Developmental Trauma
“Everything was fine at home. We had everything, after all…”
Developmental trauma does not arise only from what happened. It also emerges from what was interrupted and what was missing: safety, connection, attunement, and belonging. Moments of not being wanted. Premature separations. Needs that were unseen, shamed, or unmet. Growing up without the felt sense that it is okay to be who I am.
The mind is the place, where the soul goes to hide from the heart.
In Germany, developmental trauma is rarely named as such. Instead, the diagnoses are depression, anxiety disorders, burnout… When we treat only clinical diagnoses through conventional therapies and medication, true healing often remains out of reach.
For this reason, I offer a form of therapy that goes deeper. Together, we explore the underlying patterns behind the symptoms — in a trauma-sensitive and compassionate way.
My approach is grounded in systemic family therapy and Internal Family Systems (IFS), and integrates concepts from polyvagal theory, transactional analysis, and body psychotherapy.
Children who survived developmental trauma don’t stop loving their parents - they often stoped loving themselves.
It arises most often where parents were unable to provide their own stability — because they themselves were traumatized, developed addictions, or had no language for emotions. In the German post-war generations, this was far from uncommon.
Rejection, neglect, shame, and experiences of loss leave traces on children’s inner worlds, traces they are usually left to carry alone. Recognizing these experiences as traumatic or traumatizing often takes decades.
When the mind is unable to process painful experiences, it stores them in the body. The symptoms of developmental trauma often do not emerge until adulthood: exhaustion, inner emptiness, diffuse pain, anxiety, or the feeling of never truly arriving.
Be the caring parent you never had for your adult self.
„Trauma cannot be compared — neither yours with your siblings’ nor your experiences with those of your parents.“