Trauma-Informed Blog
Content relevant to survivors, mental health professionals, partners, and anyone interested in reading about CPTSD and mental health.
Weekly Content
New posts 4-5 times per week
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Survivor stories, research articles, poetry, and more
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Everyday survivors, clinicians, coaches, and mental health professionals
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Looking Beyond Silence: Ways To Support A Teenager Who Speaks Out About Abuse
The term “watershed moment” seems to be shorthand in news articles reporting on notable abuse allegations that survivors advance instead of the abusers. If a young person speaks up, they meet countless opinions they probably could not fathom. Their “watershed...
Here Come the Holidays
~Stepping Out of the Hopelessness Wait a minute, weren’t Thanksgiving and Christmas just last week? Here they come again. Celebration doesn’t mix well with trauma. Everyone talks about the busyness of the season as a source of stress, but for survivors of childhood...
From Maiden to Crone and the Long Road to Hope
***TRIGGER WARNING: The following article discusses childhood trauma and could be triggering.*** I found the photo not long after being diagnosed with CPSTD. Little broken me looking into the camera with a depth of pain and sorrow that no child should have to bear....
How Covert Narcissists Use ‘Flying Monkeys’ to Create Trauma and CPTSD – A Guide to Finding Support
One of the most painful tactics in covert narcissism is turning family members against you. This manipulative strategy, designed to isolate and control, often pulls loved ones into the narcissist’s web to unknowingly serve as “flying monkeys”—trusted people who,...
Home for the Holidays
The holidays are an intense time of reflection for me. I used to have a big family—a big, loud, Hispanic family—we would gather for birthdays, holidays, and random Sunday dinners. My grandmother held the group together with love and community. Those days are long...
Transforming Perimenopause, Menopause, and Burnout: Holistic Approaches to Wellness
The physical and emotional changes associated with perimenopause and menopause can be overwhelming. Struggles with falling or staying asleep, fatigue, brain fog, hot and cold flashes, mood swings, anxiety, and a loss of motivation are common [1, 2, 3]. ...
Healing through Art, Love, and Remembering My Dog Rusty
As a survivor and forty-year practitioner of trauma recovery, I guide individuals through cathartic, intuitive writing, visual art, dreams, and embodied approaches to recover from trauma. Children are born primal and free You are meant to be innocent, organic, and...
Learning To Live With Alexithymia
On my healing journey, I discover new things every day. When I learned I had Alexithymia, after the initial feeling of "great, another thing to contend with" because of my trauma, it actually helped me better understand what it was I was experiencing, how to...
It’s Never Too Late to Heal From Childhood Trauma
***TRIGGER ALERT - The following article describes childhood trauma and could be triggering.*** I twirled around, causing the skirt of my best Sunday dress to flair out in a way that delighted my four-year-old sensibilities. It was 1966, and my black patent leather...
Mastering Emotional Intelligence
A Crucial Skill for Trauma Survivors in the Workplace Introduction Embarking on a career journey, especially as a trauma survivor, is a courageous adventure that demands resilience, strength, and a key understanding of emotional intelligence (EI). In this article,...
Living In the Dis-World
Living in the dis-worldBy Jesse Donahue 2019©Avow, to make known, to confess or admit. The most striking aspect of my life is the depth, the ever-lurking, unconscious presence of a sense of self that feels… disregarded and dissed from the realm of normality. I feel...
How to Release Shame
Are you hiding behind your shame and staying at home so you don’t have to face that inner critic that comes out when you are socializing? Do you avoid having people over because of the intense shame you feel about the state of your home? Shame shows up in many ways...
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”.
