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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“I Don’t Want to Be Alive Anymore” – Understanding the Loss of Will to Live After Abuse
Whether the narcissist is one person or a group, the pain of mistreatment can make you want to go to sleep and never wake up. Let's validate this dilemma, consider why it happens, and how to heal....
Understanding Trauma is not About the Past… It’s about YOU in the Present
“You cannot heal from trauma by understanding things intellectually." Gabor Mate, Ennea Summit 2026. I’ve been lucky to come across a free 90-minute Webinar with Dr. Gabor Mate, and have been...
The Rock and the Hard Place
I only found the "language" surrounding CPTSD very late in my life. Learning the reason for my decades of dysfunction and brokenness was my fiftieth birthday present from the universe--a genuine...
“I Feel Like I Don’t Matter” Where Does This Belief Come From? (Internalized Worthlessness)
For many, this profoundly sad notion is buried so deeply, we don't even realize it's driving our search for significance. Why do we believe this and how can we heal it? Internalized Worthlessness:...
The Body Knew Before I Did
How I accidentally built a healing practice without knowing what I was healing from In 1987, I walked into a job interview in Montreal and couldn't say my own name. I was twenty-two. Two days...
From Survival to Connection: Supporting Adult Survivors of Adverse Childhood Experiences
Recently, I received a message from a podcast listener requesting a special episode addressed to people who live with and/or love someone with CPTSD. His message highlighted the importance of...
Anxiety in Today’s Society: Strategies to Reduce Anxiety
Do you worry about things all the time? Is your mind full of noise? Anxiety is the emotion that people feel involving tension, fear, and worry in response to a threat or a perceived threat. Anxiety...
In Fight Mode: When Survival Looks Like Defiance
Trigger Warning: This post contains references to traumatic childhood experiences, including recalled memories of abuse and descriptions of the author’s trauma responses. Please take care while...
How Collaging Brings Me Peace, Confidence, and Empowerment
It’s a gloomy winter evening, my seasonal depression is at its worst, and I’ve just finished a difficult day at work. What’s keeping me together? Ripping, cutting, arranging, and gluing pieces of...
11 Reasons to Never Be Embarrassed About Anything You Did as a Kid
Your day's going fine until BAM! You crumble in shame over a dumb thing you said when you were 15. Let's talk about "shame flashbacks", how they haunt complex trauma survivors, and how to break...
A Feeling Like No Other… Believe it, then achieve it.
It’s official, my MFA is in the bag. I did it! I have achieved a Master’s degree in Writing. It’s a dream come true for me. Something I could only dream about over the years. My dream started when I...
Freedom To Feel
There is a quiet longing many recovering from CPTSD carry: the desire to feel free again. Not to be overwhelmed by emotion, not to shut it down, but to feel without fear of what might happen inside....
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”.
