Trauma-Informed Blog
New content weekly! Survivor Stories, Research Articles, Poetry, and more written by clinicians, coaches, survivors, and mental health professionals.
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Moving On: The Choice That Doesn’t Feel Like a Choice
After my sister texted me the real estate listing for my mom’s house, I texted back, “Well, at least now I know what Mom’s house looks like.” Mom had lived there for almost two years, but I’d never...
15 Quick Bathroom Stall Resets for CPTSD Survivors (Anxiety Help Tools)
Are you ever in a public place, trying to hide your internal melt-down? Lock yourself in a bathroom stall and try these proven methods to regulate your panicked nervous system. When Your Nervous...
5 Lies Shame Wants You to Believe: #2 | If I were better, this wouldn’t have happened
Click here to watch Part II of the video series on 5 Lies Shame Wants You to Believe. (video opens in separate tab) Photo Credit: Unsplash Guest Post Disclaimer: This guest post is for educational...
Honesty is not Cruelty: Rejecting the Damaged Goods Label
My 16 year old son went no-contact with his father, my ex, about 18 months ago. Since that time, he occasionally asks me a loaded question, such as “do you think I’m being cruel?” Knowing what his...
Irritable Is Not Anger
A trauma-informed explanation of frustration, irritability, and anger, and why mislabeling trauma responses as anger can distort treatment, accountability, and understanding.
The Boy Behind the Armor
She watched him long before she understoodthat some people learn to smilethe way broken branches still hold birds--not because they aren't cracked,but because they continueto have purpose despite...
5 Lies Shame Wants You to Believe: #1 | You are the problem (Video)
Click Here to watch the short video from Rachel Grant Photo Credit: Unsplash Guest Post Disclaimer: This guest post is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing shared here,...
Conch Shell Dream Revisited
Eight months after my memoir was published, I am still living in the strange quiet that follows. The book took more than a decade to write, and while I initially felt relief and a sense of...
The Dysphoric Nature of Redefining Yourself
Half a century is a long time to live in a state of perpetual survival. When a child’s world is confined to a short list of places filled with memories of, and anticipation of, savagery, the...
The Legacy of Survival
Dear Younger Me, I know you never understood why life felt so heavy so early. You tried to shrink yourself— be quieter, easier, “good enough”—hoping it would make the pain stop. None of that was...
Going Back to Go Forward: Why Recovery from Complex PTSD Requires Revisiting the Unfinished
Many years ago, I took a course to become certified in clinical hypnosis — one more tool to keep in my kit as a licensed clinical psychologist. During that training, the instructor shared his belief...
Time to Turn the Tide: Helping Children of Complex Trauma Survivors
I'm a domestic violence victim and I've been healing from symptoms of C-PTSD since September 2024 and for the first time ever, I saw what C-PTSD looks like in someone else. Just the other night, I...
What is Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
“Complex PTSD comes in response to chronic traumatization over the course of months or, more often, years. This can include emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuses, domestic violence, living in a war zone, being held captive, human trafficking, and other organized rings of abuse, and more. While there are exceptional circumstances where adults develop C-PTSD, it is most often seen in those whose trauma occurred in childhood”.