You have probably carried this a long time, longer than any single reason for it. Perhaps closeness feels risky in a way you cannot explain, your emotions run to extremes and then leave you drained, or a quiet voice keeps telling you that you are the problem. A Complex PTSD Evaluation in Wauwatosa, WI is built to understand it with care, not judgment. No referral is required to begin.
Every evaluation is anchored by a baseline of cognitive and executive function, which gives your psychologist a clear reference point, and from there it is tailored with trauma focused and emotional measures matched to your history. The same licensed psychologist carries the process from intake through testing and feedback, and screens for overlapping concerns like anxiety, depression, and dissociation so the whole picture, not just one piece of it, comes into view.
With a young child, we move carefully. The aim is to understand how continuing stress or adversity has affected their sense of safety and connection, not to hand them a label before they are ready. What we look for most is what helps them feel steady and who they lean on when things get hard.
A teenager living with this may struggle to bring big feelings back down, hold a shaky or self critical view of who they are, and keep others at arm’s length. When you understand the history behind it, reactions that seemed confusing start to look like a reasonable response to what they survived.
For adults, it often shows up as a persistent sense of shame or worthlessness, emotions that are hard to steady, and relationships that feel fraught even when you want them to work. You may feel chronically on guard, and notice that these effects reach quietly into nearly every corner of your life.
The first step is a clinical interview of about an hour, where your psychologist builds a full personal history in a setting that feels safe and unpressured. Since Complex PTSD tends to come from experiences that repeated or lasted, this conversation reaches across a longer stretch of your life to see how it shaped your emotions, your relationships, and your sense of who you are. Nothing moves faster than you want it to.
From there, your psychologist chooses a personalized battery meant to capture the many layers of complex trauma. Expect roughly 2 to 6 hours of in person testing spread over one to two days. You also head home with self report questionnaires, and a close family member or partner can fill out their own if you both agree. Should indicators of other conditions appear, such as anxiety, depression, dissociation, or ADHD, they are screened for as well.
Your psychologist gathers all of it, the testing data, the observations from your sessions, and the questionnaire results, into one detailed diagnostic report. It examines how complex trauma has shaped your emotional regulation, identity, relationships, and cognitive functioning, and it documents any cooccurring conditions so nothing is left half explained.
Usually two to three weeks later, you return for a feedback session. Your psychologist explains the findings clearly and gives you individualized recommendations, from specialized trauma therapy options and emotional regulation strategies to relationship support and concrete next steps chosen for your own path forward.
No, none at all. A referral is never required to be seen at Core Spring Diagnostics; you are welcome to contact us yourself, whenever the timing feels right for you.
Complex PTSD typically stems from trauma that was repeated or drawn out over time, and it can shape your self image, emotion regulation, and relationships fairly broadly. PTSD, by contrast, often traces back to one specific event. Part of the evaluation’s job is to clarify which of those describes you.
It combines a trauma informed clinical interview, a cognitive and executive function baseline, trauma focused and emotional measures, and screening for related concerns, all guided by a single psychologist who keeps the pace respectful of what you have lived.
Yes. Teens and adults are both welcome, and with younger clients we handle trauma related patterns gently, taking care not to rush toward any conclusion.
You leave with a plain language report and a feedback session offering individualized, trauma informed recommendations and a clear sense of where to head next in your healing.
The easiest way is to phone us at (414) 387 2100. We will find a time together, and you do not need a referral or anything prepared beforehand to get started.
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