by Rebekah Brown | Mar 19, 2021 | Building Resilience in Healing, Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and Inner Child Work, CPTSD and Narcissistic Abuse, CPTSD and PTSD, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Emotional Flashbacks, Polyvagal Theory and CPTSD, Symptoms of CPTSD, The Brain and CPTSD
Blackbird Fight or flight: the instinctive physiological response to a threatening situation, which readies one either to resist forcibly or to run away. I covered my ears at the deafening sound of the shotgun blast. My father discharged another volley into the...
by Rebekah Brown | Feb 4, 2021 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD and Inner Child Work, CPTSD and Narcissistic Abuse, CPTSD and PTSD, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Emotional Wellness, Feeling Good Enough, Grief, Healing from Toxic Shame, Healthy Relationships, Outer Critic
Gaslighting: to manipulate (someone) by psychological or abusive means into questioning reality. I had watched my big brother board the school bus every day for the last year. Now, it was finally my turn. The very first week of first grade, my teacher, Mrs. King,...
by Rebekah Brown | Jan 27, 2021 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and Inner Child Work, CPTSD and Narcissistic Abuse, Depression, Emotional Flashbacks
In the early morning hours of a winter’s day in 1944, Corrie Ten Boom stood in line for roll call at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. A middle-aged woman, she and her family had been arrested by the Nazi’s for saving Jews. Standing in that awful place surrounded by...
by Rebekah Brown | Jan 12, 2021 | Complex PTSD Healing, Emotional Wellness, Family Estrangement
I sat with several other children in the dark, dank little basement of the church where my father was pastor. Karen Wray, my Sunday School teacher, pointed to the classic drawing of Jesus welcoming the children. I pondered it for a long time. Nobody in my home greeted...
by Rebekah Brown | Jan 6, 2021 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD and Inner Child Work, CPTSD and Narcissistic Abuse, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Emotional Wellness
I had looked forward all week to the Mary Kay Cosmetics party my mother was hosting. Too little to wear make-up, I certainly wasn’t too small to be interested. I had looked at every picture in the Mary Kay catalog and dreamed of the day when I could get my hands on...
