CPTSD Foundation
Daily Support Between Therapy Appointments
Volunteer
Are you looking for ways to make a difference in the mental health community by helping others, and sharing your wisdom, experience, or a skillset you have?
Call for Writers
What mental health topics and healing modalities are you passionate about? Our blog reaches thousands of complex trauma survivors. If you enjoy writing, we want to hear from you.
Donate
Make a donation of any size right now, or make an even bigger impact by setting up a monthly recurring gift! Your generosity changes lives.
What is CPTSD?
Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD, C-PTSD, Complex PTSD) describes the results of ongoing, inescapable, relational trauma. Unlike Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Complex PTSD typically involves being hurt by another person. These hurts are ongoing, repeated, and often involving a betrayal and loss of safety.
Featured Programs.
Check out these featured trauma-informed resources or click the button to view all of our available programs.
Trauma-Informed peer support in a validating and supportive group atmosphere, to supplement individual healing work.
A weekly body-centered healing program focused on helping survivors engage with the present moment.
Join our virtual group and work on your favorite creative modality together with your leader and other survivors.
STAR Network is a community built on a simple but radical belief: that healing is possible, and that no one should have to do it alone. We bring together trauma survivors, families, and the people who support them — through peer connection, education, and events that turn shared experience into shared strength. Whether you’re just beginning to understand your story or years into your recovery, STAR Network is a place where you belong.
On May 22, STAR Network hosts its 3rd annual Scars to STARs summit — a free virtual event bringing together survivors, scientists, and healers to ask the question that matters most: what actually heals trauma? This year’s theme, “ACE Studies: The Next 30 Years,” looks beyond the damage that childhood adversity causes and toward the communities, relationships, and practices that reverse it. If your story has brought you here, this summit was built for you.
Learn more and register at no cost at starnetwork.org/scars-to-stars-2026.
Latest from our Blog
Weekly content from guest blog writers, including mental health professionals and real life trauma survivor stories.
“The Channel is Right but the Volume is Too High”: Understanding Emotional Triggers
In a scene from one of my favorite films, The Iron Giant, a boy named Hogarth plays in a junk yard with his new friend, a giant metal man fallen from space. In the midst of their game, Hogarth pulls out a toy gun and aims it at the giant. Instantly, and without his...
The Labyrinth of Healing: What Complex Trauma Taught Me About Becoming Whole (Part 1)
For a long time, I believed my healing would announce itself with a clear endpoint—a day when the pain would finally stop, when the hypervigilance would dissolve, when I would wake up and simply feel whole. I waited for that day for years. Decades, even. It never...
How Trauma Turns Us Into Controllers—and How We Finally Learn to Let Go
This article examines how trauma turns control into a survival reflex, wiring the brain to predict disaster and interpret ordinary setbacks as threats. It offers a grounded path back to peace by reclaiming responsibility for mindset, rather than relying on others to regulate emotional storms.
Complex PTSD - The Damage from Abuse and Trauma
The Damage of Abuse Trigger Warning: This post contains personal accounts and detailed discussions of childhood abuse. If you are currently feeling vulnerable or find these topics distressing, please prioritize your well-being before reading. Childhood abuse is...
When Emotional Distance is not Narcissism: Understanding the Quiet Adult Child
A forensic, trauma-informed examination of why emotionally distant children are often mislabeled as narcissistic adults, and how avoidant attachment forms inside CPTSD-shaped families.
Not Driving Home for Holidays
Christmas, or other types of family reunions, can be tricky in the best of families. For survivors of childhood abuse, trekking home for the holidays is nothing short of a draining and re-traumatising return to the scene of the crime. It’s an exercise in appeasement...
What Community Members Are Saying.
How our programs are changing the lives of complex trauma survivors aorund the world.
Daily Recovery Support
Member
“My FRAMILY is amazing. You all are amazing and inspiring. I truly love all everyone on the calls and thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me heal through this community.”
Healing Book Club
Member
”It is very meaningful and I feel that I have established true, authentic connections. It’s comforting to have a designated space each week that’s safe, normalizing, educational, and secure. Thank you for this incredible resource!”
Daily Recovery Support
Member
“The daily calls are helping me to take better care of myself and have boundaries. How to recognize safe people and unsafe people and receive encouragement and support that I do not get otherwise. They help me recognize I am not alone in my feelings and thoughts.”
Trauma-Friendly Meditation
Member
I have experienced significant positive effects in my life since starting this class which have impacted my life (in a medium to large way). I have found that the acceptance component taught within this style of meditation has been extremely valuable.
Daily Recovery Support
Member
“The foundation does great work, and I’ve benefited greatly from all that was included in the subscription and always thought it was great value! Thank you for making such a great contribution to the CPTSD community and to humanity in general.”
Weekly Creative Group
Member
“My FRAMILY is amazing. You all are amazing and inspiring. I truly love everyone on the calls and thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me heal through this community.”
Additional Resources.
Check out these accessible and no-cost resources to aid in your healing journey.
Trauma-Informed Tuesday Newsletter
Direct to your inbox every week
Trauma-Friendly Meditation Classes
Monthly Live Classes or Self-Paced Course
Work with a Coach
Free discovery session to see if working with a trauma-informed coach is a good choice
About CPTSD Foundation.
Our Mission: To leave a legacy of healing for future generations by providing daily support between therapy appointments
Read our Vision
Read our Values
The Challenge We Are Undertaking
