ACOA & Complex PTSD

ACoA and Complex PTSD Therapy

Stoa Life Offers Counseling for Children of Alcoholics & Dysfunctional Families as well as Complex PTSD.

At Stoa life, Catherine has a passion for working with ACoA and Complex PTSD clients.  The 12-Step program of Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families brings together a diverse group of recovering people that includes adult children of alcoholics, codependents, and addicts of various sorts.

The term “adult child” is used to describe adults who grew up in alcoholic or dysfunctional homes and who exhibit identifiable traits that reveal past abuse or neglect. This includes adults raised in dysfunctional homes without the presence of alcohol or drugs.  These adult children have trademark indicators of abuse, shame, and abandonment found in alcoholic homes and dysfunctional families.  In therapeutic circles, this constellation of symptoms may also be referred to as Complex PTSD.

Do you suffer from fear of abandonment, fear of authority figures, judging yourself harshly, confusing love for pity, and/or becoming an addict or marrying one?  These are just some of the traits of an adult child.  Most adult children relate to the list of identifiable traits as outlined on the program’s “laundry list.”

Clinical and medical researchers have measured the causes and effects of growing up in a dysfunctional home and how such trauma continues to affect the adult.  Adult children tend to suffer from addictions, depression, panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and various dissociative states.  Adult children understand dissociation, codependence, obsession, and compulsion like few others.

If you identify as an adult child and would like to talk with an “informed therapist,” I would love to hear from you.  Chapter 16 in the ‘the Big Book’ (also called the Big Red Book, BRB) of ACoA provides guidance for recovering ACAs looking for a therapist.

When Someone is properly grounded in life, they shouldn’t have to look outside themselves for approval.—Epictetus

Contact Stoa Life today for a free consultation.