Amber Trejo, LMFT

Amber Trejo, LMFT Trauma and Attachment Specialist | I help people heal from complex trauma and break the cycle.

Comment GUIDE and this $27 guide will be yours for FREE!(If you’re in Facebook you’ll have to go to the link in my bio)O...
01/12/2026

Comment GUIDE and this $27 guide will be yours for FREE!
(If you’re in Facebook you’ll have to go to the link in my bio)

One of the most important things I ever learned on my own personal healing journey that I have since begun teaching my clients is how complex trauma changes our nervous system.

When we go through complex trauma our system of safety and connection goes offline because safety and connection become an actual threat to our survival.

This is why most complex trauma survivors are always cycling through fight/flight and shutdown.

It’s absolutely crucial we learn about our nervous system and be intentional about spending time in our Ventral Vagal space.

Once we begin practicing this it changes everything! My clients notice a difference almost immediately after learning these techniques.

So I created a 19 page guide on how complex trauma impacts your nervous system with a checklist and in-depth exercises you can start TODAY to start changing your nervous system.

Comment GUIDE and you’ll get it (a $27 value) TOTALLY FREE! No strings attached!

Allow me to re-introduce myself, I’m Amber Trejo.My mental health journey began as a new mom in a new marriage navigatin...
01/11/2026

Allow me to re-introduce myself, I’m Amber Trejo.

My mental health journey began as a new mom in a new marriage navigating the overwhelming symptoms of CPTSD while searching for the support and tools I desperately needed.

I believed I had “healed” from my childhood trauma until I found myself in a safe relationship for the first time and felt the deep love I had for my child when he was born. These two things triggered all the attachment trauma from my past and symptoms of C-PTSD began surfacing that I never had before.

I went back to school and began therapy to better understand what was happening inside of me and to make sure I stopped the cycles of abuse and trauma that had existed in my family for generations.

Driven by my own healing journey and deep desire to break cycles for my children, I earned my license in Marriage and Family Therapy and began my own private practice specializing in complex trauma.

However, I still felt like there were sooo many survivors and parents who needed the information I had who couldn’t afford therapy, couldn’t find a good therapist or just didn’t understand what was going on inside of them.

So I started sharing my struggles, my research, my revelations and the things that have helped me via this page.

I have free reparenting and nervous system resources for survivors in my bio and most recently I’ve created a groundbreaking course tailored specifically for parents with complex trauma.

My work integrates evidence-based practices with deep empathy and lived experience, empowering survivors to heal, reparent themselves, and break generational cycles of trauma.

I am passionate about creating a space where adult survivors and parents who have experienced trauma can feel seen, validated, and supported as they reclaim their lives and nurture their children (and/or themselves) with intention and love.

For even more free healing info and exclusive discounts on products make sure you sign up for my email list by getting one of my freebies.

01/10/2026

Okay so truth is, I’ve never worked with a client who chose no contact with an emotionally safe parent.

I have worked with clients who tried to set boundaries and were labeled ungrateful, dramatic, or cruel.

I’ve worked with clients who attempted conversation after conversation, only to have their words twisted, minimized, or used against them.

I’ve worked with clients who did everything “right” — therapy, patience, compassion, explanations — and still left every interaction feeling smaller and less safe in their bodies.

What it ultimately came down to wasn’t punishment.
It wasn’t avoidance.
It wasn’t a lack of love.

It was this:
They couldn’t protect themselves and maintain the relationship at the same time.

No contact is rarely the first choice. Even for people who were abused and neglected as children.
It’s often the last line of self-protection when every other option has been exhausted.

01/07/2026

So much of modern parenting advice completely ignores the nervous system capacity of the mother.

It tells us to stay calm.
Validate every feeling.
Co-regulate flawlessly.

As if we’re robots.

As if our own internal experience doesn’t exist.
I’m sorry but F*CK that!

When I first became a parent, I was desperate to break generational cycles of trauma and abuse. I read everything. I tried to do it “right.”

But every expert focused only on what my child needed, never on what was happening inside of me.

And it wasn’t sustainable.

Because when a parent’s nervous system is overwhelmed, no script or strategy can override biology.

What followed was emotional eruptions... or total shutdown.

And the quiet, devastating belief: I’ll never be what my children need.

Trauma-informed parenting doesn’t start with doing more for your child.

It starts with understanding your own nervous system, your limits, and your lived history.

You don’t need to erase or suppress yourself to be a good parent.

Your internal experience matters because it shapes everything you do.

Comment GUIDE and I’ll send you my FREE guide on healing your nervous system after trauma

01/05/2026

If it feels heavy, it’s because it is.

I used to compare myself to other mothers and come up short every time. I didn’t see the full picture, that I was mothering while carrying the unresolved weight of my own childhood trauma. Moms with C-PTSD aren’t just doing “normal” motherhood. We’re parenting on top of a nervous system shaped by survival, hypervigilance, and grief that never had a place to land.

Back then, instead of recognizing how extraordinary that was, I shamed myself. For saying “be careful.” For choosing chicken nuggets when I was exhausted. For choosing public school instead of homeschool. For not being more relaxed, more effortless, more like the mothers I was watching from the outside. I couldn’t yet understand that those choices weren’t failures, they were adaptations.

What I know now is this: it is miraculous to raise a child while actively breaking generational cycles of abuse and neglect. It is not weakness to be cautious when your history taught you the world could be dangerous. It is not neglect to choose ease when your system is overwhelmed. Moms with C-PTSD are carrying far more than most people can see and still, we show up. That deserves compassion, not shame.

Something I tell the parents I work with all the time is it’s time to throw out the “rule book” when it comes to parenting after childhood trauma. Traditional parenting advice, most of it isn’t made for us. It doesn’t honor our capacity. It doesn’t acknowledge our lived experience and the fragility of our nervous system.

Learning to unburden ourselves of the things that were never ours to carry - the self-hatred, perfectionism, and all the other lies trauma led us to believe. That’s what will truly help our children.

If this is you, I hope you feel seen in my page. I hope you feel seen in my posts. I hope you know you aren’t alone.

| remember the first time a client sat across from me, eyes filled with fear, and whispered, “What if I’m a narcissist?”...
01/04/2026

| remember the first time a client sat across from me, eyes filled with fear, and whispered, “What if I’m a narcissist?”

She listed every time she got frustrated, every moment she needed space, every boundary she set-convinced these were signs of something deeply wrong with her.

Since then l’ve had countless clients tell me the same thing.
I’ve come to realize this is a common theme amongst complex trauma survivors. Thinking the ABSOLUTE worst about themselves.

But here’s the truth: The fact that you even ask this question means you’re not.

Narcissists don’t sit in therapy questioning if they’re hurting others. They don’t feel deep shame over setting a boundary.
They don’t lose sleep over whether they’re a good person.
They don’t ache over not being able to break every cycle for their children.

You do. Because you care.

Childhood abuse teaches us to second-guess ourselves. It makes us believe that advocating for ourselves is selfish and that normal human emotions are dangerous. But self-awareness is not narcissism. Healing is not harming. And you are not your abuser.

Let this be your reminder: You are breaking cycles, not repeating them.

Oh and no, you’re not a narcissist 😘

01/03/2026

So many of the parents I work with are millennial trauma survivors. They are absolute pros at validating their child’s emotions because they know how painful it is to grow up without that.

But when it comes to their own feelings? That’s where the struggle begins.

This pattern didn’t start in parenthood it started in childhood.

Many of us learned early on that our emotions weren’t welcome. So we shut them down, stuffed them away, and taught ourselves to survive by becoming the calm, quiet, “good” one.

The problem is, that survival strategy doesn’t go away just because you became a parent. It follows you. It whispers “Your child gets to be human, but you don’t.”

And so much of the parenting advice out there just reinforces the idea that our feelings don’t matter. Just remain calm. Say this script. Push through whatever it is you’re feeling and give them what they need. But the truth is, this leads to severe emotional outbursts or nervous system shutdown and it’s not sustainable.

This is the heart of the work I do with parents helping them remember that they, too, are allowed to be human. That their feelings are not a liability. That validating their own emotions is just as important as validating their child’s.

That they are doing hard, miraculous and life changing work - because they usually never give themselves credit for that.

👉🏻 Want to see how your childhood wounds are impacting your parenting? Comment QUIZ and I’ll send you over a quiz that will help you figure it out!

“| never learned how to navigate my emotions.”That realization hit hard when I became a parent. I was trying to stay cal...
01/03/2026

“| never learned how to navigate my emotions.”

That realization hit hard when I became a parent. I was trying to stay calm, trying to be patient, but every meltdown, every sleepless night, every moment of overwhelm felt like a storm I wasn’t equipped to handle.

Due to all the childhood trauma I endured my nervous system was wired for survival, not connection.

All of the parenting advice told me how to be the parent my child needed but it didn’t help me understand why that felt so impossible coming from a childhood filled with abuse and neglect.

It felt like I was trying to build a bridge to safety with nothing but broken pieces. But then, I started gathering tools.

Therapy gave me awareness. Nervous system regulation and somatic work gave me stability. Boundaries, self-compassion, and community gave me strength.

Now, I see the bridge l’ve built-not just for myself, but for my children. The cycles that once felt unbreakable? They end with me. My child will never have to question if safety and love exist in our home.

If you’re a parent carrying the weight of complex trauma, trying to parent differently but feeling lost in the process-you’re not alone. Healing is possible.

I’m Amber Trejo, a licensed marriage and family therapist who specializes in C-PTSD and the family system. I’m also a mom to 3 amazing boys (2 who are neurodivergent) who struggles with C-PTSD from the trauma I went through as a child.

I have lots of tools for you at the link in my bio. Follow along and join me for free content here ❤️

There is so much pressure to do something with our trauma.
To turn it into wisdom.
To find the lesson.
To make it mean s...
01/03/2026

There is so much pressure to do something with our trauma.
To turn it into wisdom.
To find the lesson.
To make it mean something that helps other people.

And yes, finding purpose in what we’ve been through can be an important part of healing.

But somatically…
what our bodies need first isn’t meaning.
It’s to be able to grieve everything we were forced to “power through.”

Grieve for the childhood we didn’t get.
Grieve for the protection that was missing.
Grieve for the ways we learned to survive instead of being cared for.

Acknowledging and allowing ourselves to lament our traumatic childhoods is far more regulating and healing for our nervous systems than rushing to find the blessing in it.

Purpose may come later. 
Integration may come later.
But your body needs to know it’s finally allowed to feel what actually happened — without having to justify it, reframe it, or make it useful.

You don’t owe anyone a transformation story.
Sometimes the most healing thing you can do
is let yourself mourn.

There’s a version of you with small hands, wide eyes, heart like an open window who learned far too early that love coul...
11/13/2025

There’s a version of you with small hands, wide eyes, heart like an open window who learned far too early that love could be conditional.

She was soft before the world asked her to be sharp.
Curious before she was told to be quiet.
Bright before she learned to dim herself to survive.

And somewhere along the way, you traded her laughter for control, her wonder for vigilance, her trust for armor.
Not because you were broken but because you were brilliant. You adapted.

But healing, true healing, is a homecoming.
It’s remembering the girl who used to spin in the living room with tangled hair and no sense of shame.

It’s learning to feed her when she’s hungry, to hold her when she’s scared, to protect her from those who have harmed her.

It’s realizing that growing up isn’t about outgrowing her.
It’s about becoming safe enough for her to come back.

To all of you trauma survivors who are finding the little girl again and learning how to be the person she always needed - sending you so much love 💕

Xoxox,


I hope you allow goodness into your life even when it feels scary.Xoxox, P.S. if you want help with this process that is...
11/07/2025

I hope you allow goodness into your life even when it feels scary.

Xoxox,


P.S. if you want help with this process that is rooted in our nervous system comment GUIDE and I’ll send you a free guide I made for you!

10/30/2025

Have you EVER been in the US foster care system? Did you know that you can get access to FREE therapy through ?

I’m talking free weekly sessions indefinitely with a therapist near you.

Therapists who have a heart for people who have experienced trauma and have volunteered to offer pro bono sessions to a client in need.

More information in my stories/highlights if you want to volunteer as a therapist or get free therapy.

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Indianapolis, IN

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