Janina Fisher, polyvagal theory, and somatic experiencing into one  conversation about why so many of us learned to disappear into other people, and how we begin to find our way back.

In this episode, you'll learn:
The difference between fawning and people-pleasing, and why the distinction matters for healing
How fawning develops as a brilliant survival adaptation in childhood, often before you have language to remember it
Why the latest research shows emotional neglect is the strongest predictor of complex PTSD
Seven somatic markers of fawning, including the rehearsing, the scanning, the voice change, and the disappearance
How blended states (sympathetic activation plus dorsal shutdown) explain why fawning leaves you exhausted and wired at the same time
The reframe that changes everything: you are not a fawner. You have parts of you that fawn.
Three small, sticky experiments you can try this week: The Body Audit, The 1% Honest Answer, and The Tiny No
Why titration (slow, tiny, repeated) is the only way trauma responses actually unwind
Mentioned in this episode:
Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker
Fawning by Dr. Ingrid Clayton
Embracing our Fragmented Selves by Janina Fisher
Waking the Tiger and In an Unspoken Voice by Peter Levine
The CDC-Kaiser ACE Study
Why Regulation Feels So Hard with CPTSD (previous episode)
Sarah's conversation with Janina Fisher (previous episode)
Thanks for listening to The Complex Trauma Podcast!
Be sure to follow, share and give us a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Follow on Instagram: @sarahherstichlcsw 
Follow on TikTok: @sarahherstichlcsw
Learn more about EMDR & trauma therapy in Pennsylvania with Reclaim Therapy
This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or nutritional advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Remember, I'm a therapist, but I'm not your therapist. Nothing in this podcast is meant to replace actual therapy or treatment. If you're in crisis or things feel really unsafe right now, please reach out to someone. You can call 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, text them, or head to your nearest ER.
The views expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organizations or institutions. Reliance on any information provided by this podcast is solely at your own risk.