Grounded
Parenting with Complex PTSD
You are not the people who hurt you. And your past does not get the final word.
If you carry Complex PTSD from a childhood that hurt you, you know the fear that wakes you at night: that the trauma will reach your children the way it reached you. That a flashback will turn you, for a moment, into someone you swore you'd never be.
Grounded says something truer — and it says it from the inside. Written from lived experience, it names the hard parts no one talks about — the emotional flashbacks, the hypervigilance, the cruel inner critic, the freezing and the rage — and hands you a real, practical toolkit for each.
You don't have to be healed to be a good parent. You only have to keep coming back — and this book shows you, gently and practically, how.
A real toolkit — not platitudes.
Grounded names the hard parts honestly, then walks you through the practical skills that actually help — written by someone who has used every one of them.
- Catch an emotional flashback — and come back to the present
- Grounding: the skill that brings you home to now
- Repair — your most powerful tool after a hard moment
- Build the felt safety you never had, for the children you love
- Break the cycle, so they inherit your love, not your wounds
A note on care. Grounded is written from lived experience and is not a substitute for professional assessment or treatment. It includes UK and international support resources throughout. If you are struggling, you deserve real support — please see the Resources page, where help is gathered in one place.
