The Complex Trauma Podcast

Sarah Herstich
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  • Mental Health
  • Updated weekly

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're going through. New episodes every Wednesday.

  1. 2 days ago

    Somatic Therapy 101: The Nervous System Basics Behind Trauma Healing

    If you've ever wondered why insight alone hasn't been enough to heal your trauma, this episode is your answer. We're going all the way back to fundamentals with a real somatic therapy 101, covering what somatic therapy actually is, how the nervous system holds onto trauma, and why healing from CPTSD requires more than just understanding your story. In this episode, we cover: Why trauma is a biological response, not just a psychological one (and what that means for your healing)The actual definition of somatic therapy, and the myths the internet keeps getting wrongA quick look at nervous system states: ventral vagal, sympathetic, and dorsal vagal, and why they matter for complex trauma specificallyWhat your window of tolerance is, and why it can narrow over timeTitration and pendulation: how somatic therapists help your body approach painful material safelyHow parts work (Internal Family Systems) connects directly to your nervous system statesWhy EMDR is a somatic therapy, not just "the eye movement thing"A nuanced conversation about The Body Keeps the Score and where current research agrees and pushes backWhether you're a trauma survivor trying to understand your own healing, or a fellow therapist looking for a clear, clinically grounded refresher, this episode is built to meet you where you are. Mentioned in this episode: Fawning as a Trauma Response episode Inner Child Healing and Reparenting 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.

    33 min

  2. 1 Jul

    Why Your Nervous System Craves Certainty (And Why It Looks Like Control)

    Ever been called controlling? Too rigid? Too much? On today's episode I breaks down why it was maybe never about control. Your nervous system has maybe been trying to answer one question this whole time: am I safe? This episode covers the real reason behind reassurance seeking, perfectionism, hypervigilance, overthinking, and food rules, and why none of it is a character flaw. Using research on predictive processing and a concept called precision weighting from EMDR therapist Thomas Zimmerman, Sarah explains why your brain keeps choosing the old danger prediction even when you're safe right now. And why understanding alone won't change it. In this episode:  Why control was never the real issue What your body's been telling you Why reassurance works for five minutes and then stops What precision weighting is and why it matters What healing actually requires insteadListen to Thomas Zimmerman's episode on The Beauty and the Work of Complex Trauma here 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.

    19 min

  3. 24 Jun

    Emotional Flashbacks in Complex Trauma Explained

    Emotional flashbacks are one of the most common and most misunderstood experiences in complex trauma. Unlike visual flashbacks, they don't come with images or a clear memory. They arrive as intense feelings, shame, fear, loneliness, helplessness, often with no story attached and no warning. In this episode, Sarah breaks down what emotional flashbacks actually are. You'll learn why insight alone doesn't change the nervous system's predictions, what's happening in your body when each survival part gets activated, and what healing actually requires at the level of the body. In this episode: What emotional flashbacks are and why they're so hard to catchHow implicit memory keeps the past alive in the presentThe four Fs and how each survival part feels in the bodyWhy understanding your trauma isn't the same as healing itWhat ideal caregiver work looks like in trauma therapyA simple practice for when the wave hitsResources mentioned: Emotionally Corrective Experiences episode Understanding Dissociative Parts with Dr. Janina Fisher Pete Walker, Complex PTSD: From Surviving to ThrivingThanks 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.

    37 min

  4. 17 Jun

    Complex Trauma and the Belief That You're a Burden

    Do you feel guilty every time you need something, even from people who love you? Do you find it easy to show up for everyone else but nearly impossible to let someone show up for you? If so, this episode is for you. In episode 135, I explore the belief that you are a burden. Not as a passing thought, but as a felt sense in the body that gets activated the moment you need something from another person. I break down where this pattern might come from developmentally, how it shows up differently across attachment styles, and why receiving care can feel more threatening than giving it. I also cover the body-based signature of shame, why you might not reach out until things are really bad, and how to start telling the difference between what you actually feel and what's actually true. If you've ever deleted a text asking for help, felt sick after reaching out, or wondered whether you're actually a burden or just convinced you are, this one's going to hit close to home. In this episode:  The developmental roots of feeling like a burden Why giving feels safe and receiving feels threatening How attachment tendencies shape the way this shows up for you The body's role in shame and why connection sometimes can't get in A reflection and a small practice to try this weekThanks 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.

    21 min

  5. 10 Jun

    Why Complex Trauma Survivors Struggle to Believe Themselves

    Many complex trauma survivors struggle to trust their memories, emotions, perceptions, and reactions.  In this episode, we're exploring why being disbelieved can feel so painful, how emotional neglect and attachment wounds can teach us to question ourselves, and why trauma often leaves us with fragments of memory instead of a clear narrative. We discuss:  • Why not being believed can feel abandoning  • How self-doubt becomes a survival strategy  • Trauma memory and fragmentation  • Why emotional neglect can be difficult to identify  • The connection between CPTSD, self-trust, and attachment  • How to begin rebuilding trust in yourself Whether you struggle with childhood emotional neglect, emotionally immature parents, dissociation, hypervigilance, people pleasing, perfectionism, or chronic self-doubt, this episode will help you understand why trusting yourself can feel so difficult, and how healing begins. 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.

    29 min

  6. 3 Jun

    Why Emotional Loneliness Runs So Deep in Complex Trauma

    Emotional loneliness is one of the most common and least talked about experiences in complex trauma recovery. It's not about the number of people in your life. It's about whether your nervous system has learned to let them in. And for a lot of survivors, it hasn't. Not because something is permanently wrong with you, but because your nervous system learned some very specific things about connection a long time ago. In this episode, I break down some of the neuroscience and nervous system mechanics behind emotional loneliness in CPTSD, why it runs so much deeper than social isolation, and what actually helps. In this episode: Why emotional loneliness and social isolation are not the same thing, and why adding more people to your life won't fix the second oneThe push-pull cycle so many survivors live in, desperately wanting connection and pulling back the moment someone gets closeHow emotional neglect specifically creates a loneliness that's hard to name because the wound is in what didn't happen, not what didWhy hyperindependence is often a nervous system adaptation, not a personality traitThe role of the HPA axis and oxytocin in why connection can feel physically threatening even when you want itHow shame creates concealment, and how concealment sustains loneliness in a cycle that's hard to breakWhat dissociation and hypervigilance have to do with why connection doesn't land even when it's right in front of youWhy healing often makes loneliness feel worse before it gets better, and what that actually meansWhat capacity building looks like when the goal is learning to receive connection, not just find itResources that might support you: Episode 126: The Inner Critic with Emily Pagone Episode 127: Attunement and Rupture in the Clinical Relationship with Katie Fries Episode 128: Fawning as a Trauma Response 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.

    31 min

  7. 27 May

    What CPTSD Does to Your Sleep and Why Nothing Else Has Worked

    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 CPTSDThe two ends of the sleep struggle spectrum: can't fall asleep vs. sleeps but never feels restedHypervigilance at night and why the quiet, dark room can become the triggerNightmares as attempted processing and what's actually getting in the wayThe IFS lens: the protectors, managers, and exiles running the show at nightWhy parts work is nervous system workSleep hygiene that actually makes sense for a dysregulated nervous systemSomatic tools to try before bed and when you wake up at 3amReferences: 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.

    32 min

  8. 20 May

    What Inner Child Healing and Reparenting Actually Looks Like

    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 reactionWhat emotional flashbacks are and why the inner critic is often the young part's most audible signalThe difference between toxic shame and regular shame, and why that distinction matters for healingWhy insight dissolves after therapy sessions and what's actually happening when the healing doesn't landWhat reparenting actually is at the neurological level, including the grief piece that most content skips entirelyFour body-based practices for building a real relationship with the young part of you that never got what it neededIf 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.

    38 min
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About

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're going through. New episodes every Wednesday.

Information

  • Creator
    Sarah Herstich
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    138
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Complex Trauma Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Complex Trauma Podcast

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