“Shame encompasses our entire being and says that at our core, we are wrong. It’s believing that there is something fundamentally flawed in our person—that we are less than, or unworthy.”

Researchers found that 61% of people have experienced at least one traumatic event before the age of 18, and 16% (that’s 1 in 6 adults) have experienced four or more ACEs. They also found that ACEs were linked to the development of: heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes and many autoimmune diseases later in life.

When we’re talking about developmental trauma, we’re typically discussing repeated or chronic interpersonal trauma that is often deliberate that happened before the age of 18. Developmental trauma is especially significant because it happens when the brain is undergoing its most explosive growth and as a result, the brain can “get stuck” in that developmental stage. What this means for trauma survivors is that even as adults, parts of their brain might not have matured and are still functioning the way they did in childhood.

Anxiety disorders are one of the most common conditions we see in counseling. In fact, according to both the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) anxiety rates have been increasing since 2008.