A CPTSD Therapist Who
Gets Complex Trauma
Overview
Online therapy for adults across Florida whose struggles trace back to years — not one event — of a childhood that required too much adaptation.
— The Short Answer
Complex PTSD is what happens when trauma is not a single event but an environment. If you grew up with a parent who was unpredictable, critical, emotionally absent, or frightening, your nervous system organized itself around surviving that home. The result, years later, is not just bad memories — it is a way of being: hypervigilance, shame, a brutal inner critic, difficulty trusting, and a sense that something is fundamentally wrong with you.
The Approach
CPTSD looks different from classic PTSD. Alongside flashbacks and avoidance, it involves persistent negative self-beliefs, emotional flashbacks where you feel a wave of shame or dread without any picture attached, and relationships that swing between closeness and self-protection. Many high-achieving adults with CPTSD look fine from the outside and are quietly exhausted on the inside.
Treating CPTSD requires more than processing one memory. The work happens in phases: first building enough stability and internal safety that your system can tolerate looking back, then reprocessing the formative experiences with approaches like EMDR and ego state therapy, and finally building the capacities that never got to develop — self-compassion, boundaries, and the ability to feel safe in connection.
Annie Shapiro works with complex trauma as a primary focus of her practice, combining EMDR, ego state therapy, clinical hypnosis, and somatic approaches. She is a member of EMDRIA and the ISSTD and is completing advanced EMDR training specific to CPTSD and attachment trauma. All sessions are by secure video for adults located anywhere in Florida.
— What Changes
What CPTSD Therapy Addresses
Emotional Flashbacks
Sudden waves of shame, dread, or collapse with no clear trigger. These are nervous-system memories, and they can be reprocessed.
The Inner Critic
The harsh internal voice that sounds like a parent. In ego state work, this is treated as a protective part, not the truth about you.
Hypervigilance
Constant scanning for what could go wrong. Somatic and hypnotic work teaches the body that the danger has passed.
Relationship Patterns
Pursuing, withdrawing, people-pleasing, or keeping everyone at arm's length. These are adaptations that made sense once.
Toxic Shame
The felt sense of being defective. CPTSD treatment targets the experiences that installed this belief, not just the belief itself.
High-Functioning Exhaustion
Achieving while running on adrenaline and self-criticism. Success does not resolve CPTSD — it often hides it.
— For You If
You may recognize yourself.
- You grew up in a home that was chaotic, critical, or emotionally unsafe
- You have waves of shame or dread that don't match your current life
- You function well at work but fall apart or go numb in private
- Talk therapy helped you understand your past but not feel different
- You were told you might have CPTSD, or you suspect it yourself
- You live anywhere in Florida and want a trauma-focused therapist by video
— Frequently Asked
About CPTSD Therapist in Florida
01What is the difference between PTSD and CPTSD?+
PTSD typically follows a single traumatic event and centers on re-experiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal. CPTSD develops from prolonged, repeated trauma — often childhood abuse or neglect — and adds persistent negative self-beliefs, emotional dysregulation, and difficulties in relationships. CPTSD usually requires longer, phase-based treatment.
02What kind of therapy works for CPTSD?+
Research and clinical practice support phase-based treatment: stabilization first, then trauma reprocessing with approaches like EMDR, then integration. Ego state therapy is particularly useful for CPTSD because the inner critic, the wounded younger self, and the high-functioning adult self often need to be worked with as distinct parts.
03Can CPTSD be treated online?+
Yes. EMDR, ego state therapy, and somatic approaches all adapt well to secure video, and many clients with complex trauma actually feel safer doing this work from their own space. Annie treats CPTSD by telehealth with adults throughout Florida.
04How long does CPTSD therapy take?+
Complex trauma work is measured in months to years rather than weeks, because there are clusters of memories and deeply installed protective patterns rather than one target. Most clients notice meaningful relief — fewer emotional flashbacks, a quieter inner critic — within the first few months of consistent work.
05I had a 'normal' childhood. Can I still have CPTSD?+
Yes. CPTSD does not require obvious abuse. Chronic emotional neglect, a parent whose moods you managed, being parentified, or growing up with addiction in the home all qualify. If your nervous system had to adapt to survive your childhood, that adaptation can outlive its usefulness.
06What does it cost, and do you take insurance?+
Standard 50-minute sessions are $200 and extended 90-minute sessions are $325. The practice is private pay, with a superbill available for possible out-of-network reimbursement. Start with a free 15-minute consultation.
— Go Deeper
Related reading
— Other Approaches
Explore the full toolkit
— Begin
Talk With a CPTSD Therapist
Book a free 15-minute consultation. We'll talk about what you're carrying and whether this approach fits. Telehealth throughout Florida.
Free 15-min call · Online across Florida · Private pay