Carla Pinto MA, LPC Bilingual Inner Child and Anxiety Therapist

The Patterns That Hold You Back Started Long Before You Could Name Them Do you feel like you are stuck in survival mode? You might find yourself self-sabotaging, avoiding closeness, people-pleasing, or lashing out in anger. While many associate PTSD with war veterans, Complex PTSD (CPTSD) occurs when the “war zone” was your home or school. If you grew up in an environment where you were criticized, abused, neglected, or forced to walk on eggshells around unpredictable individuals, your body and mind may have remained in a state of constant vigilance. CPTSD is the result of many emotional wounds sustained over time rather than a single traumatic event. Because these roots often go deeper than surface-level problems, inner child therapy helps address the source of these challenges. This is where real transformation begins. How I Help Complex Trauma & CPTSD: Symptoms of CPTSD are often confused with depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder, or ADHD. When viewed through the lens of trauma, however, these symptoms often make sense as protective survival responses developed in emotionally unsafe environments. Together, we explore how these patterns may have once served a purpose while also recognizing how they may now interfere with connection, emotional regulation, identity, and daily functioning. This work focuses on building safety, self-understanding, and a more compassionate relationship with yourself while supporting the nervous system’s capacity for healing and connection. Inner Child Therapy: This transformative approach helps you access and heal the younger parts of yourself that carry unresolved wounds, unmet emotional needs, and painful beliefs formed early in life. Through this work, we explore how early experiences continue to shape your sense of self, relationships, emotional responses, and coping patterns, while fostering greater self-compassion, emotional healing, and integration. Mindfulness, CBT & DBT: Drawing from mindfulness practices, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), we focus on strengthening emotional regulation, increasing self-awareness, and building practical coping skills. We also explore thought patterns, emotional reactions, and behavioral responses that may no longer align with the life you want to create, while supporting a greater sense of grounding, intentional, and connection to yourself.