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(719) 319-4999 Verify InsuranceWhen trauma goes on for months or years, it leaves its mark on how you react under stress. It further shapes how you see yourself and how close you let people get. You may have spent so long bracing for the next hard thing that being on guard feels normal. At Drift Behavioral Health, we offer complex PTSD treatment in Colorado Springs for adults whose trauma was prolonged or repeated. Our outpatient programs let you keep living at home while you do this work, in person or by secure video.
Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) is a trauma-related condition that develops after harm that was prolonged, repeated, and hard to escape. Childhood abuse or neglect, years of domestic violence, and long-term combat exposure are common examples. The harm usually came from another person, and sometimes from someone you depended on for safety.
Because the danger kept coming back, your mind and body adapted. Those adaptations made sense at the time, and they may have helped you get through it. Years later, they can show up as a short fuse or a harsh inner critic. Complex trauma treatment works with those patterns directly, and with the memories themselves.
ICD-11, the international diagnostic system, lists complex PTSD as its own diagnosis. The DSM-5, which most US clinicians use, folds those same features into its PTSD diagnosis. In practice, a US clinician may record your diagnosis as PTSD. They can still treat the emotional, self-image, and relationship problems that make it complex. What matters for your care is the full picture of your symptoms.
C-PTSD includes the core symptoms of PTSD: reliving the trauma through flashbacks or nightmares, avoiding reminders, and feeling constantly on guard. It adds three areas that shape daily life, even on quiet days when nothing reminds you of the past.
Small frustrations can set off anger, panic, or tears that feel out of proportion, and calming down can take hours. Some people swing the other way and go numb, or seem detached from their body and surroundings. Self-destructive coping, such as reckless spending, bingeing, or self-harm, can grow out of trying to manage feelings that seem unmanageable.
Many adults with C-PTSD carry a steady sense of being worthless, broken, or permanently different from everyone else. Guilt and shame about the trauma stick, even when you know it was not your fault. Praise feels uncomfortable because it clashes with how you see yourself.
You may want connection and still keep people at a distance. Some adults end relationships before the other person can leave, and others stay in ones that repeat old harm. Trusting kindness can feel risky. Sustained closeness, the kind that builds over months, is where C-PTSD shows up most.
If several of these sound familiar, jot down when they show up and what happens right before. Bring those notes to your first appointment. They give your clinician a clearer picture than just memory alone on a stressful day. They help us decide where to start.
The three conditions share symptoms, and they are easy to confuse from the outside. The differences shape which skills and therapies come first in C-PTSD treatment, so they are worth understanding.
PTSD can follow a single event, such as a car crash or an assault. Its symptoms center on fear: memories intrude, you avoid reminders, and your body stays on alert. C-PTSD keeps those symptoms and adds the emotional, self-image, and relationship problems described above. Shame sits at the center of C-PTSD much the way fear sits at the center of PTSD. Work on self-worth and relationships needs to be part of your plan from the start.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and C-PTSD both involve intense emotions and difficult relationships, which is why one can be mistaken for the other. In C-PTSD, your view of yourself stays consistently negative. In BPD, the sense of self tends to shift, sometimes from one day to the next.
Relationships follow different patterns too. People with C-PTSD tend to pull away from others to stay safe. BPD more commonly involves an intense fear of abandonment and relationships that swing between closeness and conflict. A C-PTSD diagnosis also requires a history of trauma, and a BPD diagnosis does not, though many people with BPD have one. Some adults meet the criteria for both. A careful evaluation sorts out which patterns are driving your symptoms.
Our complex PTSD treatment in Colorado Springs moves in phases. You help set the pace of each one.
The first phase is about stability. You and your therapist work on sleep, daily routine, and a written safety plan for hard nights. You learn grounding skills that bring you back to the present when a memory or a mood pulls you under. You also start naming your triggers, so they stop catching you off guard.
Once those skills hold up under real stress, you start working on the shame trauma left behind. With your therapist, you test beliefs like “I’m too much” or “people always leave” against how people treat you now. Work on specific memories comes when you both agree you are ready. Later work focuses on relationships and the parts of life that trauma pushed aside. The phases overlap, and you can return to skill-building whenever you need it.
Individual therapy pairs you with the same therapist throughout your care, which matters when trust is part of what trauma damaged. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps you examine shame-based beliefs and test them against the evidence of your life now. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills were built for emotions that hit fast and hard. They cover distress tolerance, emotion regulation, mindfulness, and asking for what you need from others.
Group therapy gives you a place to practice those skills with other adults. Practicing with people who understand can feel safer than starting with the people closest to you. Together, these sessions form the core of our complex PTSD therapy.
Your care includes a psychiatric evaluation with one of our psychiatric nurse practitioners. They look at your sleep, mood, anxiety, and any medications you already take. Medication can ease symptoms that make therapy harder to use, such as poor sleep, depression, or constant tension. You make every decision about starting or changing medication with your provider.
Partners and relatives can feel shut out without knowing why, and old patterns can repeat at home without anyone meaning them to. With your permission, family therapy brings the people you choose into sessions. Together you learn what your reactions mean, how to handle conflict when old reactions take over, and what helps you settle at home. Nobody joins without your agreement, and you choose which topics stay private. Family sessions can also wait until you feel ready.
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Drinking or using can start as a way to sleep, numb shame, or get through a social situation. Over time, it adds problems of its own. Cutting back can bring trauma symptoms to the surface. Through dual diagnosis care, one clinical team plans for both, so trauma work and changes in substance use support each other.
If withdrawal is a risk, we coordinate detox placement with a trusted local partner first. Once you are stable, you move into our programs.
We help you understand out-of-network coverage, deductibles, and payment options. Our priority is access and clarity.
Medicaid and Medicare are not accepted. Self-pay options are available.
You can attend complex PTSD treatment in Colorado Springs at two levels of care, and both are available in person or by video. Your evaluation will determine your starting level. You can move between them as your needs change.
Our mental health PHP meets five to six days a week for about five hours a day, and you return home every evening. PHP makes sense when symptoms disrupt your work, sleep, or safety and you need daily support while you build stability. PHP also works as a step down after an inpatient stay.
Our mental health IOP meets three to five days a week in three- to four-hour sessions, with morning, afternoon, and evening options. It fits when you can keep working, studying, or parenting but need more than a weekly therapy hour. Adults who finish PHP can continue here as they take on more of daily life.
Some adults live outside Colorado Springs, have limited transportation, or feel safer starting care from home. For them, our virtual mental health program runs PHP and IOP over secure video. You keep the same care team either way. You will need a private space where you can speak freely.
