What happened to you as a child
still matters today.
Childhood trauma leaves marks that don't disappear with time — they shape how we think, feel, relate, and move through the world. At NBCG, we offer compassionate, evidence-based care for adults and children healing from early trauma.
What Is Childhood Trauma?
Childhood trauma refers to experiences in early life that overwhelm a child's capacity to cope — leaving lasting effects on their emotional, psychological, and physical development. Trauma isn't always dramatic or obvious. It can come from a single event or build slowly over years of chronic stress.
What makes something traumatic is not the event itself, but how it is experienced — and whether the child had safety, support, and someone they could turn to. Many children carry wounds that were never witnessed or named by anyone around them.
"Childhood trauma isn't about what's wrong with you. It's about what happened to you — and what you had to do to survive it."
Why Early Trauma Has Lasting Effects
The developing brain is uniquely sensitive to the environment. During childhood, experiences of safety or danger literally shape the neural pathways that govern stress responses, emotional regulation, trust, and attachment. When a child grows up in an environment of chronic threat, neglect, or harm, the brain adapts — in ways that are protective in the short term but can create real difficulty in adult life.
This is why adults healing from childhood trauma often find themselves reacting to present-day relationships or stressors with responses that seem disproportionate or hard to control. The nervous system learned those responses for a reason — and it can learn new ones.
At NBCG, we understand the neuroscience of early trauma and treat it accordingly — with patience, expertise, and deep respect for what you've carried.
Experiences That Can Cause Childhood Trauma
Childhood trauma takes many forms. Some are visible; many are not. All are valid — the size of the wound is not determined by whether others would call it "serious enough."
Physical Abuse
Hitting, beating, burning, or any form of physical harm inflicted by a caregiver or adult in a position of trust. Even single incidents can cause lasting trauma when they violate a child's sense of safety.
Emotional Abuse
Chronic criticism, humiliation, rejection, threats, or manipulation by a parent or caregiver. Emotional abuse leaves invisible wounds that are often harder to name — and just as real as physical harm.
Sexual Abuse
Any sexual contact or behavior involving a child, perpetrated by an adult or older individual. Childhood sexual abuse is one of the most significant risk factors for C-PTSD, depression, and anxiety in adulthood.
Neglect
Chronic failure to meet a child's basic physical, emotional, or developmental needs. Neglect is often less visible than abuse but equally harmful — the absence of care is itself a form of harm.
Witnessing Domestic Violence
Growing up in a home where violence, abuse, or chronic conflict between adults was present. Children don't need to be direct victims to be profoundly affected.
Parental Mental Illness or Substance Abuse
Growing up with a parent whose mental illness, addiction, or instability made the home environment unpredictable, chaotic, or emotionally unsafe — even when the parent also had loving intentions.
Loss & Separation
Early loss of a parent or caregiver — through death, incarceration, divorce, or abandonment — particularly when the child lacked adequate support or explanation.
Bullying & Peer Trauma
Chronic bullying, social exclusion, or peer violence — especially during formative years — can produce lasting trauma, particularly when adults failed to intervene or offer support.
Medical & Institutional Trauma
Painful or frightening medical experiences, hospitalization, or time in institutional care (foster care, residential programs) — especially when the child had little control and felt unsafe or unprotected.
A note on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Research on ACEs has shown that the cumulative number of adverse childhood experiences predicts significant mental and physical health outcomes in adulthood — including depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance use, and chronic illness. The more ACEs a person experienced, the higher their risk. But ACEs research also makes clear: healing is possible, and the right support can meaningfully change outcomes at any age.
How Childhood Trauma Shows Up
Trauma responses look different depending on age and development. Recognizing these signs — in your child or in your own history — is the first step toward getting the right support.
Ages 0–6
- Regression to earlier behaviors (bedwetting, thumb-sucking)
- Increased separation anxiety or clinginess
- Sleep disturbances and frequent nightmares
- Repetitive play reenacting traumatic events
- Difficulty being soothed or settled
- Loss of previously acquired developmental skills
Ages 7–12
- Declining academic performance or school refusal
- Withdrawal from friends and activities
- Hypervigilance or exaggerated startle response
- Somatic complaints: headaches, stomachaches
- Difficulty concentrating or sitting still
- Disproportionate reactions to reminders of the trauma
Ages 13–17
- Risky behaviors, substance use, or self-harm
- Emotional numbing or detachment
- Intense anger, impulsivity, or explosive outbursts
- Depression and low self-worth
- Difficulty forming or maintaining relationships
- Avoidance of trauma-related topics or situations
Healing Later in Life
- Chronic anxiety, depression, or emotional dysregulation
- Relationship difficulties and fear of abandonment
- Patterns of self-sabotage or difficulty trusting others
- Shame, unworthiness, or a feeling of being "broken"
- Physical symptoms without clear medical cause
- Difficulty identifying or expressing emotions
How Childhood Trauma Affects Adult Mental Health
Unaddressed childhood trauma often shows up in adulthood as diagnosable conditions — many of which are highly treatable once their roots are understood.
Complex PTSD (C-PTSD)
Chronic childhood trauma — especially abuse or neglect by a caregiver — is one of the primary causes of C-PTSD, with symptoms including emotional dysregulation, negative self-concept, and relational difficulties.
Depression
Adults with multiple ACEs are significantly more likely to experience major depressive episodes. Childhood trauma can alter stress-response systems and neurochemistry in ways that increase vulnerability to depression throughout life.
Anxiety Disorders
Generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic disorder, and specific phobias are all more prevalent in people with a history of childhood trauma — particularly when the trauma involved unpredictability or loss of control.
Attachment & Relationship Difficulties
When early caregiving relationships were a source of harm rather than safety, it shapes how a person relates to others throughout life — affecting trust, intimacy, fear of abandonment, and patterns of connection.
Dissociative Symptoms
Dissociation — feeling detached from your body, emotions, or sense of reality — is a common response to childhood trauma. It ranges from mild "spacing out" to more significant disruptions of memory and identity.
Substance Use
Many adults with childhood trauma histories use alcohol or substances to manage overwhelming emotions, numb distressing memories, or cope with sleep disturbances. Treating the trauma — not just the substance use — is essential to lasting recovery.
Childhood Trauma Treatment at NBCG
There is no single path through trauma. Our providers build individualized, phase-based plans that meet you — or your child — exactly where you are, using approaches backed by the strongest available evidence.
Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT)
The gold-standard evidence-based treatment for childhood trauma in children and adolescents — and highly effective for adults. TF-CBT addresses trauma-related thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in a structured, collaborative process. For children, it includes a caregiver component that helps the whole family heal together.
EMDR Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is one of the most effective treatments available for trauma at any age. It helps the brain process distressing memories so they lose their emotional intensity — without requiring extensive verbal retelling of the trauma.
Attachment-Based & Relational Therapy
When trauma disrupted early attachment, healing often happens through a safe therapeutic relationship. Our therapists are trained in relational approaches that help rebuild the internal sense of trust and security that childhood trauma can damage.
Somatic & Body-Based Therapy
Trauma is stored in the body, not just the mind — especially trauma that began in early childhood, before language was available to make sense of it. Somatic approaches help clients reconnect with physical safety and regulate the nervous system from the bottom up.
DBT Skills for Emotional Regulation
For clients struggling with intense or difficult-to-manage emotions — a very common effect of childhood trauma — DBT offers practical, learnable skills for distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Medication Management
Medications can be an important part of treatment for trauma-related conditions, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and sleep disturbance. Our psychiatrists work in close coordination with therapists to ensure medication and therapy work together effectively.
The NBCG Difference
We treat children, adolescents, and adults — meaning we can support your family at every stage, and we understand how early trauma shapes every stage of development. For us, trauma-informed care isn't a specialty add-on. It's the foundation of everything we do.
We accept most major insurance plans, including SelectHealth, BCBS, Regence, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, and more. Our team can help verify your benefits before your first appointment.
It's never too late — or too early — to heal.
Whether you're a parent worried about your child, a teenager struggling with things you can't name, or an adult who has been carrying something heavy for a long time — our team is here. You don't have to have the whole story figured out to make the first call.
Our intake process is gentle, confidential, and designed to make you feel heard from the very first conversation. Same-week appointments are often available.
Utah Locations
Six convenient locations across the Wasatch Front.
Lehi, UT 84043
- Psych & Neuropsych Testing
- Mental Health Therapy
- Psychiatric Med Management
- TMS, Spravato, & Ketamine
Murray, UT 84121
- Psych & Neuropsych Testing
- Mental Health Therapy
- Psychiatric Med Management
- TMS, Spravato, & Ketamine
Ogden, UT 84403
- Mental Health Therapy
- Psychiatric Med Management
Orem, UT 84097
- Psych & Neuropsych Testing
- Mental Health Therapy
- Psychiatric Med Management
- TMS, Spravato, & Ketamine
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
- Psych & Neuropsych Testing
- Mental Health Therapy
- Psychiatric Med Management
- TMS, Spravato, & Ketamine
West Jordan, UT 84084
- ABA & Autism Services
- Psychiatric Med Management
The child you were
deserved better. The person you are
deserves care.
Whatever you experienced, whatever you've been told about it — our team is here to meet you with compassion, clinical expertise, and the time and space healing actually requires.
Indications for Treatment
The providers at Neurobehavioral Center for Growth (NBCG) offer psychiatric evaluation and treatment in Utah for a range of mental health conditions across the lifespan, including childhood trauma, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Attachment Disorders, Dissociative Disorders, and co-occurring conditions. Treatment is provided for children, adolescents, and adults, and is determined based on individual psychiatric evaluations and developmental needs. It may include specialized therapy, family-based treatment, medications, and coordinated care planning.
Important Safety Information
Psychiatric medications are only available by prescription and should be taken as directed by a healthcare provider. A provider at NBCG can help determine if medication is appropriate for your or your child's situation. Patients' responses to medications may vary, and ongoing monitoring is necessary to ensure safety and effectiveness.
Common side effects may include drowsiness, dizziness, nausea, changes in appetite, or mood fluctuations. Some medications carry risks such as dependency, withdrawal symptoms, or rare but serious adverse effects. It is important to discuss all potential risks and benefits with your provider. Medications for mental health conditions should not be discontinued without consulting a healthcare provider.
Childhood trauma and its related conditions are associated with elevated rates of depression, self-harm, and suicidal ideation in both adolescents and adults. If you or your child is experiencing thoughts of self-harm or suicide, please seek immediate support by calling or texting 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or contacting your nearest emergency services. NBCG provides outpatient mental health care and is not an emergency or crisis service.
