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title: "Acute and Complex Trauma Therapy"
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[![Reclaim Trauma Therapy](/__l5e/assets-v1/19256a02-c93a-4fb7-827c-85c90113de5b/reclaim-logo.png)](/)

[Meet Charle](/meet-charle)[How ART Works](/how-art-works)

[What I Treat](/what-art-treats)

-   [Acute and Complex Trauma](/what-art-treats/acute-and-complex-trauma)
-   [PTSD](/what-art-treats/ptsd)
-   [Single-Incident Trauma](/what-art-treats/single-incident-trauma)
-   [Phobias](/what-art-treats/phobias)
-   [Medical, Dental and Needle Fear](/what-art-treats/medical-and-dental-fear)
-   [Car Accidents and Driving Anxiety](/what-art-treats/car-accidents-and-driving-anxiety)
-   [Grief and Sudden Loss](/what-art-treats/grief-and-sudden-loss)
-   [Anxiety](/what-art-treats/anxiety)
-   [OCD](/what-art-treats/ocd)
-   [Emotion Regulation](/what-art-treats/emotion-regulation)

[Who I Work With](/who-i-work-with)

-   [First Responders](/who-i-work-with/first-responders)
-   [Veterans](/who-i-work-with/veterans)
-   [EMTs, ER and Healthcare Workers](/who-i-work-with/healthcare-workers)
-   [Therapists](/who-i-work-with/therapists)
-   [Doctors](/who-i-work-with/doctors)
-   [Corporate Leaders](/who-i-work-with/corporate-leaders)

[ART Intensives](/art-intensives)

[Locations](/locations)

-   [Kentucky](/locations/kentucky)
-   [Ohio](/locations/ohio)

[Rates](/rates)[For Clinicians](/for-clinicians)[Contact](/contact)[Schedule a consultation](https://calendly.com/reclaimtraumatherapy/freeconsultation)

What I Treat

# Acute and Complex Trauma

For adults dealing with something recent, and for adults carrying something that went on for years. Relational and complex trauma are a central part of this practice.

## Two Different Shapes of the Same Work

Acute trauma has an edge to it. Something happened recently and you can point to the week it started. Sleep changed, your attention narrowed, and the moment keeps returning as a picture rather than as a story you have finished telling.

Complex trauma rarely has that edge. It accumulated across a childhood or across a long relationship, so there is no single scene to point at, only a long stretch of time you learned to live inside. People often describe it as personality rather than as injury, which is one reason it goes untreated for so long.

Both respond to the same underlying question: what is still stored in a way that keeps producing a reaction today, and can that be worked with directly.

## What I Work With Here

-   Recent or acute traumatic experiences, including something that happened in the last weeks or months. 
-   Complex and relational trauma that built up over a long period rather than in a single event. 
-   Childhood abuse, sexual trauma, neglect, mistreatment, and chronic insecurity about safety, money or belonging. 
-   Relationship patterns connected to earlier experiences: who you tolerate, what you cannot ask for, how quickly you brace. 
-   Ongoing emotional and physical reactions to painful experiences, including the ones you have stopped mentioning to anyone. 

Relational and complex trauma are a major area of focus for me. They are not a secondary interest tacked onto single-incident work, and they are not something I refer away because the history is long.

## How the Work Is Approached

With something recent, we usually have a clear target early: the specific image, sound or moment that keeps arriving. With a long history, the first part of the work is deciding where to start, because there is more than one candidate and the temptation is to take on all of it at once.

In [Accelerated Resolution Therapy](/how-art-works) you hold the material in mind while I guide sets of smooth eye movements, and we work with what the material does to your body rather than with how well you can narrate it. You decide how much you say out loud. Detailed retelling is not required, which matters a great deal to people whose history is long or difficult to speak about.

With complex trauma we often work through a sequence of related targets rather than one. Where a longer block of time suits you better, the same work can be done in [an ART intensive](/art-intensives) of up to three hours. When another approach fits a piece of it better, I will use cognitive behavioral or solution-focused work instead and say why.

## What People Notice They Are Carrying

Guilt that does not match the facts. Self-doubt about decisions you are entirely qualified to make. A body that stays braced in rooms where nothing is happening. An apology that arrives before anyone has objected to anything.

People with this history are often the competent one in every room. That competence is real, and it is also expensive to maintain. What brings most people here is the arithmetic of the cost rather than any single bad week.

## What This Is Not, and When It Is Not the Fit

-   Not a guarantee of any particular result, and never a promised number of sessions. 
-   Not medication management. Anything you take stays with your prescriber. 
-   Not open-ended supportive counseling. Every session works toward a target you set. 
-   Not the right starting point while stabilization or a higher level of care is the more pressing need. We would talk about that at the consultation. 
-   Adults only, by secure video in Kentucky and Ohio. 

This is not a crisis service.

If you are in crisis, please call or text 988, call 911, or go to your nearest emergency room. ART is not appropriate during active psychosis or acute crisis. Individual outcomes vary.

## Talk it through in a free fifteen-minute consultation.

A short conversation by video or phone. You tell me what is going on now, I tell you how I would approach it, and you ask whatever you want. You are not asked to describe anything you would rather not describe in that call.

[Schedule a free consultation](https://calendly.com/reclaimtraumatherapy/freeconsultation)[Back to What I Treat](/what-art-treats)

![Reclaim Trauma Therapy](/__l5e/assets-v1/19256a02-c93a-4fb7-827c-85c90113de5b/reclaim-logo.png)

Reclaim Trauma Therapy

Focused, practical trauma therapy for adults. Accelerated Resolution Therapy and extended ART intensives, by secure video in Kentucky and Ohio.

Charle Peck, LCSW, LISW, M.Ed.

Practice

-   [Meet Charle](/meet-charle)
-   [Rates & Policies](/rates)
-   [For Referring Clinicians](/for-clinicians)
-   [Contact](/contact)

Treatment

-   [How ART Works](/how-art-works)
-   [ART Intensives](/art-intensives)
-   [Is ART Right for Me?](/is-art-right-for-me)
-   [Frequently Asked Questions](/faq)
-   [Writing](/blog)

What I Treat

-   [Acute and Complex Trauma](/what-art-treats/acute-and-complex-trauma)
-   [PTSD](/what-art-treats/ptsd)
-   [Phobias](/what-art-treats/phobias)
-   [Anxiety](/what-art-treats/anxiety)
-   [OCD](/what-art-treats/ocd)
-   [All Conditions](/what-art-treats)

Who I Work With

-   [First Responders](/who-i-work-with/first-responders)
-   [Veterans](/who-i-work-with/veterans)
-   [EMTs, ER and Healthcare Workers](/who-i-work-with/healthcare-workers)
-   [Therapists](/who-i-work-with/therapists)
-   [Doctors](/who-i-work-with/doctors)
-   [Corporate Leaders](/who-i-work-with/corporate-leaders)
-   [Who I Work With](/who-i-work-with)

Serving

-   [Kentucky](/locations/kentucky)
-   [Ohio](/locations/ohio)
-   [Where I Practice](/locations)

This practice is not a crisis or emergency service, and messages are not monitored around the clock. If you are in immediate danger, experiencing a mental health emergency, or having thoughts of ending your life with intent or a plan, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), call 911, or go to your nearest emergency room for an assessment. Veterans can press 1 after dialing 988.

Contacting this practice does not establish a client relationship. Individual outcomes vary. Nothing on this site guarantees a specific clinical result.

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