Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders (Adults) Quotes

“Posttraumatic survival coping is characterized by a consuming preoccupation with avoiding danger at all costs and is dedicated to avoiding trauma cues — which may include not only people, places and activities but also thoughts and emotions associated with psychological trauma — through isolation from others and detachment from emotions.”
― Christine A. Courtois, Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders (Adults): An Evidence-Based Guide

“Traumatized individuals have more selective development of nonverbal cognitive capacities. People raised in the vortex of violence have learned that nonverbal information is more critical for survival than words.”
― Christine A. Courtois, Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders (Adults): An Evidence-Based Guide

“Secrecy may become a way of life for survivors of childhood developmental trauma, such that they keep innocuous, as well as very important, facts about themselves or others, or thoughts and feelings, hidden in their adult life.”
― Christine A. Courtois, Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders (Adults): An Evidence-Based Guide

“Survivors come to understand, often for the first time, that their symptoms make sense in the context of a formative relationship of coercive control. This understanding is a powerful antidote to the feelings of malignant shame and stigma that afflict so many survivors.”
― Christine A. Courtois, Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders (Adults): An Evidence-Based Guide