Before you can heal, you have to name what happened.
But most of us never had words for it. We grew up inside the fog of it — the tension, the confusion, the shame — so it all just felt like life. Maybe we knew something was off, but we couldn’t explain it. We didn’t have language for the ways safety failed us, or for what our bodies had to do to survive.

That’s what this section is for.
Core Definitions gives you the language and conceptual foundations for understanding childhood complex trauma — what it is, how it forms, and why it lingers. These aren’t dry academic terms. They’re words that help you make sense of the patterns your body, mind, and spirit have carried for decades.

Here, you’ll find short explanations of key ideas — trauma, attachment, regulation, survival strategies, shame, resilience — alongside deeper pieces that explore the human side of development: caregivers, co-regulation, unmet needs, and the ways safety and trust are learned (or never learned). Together, they form a map of the inner world that trauma distorts.

You don’t need to memorize anything.
The goal isn’t to collect definitions — it’s to recognize yourself in them.
To see that what you’ve called “anxiety” might actually be dysregulation.
That what you thought was “weakness” might be an old survival strategy.
That what you labeled as “broken” might simply be the body doing what it learned to do when safety wasn’t guaranteed.

If you start to feel overwhelmed, slow down. This isn’t meant to be absorbed all at once. Every concept in here connects to something you’ll explore later — developmental trauma, covert trauma, attachment, stress responses, protective factors. You can circle back anytime.

Naming is powerful.
In Daoist thought, when something is named, its pattern can be understood — and what’s understood can begin to shift.
This section helps you start that process.
It’s where you begin to see your story not as random pain, but as something that can be traced, understood, and slowly rebalanced.